Tonight is a rare treat because the wholly sold-out Key Club in Leeds is a surprisingly small venue to house such metal royalty! Max fucking Cavalera is standing a few feet away, and the 16-year-old inside of us is going frankly nuts. There’s going to be no support act tonight, just pure Brazilian rage and from the get-go, it’s clear that Max intends to kill.
Barreling onstage to ‘Back To The Primitive’ we all surge into it immediately! ‘Downstroy’ absolutely decimates and gets the crowd warming up their roar in fine style. Max is still every bit the legend and is clearly loving every minute flanked on lead guitar by Phil Anselmo and The Illegals’ “Metal” Mike DeLeon (who we met earlier in the day by chance, lovely fella!) and confusingly similarly named Mike Leon on bass with Max’s son Zyon Cavalera on drums clearly possessing the Cavelera gene and sounding spookily like his uncle Igor in terms of ferocity and pure unhinged tribal heft. The main thing that you take away tonight is with you is a warmth and camaraderie you don’t quite get with other acts. Max is a people’s champion, gnarly, dreadlocked and epitomising everything we love about, ahem, “fucking shit up.”
‘Seek and Strike’ flies by like a Harrier Jet and ‘Prophecy’ utterly slays as the Key Club circle pit spins into action and the collective lose their minds. All night it’s just banger after banger, ‘Bumbklaat’ gets tribal and there’s that groove you simply don’t quite get anywhere else. On ‘Tribe’ When Max commands,” this is our tribe, our tribe,” we find ourselves grinning and yelling in affirmation, this is indeed our tribe, same as it’s ever been!
Most of us here have grown up with Max Cavalera in any one of his guises and he’s a part of us and we are a part of him, it’s that kind of night. Fire segues into ‘Porrada’ with literally a very quick breath before an incendiary ‘Bring It’ with the only real respite being a dub reggae middle eight section that would be surprising at any other show but here it makes so much sense. 45 minutes has passed like 45 seconds so far and what’s abundantly clear is yes, it is primitive that’s the point, it’s also bloody great fun!
As underlined by the calls of Bumba Bumba for, well…’Bumba’ innit. Our initial introduction to a post Sepultura Max and Soulfly was in the form of ‘Bleed’ and it sounded awesome then and it sounds truly awesome now. ‘Blood Fire War Hate’ crushes all with its giant groove giving way to hardcore thrashing madness that reminds you of Max’s late 80s into early 90s Sepultura output for a minute and also reminds you just how long he’s been cracking skulls relentlessly.
Of course, there is an encore and of course everyone is on the ground to ‘Jumpdafuckup’, now I’m not sure if Soulfly invented this move but it works a treat every time and the Key Club is an absolute sauna now!
There’s still time for one last bludgeoning and ‘Eye For An Eye’ is here to see us out with way we came in, headbanging and grinning like maniacs!
Review & Photography By George Miller – https://www.facebook.com/oneflamemedia
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