Metal Veins - Alive at Rock in Rio

As their third live album, Metal Veins- Alive at Rock in Rio, Sepultura is joined by Les Tambours du Bronx, a French industrial percussion band, for their set at Rock in Rio 5. The hour-long performance includes songs that span Sepultura’s thirty-year career as a band and features quite a few songs from their albums Chaos AD and Kairos.

From the very first seconds of the live album, the tribal drums of Les Tambours du Bronx can be heard asserting their role when performing with Sepultura. The percussion band is praised for their ability to defy the bounds of genre, regularly including influences from hip-hop, heavy metal, afrobeat, as well as an assortment of other musical genres. Likewise, Les Tambours du Bronx performs as an imaginative fifth member of Sepultura once you are warmed to their inclusion. Sepultura themselves has also done their fair role of genre-bending, placing a cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ in the middle of the concert.

It takes Derrick Green a few songs into the set in order to properly demonstrate the full range of his vocals, but by ‘Sepulnation’ he is in top form, prompting the audience to chant the lyrics. Each song from Metal Veins- Alive at Rock in Rio carries its own unique demonstration of power and raw energy. The live album is produced very well, conveying the vigorous expression the two bands have established during their set. I am even inclined to feel a little jealous of those who were able to attend the concert and fully appreciate the mashing of drums and the abrasion of screeching guitars along with fellow concertgoers.

By adding the pounding of fourteen drums from Les Tambours du Bronx, Sepultura’s music is increasingly technical, undoubtedly forcing both bands to remain focused through the entirety of the set. When listening to the live album, Gojira is reminiscent as this performance shares their technical expertise and forcefulness of the drums. Les Tambours du Bronx’s tribal intensity proves to be vital when performing with Sepultura and provides them an additional aspect to their music.

Originally written for http://iridescencemedia.com