Cavalera Burns up Great American

Cavalera
Great American Music Hall
February 24, 2025

Photographs by Raymond Ahner

Late last year Cavalera announced the 30 date “Third World Trilogy Tour,” which sees brothers Max and Iggor Cavalera trekking across the U.S., playing some of their earliest Sepultura material. Joining them on this tour are local Death Metal masters Necrot, as well as young up and comers Dead Heat. The tour steamrolled its way into San Francisco with a stop at the Great American Music Hall last week, and desiccated the packed to the rafters venue with a clinic of Death Metal in its purest state.

Concentrating on material from Sepultua’s first two albums (1986’s Morbid Visions and 1987’s Schizophrenia), the brothers, joined by guitarist Travis Stone and bassist Igor Amadeus Cavalera (who is also the son of Max), hit the stage with a blistering version of “From the Past Comes the Storms,” and didn’t look back. From there it was a 1-2-3 punch of “To the Wall,” “Escape to the Void,” and “Morbid Visions,” which saw the guitar attack of both Max and Travis. Max’s vocals were as guttural as usual, and the headbangers in the front row responded by throwing their horns, and coming over the barricade in droves. By the time the band wrapped up their set with a medley of “Black Magic,” Morbid Visions,” Dead Embryonic Cells,” “Rest in Pain,” Biotech is Godzilla,” and “Bestial Devistation,” it was quite clear that the band is the “real” Sepultura.

Supporting Cavalera on the tour are Bay Area metal merchants Necrot who just so happened to deliver a pretty spectacular set themselves. Led by vocalist/bassist Luca Indrio, the band delivered a 13 song setlist highlighted by “Cut the Cord,” “Lifeless Birth,” and “Drill the Skull.”

Opening the shows on this tour is Dead Heat, who, with their crossover sound, were the perfect band to get the crowd in out of the cold San Francisco evening, and get them pumped up for what was to come.

Here’s a slideshow with photos of all three bands by Raymond Ahner: