Great American Music Hall
February 24, 2025
First off, I have to exclaim how thrilled I was to see the turnout for this Monday night gig. The Great American Music Hall was PACKED!! You would’ve thought it was a Fri. or Sat. night. The Metal scene here in SF is alive and well my friends. Now, on to the bands…
Dead Heat started things off with some hardcore/crossover style Thrash that was powerful and to the point. I was a tad distracted by their digital backdrop image during their set. Granted, I wasn’t wearing my glasses but tell me that doesn’t look like a piece of pepperoni pizza losing its shit. (pictured above). I got a few good chuckles through the show but they started the night off in fine order. Dead Heat is from Oxnard, CA and had some echoes of Suicidal Tendencies early 90s crossover records like “Art of Rebellion.”
Necrot put on the best set I’ve ever seen by them. Oakland’s 3 piece death metal masters. I’ve been following these guys through the years and they’ve come a long way from the first time I saw them at a house party in 2012 (I think). Their sound was immaculate and drummer Chad Gailey was a machine. His blast beats have vastly improved over the years. Every hit was audible, smooth and punishing. His beats were like a straight line, great meter. The fans absolutely ate up their no-nonsense style of old school Death Metal bludgeoning.
Now to the headliner. The Cavalera brothers absolutely delivered the goods. The “real” Sepultura (as they said), at 1.5x speed. The bulk of their set was focused on their first three releases (Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, Schizophrenia) and the crowd went ballistic throughout the night. And they gave the crowd their money’s worth with an 18 song (I think) set. Hearing my favorite song from Schizophrenia, “Septic Schizo” was a real treat. I was pretty convinced I would never hear that song live EVER!
I could’ve lived without the medleys at the end but that’s just a personal preference. I’d much rather hear an entire song than bits and pieces of 4 or 5. I get it though, when you’ve been around as long as these guys have and have as many great songs as they do it’s sometimes necessary to do one…or two. My only complaint is that they play the Chaos AD stuff waaayyy too fast…but that’s hardly a complaint really. I mean, it didn’t stop me from buying the re-recorded Schizophrenia on vinyl on the way out.
This is the first week of the tour, so if it is coming your way over the next month don’t miss it.
--Bleeding Priest
