The Return of Mad Max

Saturday 18th January 2024

Written by: Tom Wilson
Photos by: Rashid AlKamraikhi

It’s a rainy night in Brisbane, and soggy metalheads are ushered into the Tivoli and start to fill the balconies and pit floor as Brisbane’s CRYPTIVORE take to the stage and plunge into a brutal set of old-school death metal. I last saw these guys opening for MUNICIPAL WASTE, and they’ve only got better, blending punishing riffs with some A+ stage banter. “I am prepared to fight every fucking one of you if you don’t go hard,” frontman Taylor Burnett warns the audience, and he gets what he wants as necks start cranking and hair starts flying.

Up next is Melbourne’s ALGOR MORTIS, who I last caught delivering a brutal set at Necrosonic Festival, and they have not lost their touch. The second death metal band of the night – which seems like a slightly unusual way of opening a thrash metal gig, but it still works – we are at the mercy of their snare and Cecilia Keane’s filthy lows. The pit begins in earnest, getting wider and wider until it has spanned the width of the Tivoli. These are the good things in life, perfectly summarised by the KORN album title tattooed on Cecilia’s forearm. Life is Peachy indeed.

Anticipation is at fever pitch when the solid silhouette of Igor Cavalera appears behind the kit, and Max emerges clad in a patchwork of dark clothing, band patches and bullet belts (which I can imagine would be a lot of fun to get through airport security). They kick off tonight’s set of early SEPULTURA with The Curse, the first in a selection of tracks from the Bestial Devastation EP, and the pit explodes as middle-aged metalheads collide and tumble across spilled beer and sweat. Max’s son Igor Amadeus Cavalera is on bass tonight, and the jarring metallic tone is reminiscent of NAPALM DEATH’s Shane Embury. The set segues into O Fortuna playing over the P.A., before Max introduces the next part of the set, exploring the Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia records, and we even find time to sing Happy Birthday to lead guitarist Travis.

The jittering mix of Chaos B.C. comes over the P.A., before they plunge into the infamous opening of Refuse/Resist, and the pit loses its mind. Staying true to the theme of the night, we only hear a medley of the classic SEPULTURA tracks you would expect from a Max show, as we move into Propaganda before Igor Cavalera kicks off the galloping intro to Territory. We don’t return to Roots tonight, but for the encore, they bust out a brutal rendition of Troops of Doom before finishing with another medley, this one revisiting some tracks already played throughout the night. They say their goodbyes, and CAVALERA leave the stage, a sea of raised fists in their wake. Absolutely crushing.

Photos by: Rashid AlKamraikhi

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