Sepultura, support: Evil Invaders
Monday, 8 June 2026, 8:00 PM – 10:45 PM
Zagreb // ŠRC Šalata // Croatia
Sepultura, Brazil’s thrash and groove metal icons — a name that makes anyone who values raw, rebellious aggression sit up and take notice, a truly one-of-a-kind metal outfit on the global stage. The years fly. Too fast. And they’ve caught up with Sepultura too — the band has been playing shows around the world for a while now under the “Celebrating Life Through Death” banner, what are supposed to be their final ones. Which means these European dates are part of the farewell as well. And after 2014, they finally made it back to Croatia! It took long enough.
In the years between, the band really turned into a live draw. Back in 2009, when I caught them at club Boogaloo in Zagreb — a place that holds barely a handful of people — the venue was more than half empty during the show. It felt like Sepultura were losing their charge; it was the period when the second Cavalera — Igor — also left, and things were genuinely looking grim for the band. But now they’re filling the stadium at ŠRC Šalata. Unbelievable. They’ve grown into legends. Simple as that. When a band this size stops this close to Slovenia, the conclusion is obvious. You just go. Even on a Monday.
The great news was that the support act was Belgian speed metal revivalists Evil Invaders. You couldn’t ask for a better pick. Or a more ideal one. Evil Invaders, who have already played Slovenia — both club venues and the Metaldays festival — delivered their Croatian debut right here in Zagreb, opening for Sepultura. And? They tore the place apart. Completely. The way only they can. If you know the band, none of this was a surprise. This is the Evil Invaders concert standard. It’s always like this with them. They go all the way. Full force. Ferocious and unrelenting. They bite. And the closer the set gets to the end, the harder they bite. The current album “Shattering Reflection” is already four years old, but it played a central role in the setlist, though its predecessor “Feed My Violence” wasn’t far behind. The band is immaculately tight, and they were fired up by two things: opening in front of Sepultura at a seriously large venue, and the fact that it was their first Zagreb show. They rolled out track after track! Sharply dressed, armed with his handmade J-AXE guitar and ‘locked and loaded’, Joe (real name: Johannes Van Audenhove) — the band’s charismatic commander with an astonishingly piercing vocal range capable of staggering power — stood at the center of everything. For the finale they saved one of the most piercing and memorable tracks from the new album, the sharp, anthemic but all-around lethal Die For Me, closing the set with the crushing final detonator Raising Hell — pulled from the EP “In For The Kill” (2016). Evil Invaders also had a great sound, but most importantly, they left absolutely no one indifferent in a venue that, by the end of their set, had already started filling up properly.
By the time Sepultura’s set came around, the venue was already buzzing. The requisite 15-minute wait, then the taped intro of War Pigs (Black Sabbath) dropped a hint that the show was finally starting! They took their positions without any fanfare. And the dance of celebrating ‘death through life’ began. Conditions were pretty much ideal, the band in great spirits. The towering Derrick Green remains a presence like no other. His distinctive stage manner, movement, the way he connects with the crowd, and of course that thunderous voice. Green shakes you up — just looking at him. But when he opens those vocal cords — eruption. Total. Devastating, furious, and bestial. No holding back whatsoever. Kisser is Kisser. Between his constant squatting — his trademark — his guitar riffage covers an enormous amount of ground. With just one guitar, too. Six strings does everything. Even in solos, the sound stays staggeringly full and hits you with avalanche-like destructive force. The bass lines of Paolo Xisto, today the only original member of the lineup, add the much-needed groove element to the rhythmic structures. Everything running at full tilt!
Greyson Nekrutman was of course the big question mark of the evening. Stepping into the shoes of his predecessor Eloy Casagrande, who ‘defected’ to Slipknot in 2024, is no easy task. It’s no secret that rhythm has always been the foundation of Sepultura and that their rhythmic structures — which frequently draw inspiration from the tribal rituals of South American indigenous peoples — matter more than the guitar riffs themselves. The new drummer, by far the youngest member of the band, justified every expectation. He too is jazz-trained, and on top of that he previously honed his chops in Suicidal Tendencies, which honestly says it all!
Sepultura remain in 2026 an unstoppable live beast that cannot be tamed. The setlist covered a generous spread from the band’s classic era. Right from the opener Inner Self — the only “Beneath The Remains” track of the evening — the show was nicely weighted with cuts from “Arise”, “Chaos A.D.” and “Roots”. The latest EP “The Cloud Of Unknowing” wasn’t overlooked either. A special highlight was of course Kaiowas, returning to the setlist after years away, where alongside the main drum kit an abundance of additional percussion conjures the truly unique and irreplaceable atmosphere of the band’s live show. The final stretch delivered a tornado in the form of classics Dead Embryonic Cells and Slave New World. A special place belongs to the incredible Territory, which sent the show hurtling toward the final crescendo, where the (demanded) Refuse/Resist, Arise and the tribal spectacle Ratamahatta followed in succession — the latter a little shorter than expected this time around! Leading into the band’s most primordial spirit. The spirit of originality with which Sepultura has always spoken so directly and with that directness captivates in such a vividly honest way! Capped off by the whirlwind of Roots Bloody Roots, which squeezed the very last atoms of energy out of a crowd already running ‘at maximum revs’.
Sepultura remain in a class of their own! Everything is exactly where it needs to be. And a show with zero kitsch or glamour simply casts a spell! They remain giants of the thrash/groove metal scene. They remain among the biggest, most respected, and when it comes to live shows, still ‘bestially tearing it up’. I don’t know why, but something tells me this isn’t where the Sepultura story ends. The band may be announcing their farewell, but what they showed in Zagreb — the form, the focus, the heart — gave no sense of a goodbye whatsoever.
Author: Edita Kemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Evil Invaders (20.00 h – 20.45 h) – setlist:
1. Feed My Violence
2. As Life Slowly Fades
3. Hissing In Crescendo
4. Broken Dreams In Isolation
5. Mental Penitentiary
6. In Deepest Black
7. Sledgehammer Justice
8. Die For Me
9. Raising Hell
Sepultura (21.15 h – 22.45 h) – setlist:
War Pigs (orig Black Sabbath) – taped intro
Polícia (Titãs song) – taped intro
1. Inner Self
2. All Souls Rising
3. Desperate Cry
4. Kairos
5. Means to an End
6. Attitude
7. Against
8. Choke
9. The Place
10. Escape to the Void
11. Kaiowas
12. Dead Embryonic Cells
13. Slave New World
14. Beyond the Dream
15. Territory
16. Refuse/Resist
17. Arise
18. Ratamahatta
19. Roots Bloody Roots
