Max & Iggor Cavalera, Kentish Town Forum, London

I saw Max and Iggor last year absolutely destroy the Roots album and as soon as they confirmed a new show I grabbed tickets for it.

I was feeling like crap and super sleepy so on the way to the venue I grabbed a can of Monster, 2 pork pies and a scotch egg to munch in the queue. On arrival at the venue there were only a handful of folks around, I guess they were in the pub as it was cold. I just had enough time to eat the food and down the Monster before doors. The Monster drink seemed to cure everything in one go, makes you wonder what other shit is in that stuff!

With the early doors I headed into grab my normal spot at the side but its closed off along with the other side, I check with security and it’s because upstairs is closed tonight. They used these areas for additional accessibility areas which is fine by me. I therefore needed a new location and went back to my old one in this venue behind the sound desk. I shall not be returning to the sides again, the easy access to the beer isn’t enough compared to where I was last night, the view and space is so much better.

Tonights event is part of MTV’s Headbangers Ball which is a bit odd as MTV haven’t rocked since sometime in the 90s. Nonetheless the line up is as heavy as fuck, support came from Deserted Fear, Insomnium and Over Kill.

Deserted Fear are first up, they are full on Death Metal from Germany, everywhere you look there are hair windmills from the few who have made it in to the venue for this early start. Next up are Insomnium, a black metal band from Finland who had some great riffs. Even though neither of these bands are my cup of tea, they were both way better support bands than some of what I’ve seen in recent weeks.

Over Kill from the US were next to hit the stage and really got the already crazy crowd into overdrive. Security already had a lot of work prior to them appearing but now there were even more crowd surfers. Tonight they really earned their money, there won’t be many nights where they deal with so many people coming over the barrier and the good thing is everyone seemed to enjoy it, well maybe not the front row who must have been kicked in the head every few seconds.

Max & Iggor hit the stage and tear straight into Roots Blooody Roots, the crowd go fucking mental with the pit exploding into even more life. I’m glad where I am as I’d not have the energy to still be in there after whats gone on so far. Circle pits are breaking out left, right and center and there has to be at least 3 crowd surfers up at all times for the remainder of the gig, even between the songs!

They play the classic Sepultura Roots album in full and in order before playing a new track. The encore consists of Ace Of Spaces and the faster version of Roots Blooody Roots.

All in all this wasn’t quite as good as the show last year, my guessing is that I kind of knew what was going to happen, having said that this gig for sure is in the top 10 gigs of 2017 for me.

A funny thing also happened during their set, my iPhone decided that I must have been driving and enabled the safety feature.