Troops of Doom

Sepultura’s “Troops of Doom” is a sleeper classic. With a strong Celtic Frost influence, it’s short and sweet and does everything in all the right places. As Sepultura’s oldest “hit,” it remains in the band’s set lists to this day. Thus, live videos of it show the band’s evolution in all aspects — personnel, equipment, even hair styles. Here are four from back in the day.

The band is almost unrecognizable here in its youth. Max Cavalera, playing an Explorer, is a lean, hungry headbanger. His brother Igor has huge hair, and Andreas Kisser has not joined the band yet. Original lead guitarist Jairo Guedes is stage right with the big ‘fro.

By now, Andreas Kisser has been in the band for three years, and it is obviously stronger for it. (Arise would come out the following year.) Max breaks a string, and while he changes guitars, Kisser fills in on vocals. That middle triplet section sounds deadly here.

This is a live appearance on some Brazilian TV show. The date is unidentified, but I’ll place it around 1991’s Arise, as Max Cavalera is playing the same white guitar he’s playing in the video for “Arise.” I love the random phrases that pop up on the screen: METAL PESADO (“heavy metal”) and METAL LETHAL (self-explanatory).

Chaos A.D. had come out, and with custom amp cabinets, the band was clearly doing well. It was in its “baggy shorts” phase. I saw the band twice around this time. The first time was with Clutch, Fudge Tunnel, and Fear Factory; the second was with Prong and Pantera. Both times, Sepultura stole the show. They were one of the mightiest units I’ve ever seen live. Those who defend the later, Derrick Green-version of Sepultura would never do so if they saw this band.