SEPULTURA were joined by members of TITÃS on Saturday night's (September 19) episode of Altas Horas, the long-running Brazilian programme on TV Globo, for a performance of "Polícia" — and it is hard to think of a more Brazilian way for the band to spend one of its last televised hours.
"Polícia" originally appeared on Cabeça Dinossauro, the 1986 record that made TITÃS the biggest rock band in the country. SEPULTURA have been playing it live for more than three decades, long enough that a whole generation of Brazilian metalheads heard the SEPULTURA version first. Saturday's performance simply put both bands in the same frame at once.
The connection between the two camps is not new. Guitarist Andreas Kisser has guested on TITÃS albums twice: on "Brasileiro" from 1995's Domingo, and fourteen years later on "Deixa Eu Entrar" from 2009's Sacos Plásticos — the album that won TITÃS a Latin Grammy for Best Brazilian Rock Album.
The appearance lands in the closing stretch of a farewell that began on March 1, 2024 at Arena Hall in Belo Horizonte. That sold-out night was also the live debut of drummer Greyson Nekrutman, who arrived from SUICIDAL TENDENCIES after Eloy Casagrande walked out with two days' notice in February 2024 to join SLIPKNOT — a departure the remaining members said had taken them "by surprise."
The end comes on November 7 in São Paulo. Earlier this month Live Nation Brasil confirmed the final concert has been moved from the 26,000-capacity Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu to the Suhai Music Hall, which holds just over 9,000. Tickets bought for the stadium remain valid at the smaller venue, and refunds are available for anyone who cannot make the new location work. KRISIUN, SACRED REICH and METAL ALLEGIANCE — the latter featuring Mike Portnoy of DREAM THEATER, Alex Skolnick and Chuck Billy of TESTAMENT, Phil Demmel, and Troy Sanders of MASTODON — are all still on the bill. Former members including Jean Dolabella and Jairo Guedz, who preceded Kisser on guitar, are expected to appear.
The Pacaembu choice had carried real weight: the venue has been bound up with SEPULTURA's history since the early 1990s, above all because of the concert at Praça Charles Miller in front of the stadium that helped cement the band at home. Downsizing it is a quieter ending than planned.
Formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984, SEPULTURA pushed heavy metal somewhere it had not been. Beneath The Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots opened doors that Brazilian heavy music is still walking through — which is exactly what a prime-time slot on Globo, guitars and all, proves.