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Cultura Tres Brings South America To South London As They Headline The New Cross Inn

With Sepultura announcing their farewell last year, many fans are wondering what the future holds for the members of the most illustrious metal band to come from South America. One who seems to have answered the question already however is their longest serving representative, bassist Paolo Xisto Jr., who is now a member of Cultura Tres, a sludge metal band formed in Venezuela eighteen years ago. Last Spring, the group released their latest full length record, "Camino de Brujos" and not long afterwards, embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom. Only months later, the quartet returned to the European island for another headlining run and this time, Metal Underground was in London to catch their show at the New Cross Inn.

It's been quite some time since I've been to this venue, which can be a little tricky to get to if you don't know where you're going, but it's well worth a visit. It's small, but makes good use of the space it has, while also being very reasonable when it comes to prices and the staff are very friendly. There were also two local opening bands tonight, Sawticide and Slave Steel (the latter having originally formed in Italy) and to be honest, they weren't dissimilar from each other. Both bands were received warmly by the crowd, with plenty of crushing heaviness to offer. However, neither outfit has much more to offer than that, with it also becoming a detriment at times, making song structure difficult to hear. I'm sure both will improve in time, so I don't want to be too harsh, but some advice I will give is to speak to the audience clearer, as there was no way of knowing what Sawticide were called without looking at the stage time sheet or Facebook event page. Best of luck in the future, lads.

So after some local flavours, it was time for Cultura Tres to take to the stage. Formed in the city of Maracay, and fronted by Colombian vocalist/guitarist Alejandro Londoño, the South American four piece were as thrilled to be in the English capital as the crowd were to welcome them. The aforementioned recent album, "Camino de Brujos" was well represented tonight, with "The World And It's Lies" opening the set. Immediately, Cultura Tres displayed tremendous intensity, with Londoño staring straight ahead with a steely look in his eyes. Other songs from the record soon followed, including "The Land," "Proxy War" and "Zombies" and at one point, a vinyl copy was held up high with Londoño explaining how the record was made with friendship and passion and how it, along with Xisto, saved the band from obscurity.

As mentioned, the band really were delighted to be in England, mentioning on more than one occasion how honoured they felt to be in the country that invented heavy metal and paying tribute to the history of the music by performing a cover of the Black Sabbath classic, "Black Sabbath," (which you'll remember is from the album, "Black Sabbath.") They did a fantastic job of this too and the audience loved every second of it. What made this gig so special was the band and the crowd feeding off of each other's excitement, with smiles on and off stage and a great atmosphere from start to finish. Eventually, the quartet finished with "Signs," another of the excellent singles from "Camino de Brujos" and fans couldn't wait to surround the group to congratulate them on a brilliant show and take pictures. Let's hope that even after all this time, this is the beginning of worldwide recognition for the band, as their live sets are every bit as good as the music they produce and they deserve every bit of love they've received over the past year.