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Sepultura: Chaos A.D.

08/06/09 || Smalley

I’ll try not to come off as a raging fanboy in this review, but “Chaos A.D.” is an album that’s meant a lot to me for a long time, and I was very happy to see I hadn’t been beaten to the punch by another staffer (damn you, one review-per album policy!!!). Anyway, explaining how awesome the songs are will help explain how awesome this album is, so no screwing around with background info shit, though I will say that if you’ve yet to listen to “Chaos”, make sure to turn it up ‘til your ears hurt when you do, to obtain the best results…

“Refuse/resist” begins with the beat of Zyon Cavalera’s heart (still in his mother’s womb at the time), then the massive crunch of papa Max’s rhythm guitar (imagine one giant chomping on a big ol’ bowl of Cap’n Crunch) and uncle Igor’s catchy, hopping percussion violently hijack the track. Andreas Kisser adds more spice to the mix with his screechy, low-fi lead playing, and when Max starts singing the politically wrathful lyrics, his sore-throated roaring will get you ready to do some resisting of your own. And, although Paulo Jr.‘s bass isn’t quite as prominent here as it is on other tracks, it does do its part; “Refuse” tells you right away that this was one cohesive, confident band in ’93, and although the groove metal sound isn’t as cutting-edge now as it was then, this fact hasn’t diminished the bad-assery here at all. Anyway, a thrash-y, mid-track interlude, a seventeen second-long(!) roar from Max, the climatic drum outro, and more, all make “Refuse” a classic metal song, and provides the heavy-but-still-catchy sound template for the rest of the album.

The pounding, war-like rhythm of Igor’s drumming serves as the backbone for “Territory”, with Max and Andreas’s guitar performances adding a brutally-catchy grind on top of that, making this another classic track. “Slave new world” starts off with what sounds like a sludge-ified version of the intro on “Circle of the tyrants”, then transitions into a riff lifted almost straight from “Inner self” (jeez, Sep’s even ripping themselves off here!). But again, the heavy groove that Sep produces is the attraction here, and though “Slave” isn’t quite as excellent as the album’s first two cuts, its still very good, and does contributes to the overall consistency.

Unfortunately, “Amen” is probably my least favorite track on what I think of as the album proper (I’ll explain later); the riffs are too sluggish, there’s some unnecessarily muddled, over-dubbed vocals, and besides a neat (and pretentious) female vocalist cameo, the track as a whole just doesn’t hold my interest as much as the others do. Well, not everything here can be a home run, right?

The instrumental “Kaiowas” is the only time we see the softer side of Sep here, but remains just as compelling nonetheless. Recorded in the ruins of a Welsh castle (you can hear birds getting upset at the band in the beginning and the end), the initially tentative acoustic strumming gives way to some incredibly energetic and catchy guitar/drum work, relaxing us a bit before “Propaganda” slams us back into the heavy fray. Both it and “Biotech is godzilla” (the latter having pointlessly-paranoid lyrics from Jello Biafra) are relatively fast songs, and give us prime doses of headbanging just before “Nomad” slows things way down, and begins the end section (or what should be the end section) of “Chaos a.d.”.

“Nomad” is a methodical, epic tribute to indigenous peoples who have suffered persecution and humiliation, with lyrics like “Who are you to criticize?/To judge and spurn the tribes?/The world will be extinct, and your flesh will rot with mine!”. The musical pain and rage present in “Nomad” make it feel much longer than the actual five minutes it lasts, but I mean this in a very good way; you’ll probably be feeling a pleasant mental exhaustion once it’s finally over. The next track, “We who are not as others”, is overly repetitive (the repeated title functions as the only lyrics), and fails to leave much of an impression, but I do enjoy it, and after how good the album has been up to this point, a single disappointing track isn’t anything to cry about.

Finally, “Manifest” closes out the album proper with a harsh, industrial-tinged rant about the Carandiru prison massacre (Wiki it if you don’t know), with Max’s vocals altered to make it seem he’s reporting on the scene with some crappy radio equipment, and could be murdered by the military police any moment. At about the 1:25 mark, the riffing dies off to allow Paulo’s bass to speak up, a part that always gets me pumped for the upcoming heavy riffing and screaming, and where I almost always turn my volume louder (not that it needed to be any louder, heh). The sonic chaos and finality of “Manifest” (the final four seconds are nothing but abrupt silence) makes this album feel like a star that has burned very, very brightly for a long time, and is now finally coming to it’s end via supernova, as all awesome things do. A suitable remembrance of the 102 people slaughtered by Brazilian corruption, the very best song on the album proper, and about the best ending you could possibly hope to get for this album.

… oh wait, you say that the album isn’t over? Alright, lemme hear what else Sep’s got; ew, a draggy, awkward-sounding cover of New Model Army? That’s definitely gonna hurt the album’s success percentage! “Clenched fist” is definitely better (or at least it gets better after the 1:38 mark), but still not very good, relatively speaking. You were doing so well before this point, guys; should’ve just ended things at “Manifest”, it would’ve made the perfect stopping point anyway! Er, there’s also some unnecessary “bonus” tracks after “fist”, which don’t add much of anything to the album, so I don’t care about them enough to discuss; moving on…

So, the first ten tracks of “Chaos A.D.” are some of the best examples of a band working and functioning as a whole I’ve heard in my life, and is also some of the best metal I’ve ever heard as well. In addition to Igor’s incredible drum performance (perhaps my favorite of that kind), the riffs, bass lines, vocals, and songwriting as a whole are just so good here, and so enjoyable for me, I definitely couldn’t dip my score one iota. Maybe I should lower it a bit in reaction to “The hunt” and “Clenched fist”, but I won’t; the other songs are too damn good to do that, and this album gets a little better each time I listen to it anew.

The incredible cohesion and skill on “Chaos A.D.” make it the best album Sepultura has made, and almost certainly ever will make, and I must give it 10 odes to the tribe out of 10.

Damn you for doing so good and making me gush like this, Sepultura!!!

Information
Released: 1993
Label: Roadrunner
Website: www.sepultura.uol.com
Sepultura
Max Cavalera: vocals, guitar
Andreas Kisser: guitar
Paulo Jr.: bass
Igor Cavalera: drums

Tracklist
01. Refuse/Resist
02. Territory
03. Slave New World
04. Amen
05. Kaiowas
06. Propaganda
07. Biotech Is Godzilla
08. Nomad
09. We Who Are Not As Others
10. Manifest
11. The Hunt
12. Clenched Fist
13. Chaos B.C.
14. Kaiowas (“tribal jam” version, whatever the hell that means)
15. Territory (live)
16. Amen (live)

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