The Angry Scotsman Sepultura have great timing.

They manage to jump onto new genre's just early enough to become important figures, (if not pioneers) of it. They did this with death and thrash metal, and with this album they did it yet again. This time they crafted one of the pioneering "groove metal" albums. By this point they were already huge in the metal world, (and as we know their most popular album was still yet to come, soon to jump on the burgeoning alternative metal scene).

With fame what did they do? Mix it up. "Chaos A.D." abandons much of the thrash metal flavor. This is a largely mid tempo album, (with traces of thrash) and emphasis placed on groove rather than technicality in the riffing. The groove element is pushed by the drumming. These are all staples of the groove metal scene. Also, the guitar solos on the album are much more melodic and unusual then their previous shred style.

This album is also when Sepultura, ironically, started to forge their own identity. Their Brazilian heritage was influential on the album, evident in Igor's more tribal drumming style, the very awesome and intriguing "Kaiowas" and more politically charged lyrics, as well as some that hit close to the band personally.

"Refuse/Resist" deals with protest, "Territory" about war over land, "Slave New World" is a bellowing cry against censorship, and also seems to imply Brazil's slave heritage. "Nomad" deals with tribes being forced from their homelands, while "Biotech is Godzilla" deals with biotechnology being used to test diseases on native people, and that the technology is in the wrong hands, (evil money hungry corporations naturally!).

So, the band was striving to be a little more personal. Besides lyrically, they tried to incorporate this in the music as well. Igor's drumming, which is quite fantastic, is a little more "groovy" and tribal influenced and really drives the album. There is some punk influence, (not to mention "The Hunt" a punk cover) to convey the bands energy.

One of the best, and most intriguing songs on the album, is "Kaiowas" an entirely acoustic song, with Igor and Paulo playing percussion. A very awesome song.

Other standouts are "Refuse/Resist", "Territory", "Biotech is Godzilla" which is also the album's most intense song, "Manifest" and "We Who Are Not As Others" which has just slight traces of acoustic guitar in there. However, the rest of the album is a bit dull.

Overall, this is a groove metal album. Mid tempo, groovy riffing and powerful drumming. There is not much thrash, less "metal" solos and a bit of experimentation. Think of this as less intense Pantera. A lot of it awesome, but a good amount drags.

Uninspired? Didn't quite pull "it" together? A bit of both? Regardless, this is a good album, but not a great one. Kudos to Sepultura for wanting to create something distinctly theirs, and get in touch with their roots, but musically this album is just nothing spectacular, overall. Good album, but not great.

Three Stars

Stooge I recently rediscovered this album after finding it buried in a mix of old metal albums while I was moving. I don’t know why I hadn’t listened to it in around 3 or 4 years. I guess I thought there was a bigger drop-off in quality between Chaos A.D. and it’s predecessor, Arise. I was slightly mistaken.

Fans of their death/thrash style may be disappointed with this release, as much of the riffing has loosened up with a focus on more of a slow, groove-based style. This is most evident on tracks “Refuse/Resist”, “Amen”, and “Propaganda” among others. In this respect, Chaos A.D. is one of those albums often cited towards inspiring the nu-metal phenomenon of the late 1990s. Even much of the lead guitar, courtesy of Andreas Kisser, is making a shift from more traditional metal lead playing to just about exclusively “noise” based solos. This may upset some purists, but I think they work well within the context of the songs. To my amusement, drummer Igor Cavalera has certainly expanded his sound with more use of tribal percussion and, in general, more inventiveness in his playing.

There is also a rather punk/hardcore influence on certain tracks from the music side, and also in the lyrics as several of the songs tackle various political issues. Even ex-Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra contributes lyrically to the track “Biotech Is Godzilla”, which may be the fastest paced (as well as the shortest) song on the album. “Manifest” also contains some punk-inspired moments, and the cover “The Hunt” certainly sounds like it may have been a pure punk rock song originally.

Oddly enough for a metal album, two of my personal favorite tracks come in the form of “Kaiowas” and “We Who Are Not As Others”. “Kaiowas” is an instrumental piece inspired by a Brazilian tribe that committed mass suicide in a government protest. The track makes marvelous use of percussion and acoustic guitars in a manner that you would not expect from a metal band. “We Who Are Not As Others”, with the title of the song serving as the only lyric, takes rather basic, repetitive guitar and bass patterns, and arranges them rather nicely. Great blend of a chugging, distorted riff, with some of the most melodic guitar on the album.

I’m not as excited about Sepultura in this form as I am with some of their previous stuff, but Chaos A.D. is certainly a great listen on its own. Not essential, but definitely a solid purchase!

The T 666 This is it. The album that made me a metalhead. Without this album, I would have never become a fan of the genre and I would have never found bands so dear to me as AMORPHIS, DREAM THEATER, IRON MAIDEN or METALLICA. As a classical music fan since I was a child, the closest I had ever gone in the metal direction was... The Doors? Yes, I know that was not precisely a metal band (not even a hard rock one) but that was my only acquaintance with any other genre of music besides classical. One day someone borrowed me a tape with a rather shocking (for me, at the time) cover and a picture of four long-haired cannibals in the inlet. I took it home and blasted it on a little stereo I used to have. Days later I was embracing a whole new musical world far removed from the complex and beautiful art of academic music. This new world was darker, harsher, more violent, noisy; in a word, after being in heaven for a long time, I felt like descending to hell.

This album is almost impossible to categorize. It's not full thrash metal, nor is it full death metal. It incorporates tribal and folk-ish rhythm but only in little doses. It's not a fusion album (like the disappointing albums SEPULTURA released ever since) but it's not a pure metal album either.

From the pulse that opens "Refuse Resist" to the madness in "Clenched Fist" (the album's weaker moment) there's not a minute that the band allows the listener to sit and relax. This is a constant, meditated attack on the nerves using outstandingly-original riffs and out-of-this-world drumming that create a new experience that has never been equaled. At times hinting on the melodic ("Kaiowas", "We Who Are not as Others"), SEPULTURA is not here to please us with soothing sounds for the ear but to wake us up with cries for justice. The extremely simple riff in "Nomad" leads to an energetic, annihilating conclusion of relentless speed and acceleration; "Amen" closes with a tremendously-chaotic series of drum fills that make no sense in themselves but are the perfect ending for the song; "Manifest" is just that, a news piece telling us of a massacre in no childish terms; "Kaiowas" is an experiment in mixing Brazilian tribal percussion with a metal spirit, and works wonderfully; even when they do a cover ("The Hunt"), SEPULTURA turns a minor little tune into a powerful statement against oppression with a riff that, previously sedated but full of potential, is exploited in all its metallic possibilities.

A masterpiece of metal and an album that needs to be in every metalhead's collection. Even ignoring the fact that this is the album that brought me here, I can't have any other feeling towards it but of awe and amazement. This is a revered metal masterpiece and it clearly deserves it.