SEPULTURA

Groove Metal / Thrash Metal / Death Metal / Alternative Metal • Brazil
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Sepultura is a Brazilian thrash metal band, formed in 1983. Their name means "grave" in Portuguese, which they chose after Max Cavalera, one of the founding members, was translating the lyrics of the Motörhead song "Dancing on Your Grave".

Sepultura was formed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1983 by Max Cavalera (guitars and vocals), his younger brother Igor Cavalera (drums), Paulo Pinto (bass) and Jairo Guedes (guitars). Sepultura signed to Cogumelo Records after a few years of performing, with a sound influenced by their favorite bands such as Ratos de Porão, Discharge, Possessed, GBH and Metallica. Their first EP was Bestial Devastation, a split with Overdose's album on the flipside. Their first LP was Morbid Visions (1986), which included the moderate hit "Troops of Doom" that attracted the band some attention. After Morbid Visions, Jairo Guedes left the band for another death metal venture and Sao Paulo based guitarist
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SEPULTURA Discography

SEPULTURA albums / top albums

SEPULTURA Morbid Visions album cover 2.78 | 37 ratings
Morbid Visions
Death Metal 1986
SEPULTURA Schizophrenia album cover 3.63 | 52 ratings
Schizophrenia
Thrash Metal 1987
SEPULTURA Beneath the Remains album cover 4.38 | 106 ratings
Beneath the Remains
Thrash Metal 1989
SEPULTURA Arise album cover 4.36 | 109 ratings
Arise
Thrash Metal 1991
SEPULTURA Chaos A.D. album cover 3.80 | 71 ratings
Chaos A.D.
Groove Metal 1993
SEPULTURA Roots album cover 3.07 | 58 ratings
Roots
Alternative Metal 1996
SEPULTURA Against album cover 3.23 | 31 ratings
Against
Groove Metal 1998
SEPULTURA Nation album cover 3.34 | 24 ratings
Nation
Groove Metal 2001
SEPULTURA Roorback album cover 3.11 | 19 ratings
Roorback
Groove Metal 2003
SEPULTURA Dante XXI album cover 3.88 | 26 ratings
Dante XXI
Groove Metal 2005
SEPULTURA A-Lex album cover 3.43 | 25 ratings
A-Lex
Groove Metal 2009
SEPULTURA Kairos album cover 3.49 | 28 ratings
Kairos
Groove Metal 2011
SEPULTURA The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart album cover 3.93 | 20 ratings
The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart
Thrash Metal 2013
SEPULTURA Machine Messiah album cover 4.23 | 25 ratings
Machine Messiah
Groove Metal 2017
SEPULTURA Quadra album cover 4.33 | 20 ratings
Quadra
Thrash Metal 2020

SEPULTURA EPs & splits

SEPULTURA Bestial Devastation / Século XX album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
Bestial Devastation / Século XX
Death Metal 1985
SEPULTURA Morbid Visions / Cease to Exist album cover 5.00 | 1 ratings
Morbid Visions / Cease to Exist
Thrash Metal 1989
SEPULTURA The Lost Tapes of Cogumelo album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
The Lost Tapes of Cogumelo
Death Metal 1990
SEPULTURA Bestial Devastation album cover 3.06 | 21 ratings
Bestial Devastation
Death Metal 1990
SEPULTURA Under Siege (Regnum Irae) album cover 4.35 | 6 ratings
Under Siege (Regnum Irae)
Thrash Metal 1991
SEPULTURA Third World Posse album cover 4.75 | 7 ratings
Third World Posse
Thrash Metal 1992
SEPULTURA Natural Born Blasters album cover 3.00 | 2 ratings
Natural Born Blasters
Thrash Metal 1996
SEPULTURA Cemetery Gates (Demon Knight Edit) album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Cemetery Gates (Demon Knight Edit)
Thrash Metal 1996
SEPULTURA Procreation of the Wicked album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Procreation of the Wicked
Thrash Metal 1997
SEPULTURA Tribus album cover 4.00 | 2 ratings
Tribus
Groove Metal 1999
SEPULTURA Revolusongs album cover 4.00 | 8 ratings
Revolusongs
Groove Metal 2002

SEPULTURA live albums

SEPULTURA Under a Pale Grey Sky album cover 4.19 | 8 ratings
Under a Pale Grey Sky
Groove Metal 2002
SEPULTURA Live in São Paulo album cover 4.38 | 4 ratings
Live in São Paulo
Groove Metal 2005
SEPULTURA SepulQuarta album cover 3.25 | 2 ratings
SepulQuarta
Thrash Metal 2021

SEPULTURA demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

SEPULTURA Rehearsal album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Rehearsal
Death Metal 1986
SEPULTURA Demo 87 album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Demo 87
Thrash Metal 1987
SEPULTURA Sepultura / Atom Seed album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Sepultura / Atom Seed
Thrash Metal 1991
SEPULTURA Free Cassette Sampler album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Free Cassette Sampler
Thrash Metal 1996

SEPULTURA re-issues & compilations

SEPULTURA Morbid Visions / Bestial Devastation album cover 3.00 | 5 ratings
Morbid Visions / Bestial Devastation
Death Metal 1991
SEPULTURA The Roots of Sepultura album cover 3.31 | 4 ratings
The Roots of Sepultura
Alternative Metal 1996
SEPULTURA Blood-Rooted album cover 2.40 | 6 ratings
Blood-Rooted
Groove Metal 1997
SEPULTURA B-Sides album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
B-Sides
Groove Metal 1997
SEPULTURA The Best of Sepultura album cover 1.00 | 1 ratings
The Best of Sepultura
Groove Metal 2006
SEPULTURA The Complete Roadrunner Collection 1987 - 1996 album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
The Complete Roadrunner Collection 1987 - 1996
Thrash Metal 2012

SEPULTURA singles (10)

.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Dead Embryonic Cells
Thrash Metal 1991
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Arise
Thrash Metal 1992
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Territory
Groove Metal 1993
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Refuse/Resist
Groove Metal 1994
.. Album Cover
4.00 | 1 ratings
Slave New World
Groove Metal 1994
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Attitude
Groove Metal 1996
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Ratamahatta
Groove Metal 1996
.. Album Cover
5.00 | 1 ratings
Roots Bloody Roots
Groove Metal 1996
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Choke
Groove Metal 1998
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Against
Groove Metal 1999

SEPULTURA movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

.. Album Cover
4.70 | 5 ratings
Under Siege: Live in Barcelona
Thrash Metal 1992
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
4 Songs Tied
Thrash Metal 1992
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Territory
Groove Metal 1993
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Refuse / Resist
Groove Metal 1994
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Third World Chaos
Groove Metal 1995
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
We Are What We Are
Groove Metal 1996
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Tribal Devastation
Thrash Metal 1997
.. Album Cover
4.67 | 3 ratings
Chaos DVD
Thrash Metal 2002
.. Album Cover
4.43 | 3 ratings
Sepultura - Live in Sao Paulo
Groove Metal 2005
.. Album Cover
0.00 | 0 ratings
Metal Veins - Alive at Rock in Rio
Groove Metal 2014

SEPULTURA Reviews

SEPULTURA Revolusongs

EP · 2002 · Groove Metal
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UMUR
"Revolusongs" is an EP release by Brazilian thrash/groove metal act Sepultura. The EP was released through SPV Records in March 2003 and bridges the gap between the band´s eighth and ninth full-length studio albums "Nation" from March 2001 and "Roorback" from May 2003. "Revolusongs" originally featured 7 cover tracks and it was exclusively released in Brazil and Japan. The digipack and limited edition versions of "Roorback (2003)" includes the material from the EP and the cover of U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky", which was originally released as a single, has been latched on at the end. The Metallica medley cover "Enter Sandman/Fight Fire with Fire Medley" is only featured on the original release though, and is not featured as bonus material on the digipack and limited edition versions of "Roorback (2003)".

While the covers of "Piranha" by Exodus and "Messiah" by Hellhammer are pretty much the type of cover material you´d expect from Sepultura, "Revolusongs" also features a couple of surprises, as Sepultura have fortunately opted to cover material a bit more out of their comfort zone, and they successfully manage to put their own spin on tracks like "Angel" by Massive Attack, "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" by Public Enemy, and "Mongoloid" by Devo.

"Revolusongs" is a well produced affair and the musicianship is strong. Derrick Green gets to show that he is a pretty versatile vocalist too, and it all just sounds like the band were having great fun playing these songs. As mentioned above the song selection is relatively varied with both covers of metal tracks, rock songs, and trip/hop and rap tunes. Sepultura can do it all with ease and they sound confortable handling all styles of music featured on the EP. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

SEPULTURA Bestial Devastation / Século XX

Split · 1985 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Bestial Devastation / Século XX" is a split release featuring Brazilian artists Sepultura and Overdose. The split was released through Cogumelo Records in December 1985 and features 3 tracks by Overdose and 5 tracks by Sepultura. Overdose formed in 1983 and released the "Última Estrela Demo" that same year, while this split is Sepultura´s first release after forming in 1984. Both groups played a role on the early speed/thrash/death metal scene in Brazil, but Sepultura´s career skyrocketed in the late 80s/early 90s and they´ve became a major act internationally, while Overdose are probably mostly known (at least outside their homeland) because of their involvement on this split. In 1990 Cogumelo Records opted to reissue the material from "Bestial Devastation / Século XX" as two individual EPs under each artist monicker.

The original vinyl release featured the Overdose tracks on Side A and the Sepultura tracks on Side B. Overdose compositions are speed metal/heavy metal and the lyrics are in Portuguese. They open the split with the 10:02 minutes long "Anjos do Apocalipse", which is quite powerful and relatively intricate as far as structure goes. Overdose manage to sound sharp, raw, and heavy, but also incorporate melody and blistering lead work, and I hear more than one nod in the music towards an artist like Mercyful Fate, especially when they play solos. The vocals are a combination of singing and more raw barking. Both "Filhos do Mundo" and "Século XX" are also good quality compositions well worth the price of admission. Overdose are a very well playing band and when the songwriting is also intriguing and powerful, it´s the blueprint for a winner. The tracks feature a raw, but detailed and well sounding production, which suits the material perfectly.

The Sepultura compositions are of a completely different and more extreme nature. After the atmospheric spoken word track "The Curse" is done, Sepultura immediately set the record straight with some fiercely fast-paced, brutal, and aggressive death/thrash on the following title track. It´s obviously the early releases by the teutonic trio of Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, which are the main influences, but there are also nods toward both Venom, Hellhammer, and even a blast beat on "Antichrist", showing a hardcore/grindcore influence. It´s intense, angry, and raw, but actually really well performed. The tracks reek a burning passion and they are quite catchy too. The sound production on the Sepultura tracks is filthy and raw, but not murky, which means you are able to hear all details of the compositions and the performances.

So "Bestial Devastation / Século XX" is a chance to hear Sepultura in the earliest stages of their by now successful career, but the Overdose part of the split should definitely not be neglected as their brand of speed metal/heavy metal is of a high quality and features quite a few intriguing elements. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

SEPULTURA Nation

Album · 2001 · Groove Metal
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UMUR
"Nation" is the 8th full-length studio album by Brazilian thrash/groove/alternative metal act Sepultura. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in March 2001. It´s the successor to "Against" from 1998 and is the second Sepultura album to feature lead vocalist Derrick Green, after the departure of original lead vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera in 1996. "Nation" was the last Sepultura album released through Roadrunner Records, as the band didn´t feel the label gave them enough promotional support (a scheduled filming of a music video for "One Man Army" was for example cancelled).

Stylistically "Nation" is pretty much a continuation of the hardcore influenced groove/thrash metal style of "Against (1998)", featuring the occasional ethnic tribal rhythmic moment. Green expands on his already varied vocal arsenal, and in addition to delivering his aggressive raw snarling also sings some clean vocals. The album opens with the heavy groove laden "Sepulnation", and it´s a strong opening to the album. From then on Sepultura treat the listener to many different variations of their style and they can certainly not be accused of being one-dimensional in their songwriting approach. The songwriting is generally pretty creative, and in the end that turns out to be both a strength and a weakness. A strength because "Nation" is a varied and entertaining release throughout, and a weakness because it simply sticks in too many directions and ultimately leaves me wishing for a more stylistic consistent approach. Had that been the case, it´s my conviction that "Nation" would have been an overall stronger release.

The musicianship is strong on all posts, and "Nation" also features a powerful and well sounding production job, so upon conclusion it´s a relatively strong album release by Sepultura. It´s pretty similar in style to "Against (1998)" and I´ve always felt that the two were more or less sibling releases. Also in terms of quality and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is therefore deserved.

SEPULTURA Against

Album · 1998 · Groove Metal
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UMUR
"Against" is the 7th full-length studio album by Brazilian thrash/groove/alternative metal act Sepultura. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in October 1998. It´s the successor to "Roots" from 1996 and features one lineup change as lead vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera left Sepultura after the last show on the tour supporting "Roots (1996)". Cavalera had a dispute with the other members of the band (including his brother Igor Cavalera) over the manager role of his wife Gloria Cavalera, and eventually he decided to leave. He is replaced here by American vocalist Derrick Green.

When "Roots" came out in 1996, Sepultura were commercially and popularity wise at the top of their game, and Max Cavalera was a well respected and influential frontman and guitarist, and therefore it would always be an extremely difficult task to replace him. To this day (the year 2022) many Sepultura fans still can´t accept Green as the vocalist of Sepultura, and it was even worse in 1998 when "Against" came out. The album didn´t sell well compared to "Roots (1996)" and generally received a bit of a lukewarm reception. If that reaction was based on Green´s voice and performance on "Against", it would have been understandable, but to my ears Green is a more than capable replacement for Cavalera, with a strong voice and a commanding delivery. Anyone who has seen him on a stage also knows that he has an almost intimidating physical presence (yes the man is huge), which brings a lot to Sepultura´s shows.

Stylistically Sepultura have opted for a more guitar, riff heavy, and raw (sometimes hardcore influenced) groove oriented metal style compared to the alternative/groove metal style of "Roots (1996)", where it sometimes felt like the riffs were an afterthought (and only very few were memorable) and all focus was on angsty aggressive vocals and groove (and the whole tribal ethnic lyric/image thing). The material on "Against" are generally more powerful, intense, and immediate. That doesn´t mean the tracks are simple in a primitive way, but they are more instantly catchy and aggression and groove go well hand and hand with powerful riffs and rhythms, but also with other creative songwriting ideas (for example the lead run on "Floaters in Mud" or the atmopsheric "Rumors"), which bring the right dose of variation to the album. This time around the ethnic influences are used as a spice and doesn´t end up taking too much focus from the basis of Sepultura metal sound, although the tribal/ethnic elements are still a big part of the band´s music.

"Against" features a powerful sounding production, which suits the material well and provides the music with the right amount of power to have as much impact as possible. When all the positive things about the album are said, Sepultura are maybe ultimately a bit too ambitious and unfocused as the album tends to point in a lot of different directions, going from groove metal, to hardcore punk, and then to tribal/ethnic music both within and between tracks. Sometimes it works wonders ("Choke" is an example of a combination of groove metal and a tribal/ethnic music influenced middle section, which works well), and sometimes the results are a bit less remarkable. In the end "Against" is a good quality release by Sepultura and also a step up in quality from "Roots (1996)". A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

SEPULTURA Roots

Album · 1996 · Alternative Metal
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UMUR
"Roots" is the 6th full-length studio album by Brazilian thrash/groove/alternative metal act Sepultura. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in February 1996. It´s the successor to "Chaos A.D." from 1993. Sepultura had long wanted to incorporate more latin rhythms and ethnic Brazilian themes and atmospheres to their music, and they dipped their toes in that pool on "Chaos A.D. (1993)". On "Roots" they went all in though, even travelling to the Amazonas to record with the Xavante tribe (a tribe chant is heard on a couple of tracks on the album).

Stylistically Sepultura completely left their thrash metal roots behind on "Roots", so in this case back to the roots doesn´t mean a return to the sound of early Sepultura, but a visit to the roots (the indigenous cultures of Brazil) of their country. So this is basically ethnic influenced groove/alternative metal with a strong emphasis and focus on groove and adventurous percussion. Sepultura used to churn out one sharp and memorable riff after another, but here the riffs seem to have taken a backseat, because most of them are just downtuned groovy drones, which don´t stand out much from each other. I´m not completely out of line if I call this an album without a single memorable riff (alright...I´ll go as far as to call the main riff on "Roots Bloody Roots" semi-catchy, but that´s about it). Sepultura have dropped playing guitar solos too, so as written above the focus is very different from the preceding releases by the band.

Max Cavalera´s voice and vocal style has also changed quite a bit. He used to have a deep aggressive shouting vocal style, but here he has opted to scream a lot and his vocals are also often put through effects. The band are as well playing as ever and especially the drumming by Igor Cavalera is both busy and creative. "Roots" is also a well produced release (produced by Ross Robinson), so it´s a quality release on most parameters. There aren´t that many tracks which stand out though, and featuring 17 tracks (the number of tracks vary a little depending on which edition of the album you have) and a total playing time of 66:55 "Roots" is also way too long, overstaying its welcome by many tracks. Standout tracks are "Roots Bloody Roots", "Ratamahatta", and the tribal chant/percussion track "Itsári". The remaining tracks are just there. They aren´t as such of a bad quality, but they just aren´t memorable and several lack direction and hooks.

"Roots" was an interesting experiment for its time and a hugely influential album on the groove/alternative metal scene, and it´s a unique album in Sepultura´s discography. In retrospect it made Sepultura even more successful and heightened their profile on the scene, which ultimately meant they attracted more fans and sold more albums. Check, check, check...the songs though...where are the songs? The memorable riffs, and vocal lines/hooks? To my ears much drown in the downtuned groove laden riffs and percussive experimentation, and I would much rather have had the band focus on writing memorable songs. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

SEPULTURA Movies Reviews

SEPULTURA Sepultura - Live in Sao Paulo

Movie · 2005 · Groove Metal
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Kingcrimsonprog
Sepultura have a good few options if you are into live material. There is the Chaos DVD with the Under Siege video on it with the band touring Arise and playing all their Thrash era songs. There is the Under A Pale Grey Sky cd with the last ever gig of the Max Cavelera line-up on it, playing a lot of material off of Roots and Chaos AD. There is the newer Rock In Rio DVD with the Les Tambors Du Bronx percussion group augmenting them. There’s also plenty of live material on bonus tracks and compilations.

Best of all however, is Sepultura Live In Sao Paulo. It was the first video album with the Derick Green line-up, the first time you got to see and not just hear live versions of material from Roots and Chaos AD and its the only place to hear straight up unaltered versions of material off the Derick Green albums. It was released in 2005 when they were touring Roorback, back when they were still a Gold-selling band.

You get to hear an amazing blend (21 songs!) of material all the way from their earliest EPs and albums with early material like ‘Necromancer’ and ‘Troops Of Doom’ beside the mega-hits from the ’90s like ‘Territory’ and ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ mixed in with more modern gems like ‘Choke’ and what has to be one of the band’s best ever songs in ‘Sepulnation.’ (For me, its in the top 5 songs they ever recorded, any era).

Visually, the album is great. Its really well shot and edited, with no fancy distracting weird camera angels or lenses and no too-fast music video style choppy cuts. The stage set up and tasteful circle of lighting around their tribal ‘S’ logo banner looks really great, and the soundjob and mix are perfect. Sometimes the guitars or the vocals can be too quiet in a live recording, or some times the drums have way too much reverb, or sometimes you can’t hear the crowd’s energy; but here everything is perfectly balanced hear and it all sounds thick and chunky.

The band’s performances are excellent and it really shows off what great musicians they are. I never ‘got’ how good a drummer Igor is until I saw this! I didn’t much care for Derrick Green as a frontman before I saw this an it utterly changed my mind.

It looks great, it sounds great, the tracklist is great and the band play great. What more could you possibly want? Oh well, if you still do want more there is an absolute tonne of extras, with music videos, more live songs, a short making of documentary and biography, a bigger documentary about the band from 1998–2005 and other stuff as well (photogalleries etc.)

Overall; this is a damn strong release from a very important band, and there’s so much on it its great value for money. If like me you were skeptical on them without Max in the band, go on youtube and check out live versions of tracks like ‘Chaos AD’ and especially ‘Sepulnation’ off of this and just try not to be converted! If you are new to the band altogether this is a great starting point blending the best parts of all the eras together.

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