Metal Reviews

Ok. So, Sepultura are planning to rock Bangalore. Anyone been to their shows? Just wanted to know how it was. Planning to go.

I've not been, but judging from everything I know, they're pretty good. Depends on your perception of Sepultura post-Max, obviously. If, like me, you like the Derrick Green stuff, go for it! He does a great job, has a better voice than Max imo. Plus, how can yo turn down a massive black man with dreadlocks?

Actually, I haven't listened to anything post Max. I definitely want to give a listen to their stuff without Max, but never got myself to. Maybe listening to some of their later stuff live might prompt me to pick up their albums. I never knew Derrek Green was a black.

"Against" and "Nation" take the "Roots" path in a punkier direction, "Roorback" is more thrashy, and "Dante XXI" is much more thrash. All are much better than given credit for, much better than "Chaos AD" and "Roots" to me. Check them out.

If not, you'll get a "Beneath The Remains" montage and "Troops Of Doom" if you're lucky, but don't expect the classic Sep.

There's an official site with live clips of the band with Derrick for free. www.sepulive.com - haven't visited it for a while, so not sure how recent it is. Click 'media' - some live stuff with Derrick and older, classic live recordings further down.

i saw Sepultura live at Rock in Rio Lisbon (2004) and they rocked

they played a handful of post-Max songs, they were ok except for that U2 cover that blows even on the CD.

they played a few older songs - off the top of my head, Troops of Doom, Arise, Dead Embrionic Cells, Biotech is Godzilla, Refuse/Resist and Roots Bloody Roots, plus that Kaiowas instrumental with a percussion group that also played in the festival (awesome!). the Chaos AD and Roots songs actually came off better than the live videos i saw with Max, and the others were good (it's hard to fuck up those classics!).

the concert also showed on live tv and you can download the full thing. here's the last song from that day, Roots Bloody Roots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LZmRzenVuY

so, um, yeah i guess it's worth going.

I haven't seen Sepultura in concert, unfortunately, since I didn't get into them until they were well past their prime (I got into them about six months after Nation came out). But here are my views on the band:

Bestial Devestations/Morbid Visions - Haven't really listened to it. Except for the song Troops Of Doom, which is pretty cool.

Schizophrenia - Haven't really heard this either.

Beneath The Remains - Quality thrash metal, but lacking a bit in depth.

Arise - Same as BTR.

Chaos AD - Masterpiece. One of the greatest metal albums of all time.

Roots - Honestly, I LIKE this album. A lot. Yeah, it has a noticeable nu-metal leaning. But nu-metal was still more or less in its infancy at the time (actually Roots is one of the key albums in spearheading the whole movement), so the Korn influence is much more forgivable than it would've been had the album come out in 1999 or 2000.

Against/Nation/Roorback/Dante XXI - Listened to samples from these albums on Amazon.com (also heard some full songs on Nation) and wasn't really interested. Sepultura basically took a punkier and more hardcore influenced direction when Mr. Greene came. And being that I'm a fan of neither punk nor hardcore, it didn't really click with me. Plus, I never liked Derrick Greene's vocals much (although they have improved considerably as time went on). I prefer Max's work with Soulfly (which still isn't great but more enjoyable to me).

Sepultura's basically one of those bands that's out of the mainstream, long-forgotten, and now largely ignored. But they still have their small and loyal fanbase. People who are sticking with them and still enjoying their music. Even though they're basically toiling in the deep underground right now.

I saw them live back on the Nation tour in 2000. They were quite good. We got a full hour set, so they played a little bit of everything. Expect a little bit of Beneath the Remains/Arise era-stuff, maybe a Schizophrenia-era song, lots of Chaos AD/Roots era stuff, and a good chunk of Greene-era stuff. Derrick Greene is a good singer, and puts his own spin on the Max-era stuff, which I prefer to him just trying to ape Max's style. They have good crowd interaction, and were really tight the night I saw them. Should be a good time.

Thanks all for the info. If Sep is moving towards a hardcore/punk direction, I don't think I would want to pick up their later stuff. However, I would definitely go to the show seeing that it could be good. Besides, I would love to listen to Roots Bloody Roots, Territory , Refuse/Resist and many other tracks live.

oh yeah, they also played Territory when i saw them. Derrick seems to fit the Chaos AD songs perfectly.

How do people feel about a Classic for Schizophrenia?

Arise would be a better choice imo.

i'd rather have a BTR review.

BTR FTW!

See, I knew that BTR would get more requests. Schizophrenia is the Sep album everyone ignores, when it's actually really good. The missing link between the primitive death of Morbid Visions and the tech-thrash of BTR.

Ah, well. I'm sure all three will be done eventually.

Just review both. But may be start with a better known Sep album like Arise or BTR (Chaos AD has already been reviewed). It's up to you, though.

There really needs to be more frequency in the Classic reviews on this site IMO.

Been to the concert and must say, it was fantastic. I enjoyed this more than the Maiden concert, not because of the performance, but because there was a smaller crowd. So, it was not that stuffy and we could move around. The vocalist seems to be a lovable guy and he's pretty good. I dunno about their studio albums with him, but live, they kick major ass.

Had the opportunity to see them with In Flames. I didn't go, though.

That was quite a good tour, apparently. Pity I missed it, my Going-to-see-live-bands record is shameful.