Grave (band)

Sepultura is a Brazilian thrash metal band formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte by brothers Max (guitar and vocals) and Igor Cavalera (drums). by various publications as the most successful heavy metal group in Brazil and one of the most influential of this genre in the world, although their music would originally be oriented to thrash, death and groove metal and later to hardcore, alternative metal, nu metal and industrial metal.

Formed in the context of police repression that marked the last years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, Sepultura has enjoyed international success since the late 1980s with a style primarily oriented towards thrash metal thanks to works like Arise (1991) Chaos A.D. (1993) or Roots (1996).

The ensemble's founder and main songwriter, Max Cavalera, left the group abruptly in 1996 as a result of personal disagreements and later founded Soulfly. His brother Igor followed suit in 2006 and the two reunited in the Cavalera Conspiracy project. Sepultura's current lineup is made up of bassist Paulo Jr. —the only original member still in the band—, guitarist Andreas Kisser, American vocalist Derrick Green, and drummer Eloy Casagrande. The group has released fifteen albums of study that has allowed them to sell more than twenty million copies worldwide by 2014.

History

Formation (1984)

Max Cavalera (on the left) and his younger brother Igor (on the right) founded Sepultura in 1984.

Sepultura was formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its two founders were the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, sons of a model named Vânia and Italian diplomat Graciliano Cavalera, whose sudden death from a heart attack left the family without financial resources. After the death of his father, Max took an interest in his vinyl collection to find out what music he liked and there he found the fourth album by Led Zeppelin and the first of Black Sabbath.

At the end of that same year, the two brothers decided to abandon their studies and dedicate themselves completely to music. After several initial changes, the line-up was established with Max as guitarist, Igor on drums, bassist Paulo Jr. and the vocalist Wagner Lamounier. Due to artistic disagreements, the latter left the group to found Sarcófago, so Max also became the vocalist and Jairo Guedz became his new guitarist.

Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions (1985-1986)

Throughout 1985, Sepultura participated in several local festivals and signed a contract with the Cogumelo record label. Their first EP, titled Bestial Devastation and recorded in just two days in an improvised studio, was released in December together with Overdose's Século XX. Despite its poor quality, due to the oversaturation of the amplifiers, the EP allowed the group to be known in Brazil and record Morbid Visions in August 1986. Although at that time his fame was limited only to his country of origin, due to the fact that his first two works were not published in the rest of the world, the fact of exercising opening for Venom in Belo Horizonte and composing songs like "Troops of Doom" helped increase their popularity. After the release of their debut album, the ensemble decided to move to São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, to further their career..

The band was one of the first in their nation to fuse death and black metal together with Sarcófago, led by Wagner Lamounier. The two formations, pioneers of heavy metal in Brazil, maintained a rivalry for a long time: Originally the members of both groups were friends since childhood, but Lamounier's departure from Sepultura led to a confrontation against Max Cavalera. The situation would not improve with time, because the drummer D.D. Crazy would break a bottle over the head of future Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser and in 2013, Max called Lamounier "an asshole, a piece of shit, that's why he was kicked out of the band."

Schizophrenia and Beneath the Remains (1987-1990)

Max Cavalera acting in 1989 shortly after the launch Beneath the Remains.

After their first tour in 1987, guitarist Jairo Guedz left the group after losing interest in death metal and was replaced by the aforementioned Andreas Kisser, originally from São Paulo, and who had worked as Max Cavalera's pipe. The new member's experience contributed greatly to the evolution of the band's style on their next studio album, Schizophrenia, their first professionally recorded work. In the following months, Sepultura held concerts with audiences of up to 2,000 people and the album sold more than 10,000 copies, more than foreign groups such as Slayer or Anthrax.

The group sent several tapes to the United States and some of their songs were played on radio stations, despite the fact that many of them were reluctant to broadcast thrash metal, due to the opposition of venue managers who did not want to broadcast too violent music in their establishments. In 1988, Max decided to travel to the United States with the intention of meeting producers after developing some relationships at their concerts. The band caught the attention of the record company Roadrunner Records, whose artistic director, Monte Conner, offered him a long-term contract and distribution of Schizophrenia on a larger scale without having seen the band perform live before. After signing the deal, the album went on sale in North America and Europe where it garnered good reviews.

Recording for the album Beneath the Remains took place over nine nights, to take advantage of cheaper rates, in a poor-quality studio in Rio de Janeiro. Because the musicians could not speak English they had to communicate through an interpreter with the producer Scott Burns. The good reception of the album, which sold 600,000 copies worldwide, allowed the group to carry out its first world tour and be recognized as one of the most famous exponents of of death metal. Their first performance in the United States was on October 31, 1989 at the Ritz in New York, as an opening act for Danish musician King Diamond. In 1990, the band decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona, and hire Gloria Bujnowski as manager. The album's promotional tour would end in January 1991, after a concert at the Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro, before more than 100,000 people.

Arise and Chaos A.D. (1990-1995)

Throughout 1990, the group recorded their fourth studio effort, Arise, at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida. The album was released in April 1991 and contains the singles "Dead Embryonic Cells" and "Arise", whose music videos were banned by the television channel MTV for blasphemy. Their good reception allowed the group to go on a two-year world tour that included two sold-out concerts in an Indonesian stadium. Sepultura's international success served as a reference for groups from countries where heavy metal had no place in the media. Around that time, the group recorded a version of the Motörhead song "Orgasmatron", whose music video received the award for best Brazilian video at the 1991 MTV Video Music Award. In 1992, the group participated in two other tours, one with Helmet and Ministry, and the other as opening act for Ozzy Osbourne and Alice in Chains. That same year, Max contracted ma married manager Gloria Bujnowski, almost twice as many years his senior.

Chaos A.D. was released in 1993, with a lyrical theme oriented towards social denunciation, especially in Brazil and which reached number 32 on the Billboard 200, something unusual for a band of heavy metal foreign. In 1994, the band participated in one of the main European festivals of this genre, the Monsters of Rock, held in Donington Park, England. That same year, the music video for " Territory" won an award at the MTV Video Music Awards and Max Cavalera formed the short-lived project Nailbomb, with which he released a single studio album and in which his brother Igor and Kisser participated.

Roots (1996-1997)

In March 1996 Roots was released, the pinnacle of popularity in the ensemble's career, which went on to sell more than two million copies worldwide and ranked among the five best-selling albums in the United Kingdom. This work had the collaboration of musicians such as Carlinhos Brown, DJ Lethal, Mike Patton or Jonathan Davis, among others, and part of its recording took place on an indigenous reserve Xavantes in Mato Grosso. According to later statements by Max Cavalera, this was the first album recorded by Paulo Jr., since previously the bass tracks were recorded by him and by Kisser. The bassist confirmed this statement and remarked that Kisser he replaced him on Schizophrenia and on Beneath The Remains, although he stressed that "I had to play live, which is the main challenge".

On August 17, 1996, the group performed at the Monsters of Rock festival as a trio with Kisser singing. Just hours before their performance, Max received the news that his stepson, Dana Wells, had passed away. in a car accident, which forced him to leave the venue and take a flight to the United States. After Wells's funeral, the vocalist returned to the group to continue the tour, however, a few months later the remaining members announced to him his decision to fire Gloria Bujnowski, Max's wife and mother of the deceased young man, as manager of Sepultura. The same day in December, after a concert at the Brixton Academy in London, Max announced his voluntary resignation to his colleagues, although it would not become official until the beginning of 1997 and would later form the Soulfly project.

Against, Nation and Roorback (1998-2005)

Kisser acting in the Rock in Rio of 2004 in Lisbon.

After the departure of Max Cavalera, the public feared a definitive separation from the group, however, the three remaining members announced their decision to continue together. After an extensive search to find a replacement, the band chose as a new singer to Derrick Green, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, who debuted with the album, Against, which was released in October 1998 and received regular reviews from music critics. For its part, its commercial reception was worse than that of its two previous works and sold half the copies of Soulfly's debut album, which also received a gold record in the United States.

Their next album, Nation, released in March 2001, included the collaboration of the Finnish cellist group Apocalyptica, Jamey Jasta and again Jello Biafra. Mainly due to the low commercialization of its predecessor, the album hardly had promotion, which is why the group decided to break their contract with Roadrunner Records. For its part, the record company took the opportunity to launch the live Under a Pale Gray Sky, which contains the last Cavalera concert at the Brixton Academy. In 2003, the group signed an agreement with the SPV Records label, which published the EP Revolusongs, which was made up of versions of bands such as Hellhammer, U2 or Public Enemy and the studio album Roorback, whose reviews were mixed and its sales even worse than those of the first works with Green. During that time, Sepultura took the opportunity to perform in countries where the The heavy metal scene was not as developed as New Zealand or Indonesia, also in 2005 he edited the live show Live in São Paulo.

Dante XXI and A-Lex (2006-2010)

Jean Dolabella during a concert in São Paulo in 2009.

Sepultura's tenth studio effort was a concept album inspired by The Divine Comedy titled Dante XXI and released in March 2006. The following year, Max revealed in an interview that he and Igor had made peace after almost a decade and talked about a possible reunion with the band, although this did not happen and this time the drummer was the one who left the band due to creative and personal differences. two brothers, however, got back together and founded the Cavalera Conspiracy project. Despite the departure of another of the group's founders, Sepultura continued his career with the collaboration of Roy Mayorga for some concerts and finally with the hiring of a new drummer, Jean Dolabella. Kisser later stated that "Igor is no longer into metal, he only plays with Cavalera Conspiracy because he likes being with Max".

In January 2009 A-Lex was released, a new conceptual work inspired by the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Stanley's film of the same name Kubrick, and that it was his first album recorded without any of the Cavalera brothers. After its release, Max criticized that his former colleagues did not like the film and that on one occasion when he was watching it they commented to him: «What is it? that shit you're seeing?"

Kairos and The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart (2011-2015)

Eloy Casagrande performing at the Wacken festival in 2015.

In July 2010, the band signed a contract with the Nuclear Blast record label, for the distribution of their next albums. At the end of that year, the group began work on their twelfth studio album with producer Roy Z, who had previously worked with Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson. The album was released in June 2011 under the title Kairos and included covers of the songs "Just One Fix" by Ministry and "Firestarter" by The Prodigy. After its release, the group went on a world tour that included festivals such as Wacken Open Air or Rock in Rio and during which it had the collaboration of the French group Les Tambours du Bronx. In November, Jean Dolabella left the group to concentrate on other projects and was replaced by Eloy Casagrande, barely 20 years old.

In September 2013, the group played again at the Rock in Rio festival, this time with the participation of Brazilian popular music artist Zé Ramalho. The following month the album The Mediator Between” was released. Head and Hands Must Be the Heart, with Ross Robinson as producer, who had previously worked in Roots and who had the collaboration of Slayer's drummer, Dave Lombardo.

Machine Messiah and Quadra (2016-present)

Derrick Green at a concert in Germany held in 2018.

In May 2016, Sepultura began recording a new studio album with producer Jens Bogren that would be released on January 13, 2017 under the title Machine Messiah. To promote it, the band participated as the opening act for Kreator and Testament in their respective tours of Europe and North America. In May 2017, the premiere of the official documentary Sepultura Endurance took place, for which the Cavalera brothers prohibited the use of the songs recorded before their departures from the group, because they own half of the rights. In the first quarter of 2018, the group undertook a new promotional tour of Europe with Obscura, Goatwhore and Fit for an Autopsy.

In August 2019, the quartet traveled to Sweden to record a new album, Quadra, produced like its predecessor by Bogren. After its release, it had remarkable success in the German album chart, where it reached fifth position, the best in that country in his career. Sepultura announced a new promotional tour with Sacred Reich and Crowbar for the spring of 2020, although due to the COVID-19 pandemic it must have been suspended. During the quarantine, the musicians played some of their songs electronically with members of Megadeth, Anthrax, Motörhead and Testament, among other groups, and published them as an album under the title SepulQuarta in August 2021.

Influences

Hard rock and heavy metal

The fourth album of Black Sabbath—in the image, the band in 1970—was an influence for Max Cavalera to decide to form a musical group.

The desire to play heavy metal was born from the rejection of pop and traditional Brazilian music that surrounded the Cavalera brothers, who in their childhood were students of a samba school. During their training, the group decided to move away from these styles, from choro, from bossa nova and even from what was beginning to be classified as Brazilian rock. This denial of its national belonging Through music, it allowed its members to claim their individuality, like other young Brazilians who did not identify with Brazilian popular music or Brazilian rock. Guitarist Andreas Kisser commented on that stage: «We listened to heavy and black metal and we thought that everything in Brazil was shit. We didn't like samba, we didn't like Brazilian rock”.

The influences of the original line-up, especially the Cavalera brothers, were bands from the first wave of heavy metal or hard rock, in fact, Max Cavalera stated that he formed Sepultura after hearing the album Vol. 4 by Black Sabbath, one of the pioneering metal bands. Also, unlike other Brazilian bands that chose names in English, Sepultura opted for a nickname in Portuguese that Max chose from the Motörhead song "Dancing on your Grave" —in Portuguese: Dançando em sua sepultura—.

Aside from Black Sabbath and Motörhead, the brothers were also influenced by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, as well as most popular hard rock and heavy metal bands. from the late 1980s such as Van Halen, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Max and Igor used to frequently visit a record store in São Paulo where they bought their first Iron Maiden records, Slayer and Metallica. However, in a country that had just emerged from a military dictatorship, heavy metal albums and punk rock were considered "socially unacceptable"., since they represented an incitement to rebellion and opposition to religion, a reason for which the members of the group had difficulties expressing their interest in this music. Kisser also highlighted his most important groups, Queen and Kiss: «Queen came to Brazil in 1981, but my mother did not let me go because I was too young. Then Kiss came along in 1983 and that would be my first concert. Being able to see them live during their Creatures of the Night Tour was crazy, it changed my life. That's why I'm here! See that, in my city, in the stadium of my soccer team. It changed everything."

Venom and thrash metal

Venom was one of the main influences of Sepultura.

The tastes of the members of Sepultura changed after the discovery of the British trio Venom and their influence can be seen significantly in their first EP, Bestial Devastation, in which the voice is oriented towards the screams and guitars towards distortion. Igor Cavalera would later declare: «I remember the day I heard Venom for the first time on a tape that a friend had lent me. He was very similar to Motörhead, but a little more violent. Once we discovered the other Venom works we stopped listening to Iron Maiden and other light bands."

The Cavalera brothers later showed interest in Metallica, Kreator, Sodom, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus, Possessed and Exciter as well, and their violent and frenetic rhythms can be seen on Bestial Devastation and their first album, Morbid Visions. Also notable in the latter is the characteristic sound of death metal; omnipresent drums, guttural voices and repetitive choruses. For his part, Andreas Kisser, who joined after the release of this album, was influenced by Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth.

Musical style

Initial sound: Black and death metal

By denying the influence of traditional and contemporary Brazilian music, the members of Sepultura sought to internationalize their music and emulate the main groups of the heavy metal scene. Their first two albums, Bestial Devastation (1985) and Morbid Visions (1986), bear similarities to those of American death metal bands, but with reminiscences of black metal. Both albums show recurring elements of these two subgenres of heavy metal: use of amplified screams, unintelligible lyrics, tempos extremely fast, repeated cymbal hits, no chorus and repetition of the rhythm. In the same way, Sepultura used a great guitar distortion on these two albums and broke the diatonic harmony typical of blues in order to to create a darker sound.

Evolution to thrash metal

The arrival of Andreas Kisser provided the most technical and experience group.

On his next album, Schizophrenia (1987), he highlights the musical evolution in the guitar tracks due to the arrival of Andreas Kisser, a more technical and experienced musician, who brought with him more complex melodies and more elaborate solos, while maintaining a sound close to death metal. The rhythm of the album is faster and the songs more structured than those of its predecessor, with an approach to thrash metal. and with a significant improvement in the technique of the musicians, which allowed them to use staccato to achieve a melodic and at the same time aggressive sound, as in the song "To the Wall". The distortion of Kisser and Max Cavalera's guitars is taken to the extreme, while Igor Cavalera's drums, played quickly, partially covers the other instruments and blurs the sound of the guitar.

For its part, the themes of Beneath the Remains (1989) are oriented towards a darker and more brutal thrash, and among the tracks included, the highlights are «Mass Hypnosis » or «Slaves of Pain» that demonstrate the virtuosity of Kisser with the guitar and Igor with the double pedal of the bass drum. This work bears similarities with those of other bands of the genre such as Sodom or Kreator. Sepultura continued its musical evolution with Arise (1991), in which some of their songs remain faithful to their thrash sound, while others contain riffs of acoustic guitar or in the case of "Escape to the Void", a sample from the soundtrack of Psychosis, composed by Bernard Herrmann.

Cross genres

Carlinhos Brown contributed significantly in Roots.

On Chaos A.D. (1993), the band removed some thrash and death elements from their early work in favor of >hardcore punk and industrial metal, it also has the participation of Jello Biafra, leader of Dead Kennedys —one of the main groups of the punk genre— as a vocalist on the song « Biotech is Godzilla". For his part, Igor Cavalera provides with his drums unexpected rhythm changes typical of punk and a combination of traditional Brazilian sounds as in the track "Kaiowas", in addition, " Territory" includes the percussionist's first solo in his career with the band. Andreas Kisser declared that the influence of Ministry —the emblematic group of industrial metal— was decisive in this album.

Sepultura's musical evolution towards hardcore continued with their next album, Roots (1996) and if in their previous works the group tried to deny any heritage from the Brazilian music, here the style is a mix between the traditional music of his country and thrash metal. As a novelty, there are percussion passages recorded by Carlinhos Brown, birimbaos and even tribal sounds performed by a tribe of indigenous Xavantes on songs like "Itsari", "Born Stubborn" or "Procreation (of the Wicked)". At that moment, the legacy of Brazilian music is assumed and claimed by the group and according to Kisser: " This is to show the whole world the best of Brazil; the colours, the music and the culture of the indigenous people and the African influence, especially in the percussion".

With Against (1998), the first album with Derrick Green, Sepultura decided on metalcore and ethnically-leaning nu metal, inspired by hardcore punk, funk and even rap. The album maintains traditional music contributions, this time thanks to the group of taiko Kodō percussionists in the song "Kamaitachi" and the inclusion of flutes and violins. According to critic Steve Huey, the group lost the experimental part of their previous album and is struggling to find a style close to thrash metal , despite having the collaboration of Jason Newsted, bassist of Metallica, on the song "Hatred Aside".

Their next album, Nation (2001), whose lyrics are oriented towards politics, embraces a more punk sound, again thanks to the collaboration of Jello Biafra In addition, this work ends with the instrumental piece "Valtio", performed together with the group of cellists Apocalyptica.

Return to thrash metal

Les Tambours du Bronx participated in the recording of Kairos.

Revolusongs (2003), an EP of covers by other artists, allowed Sepultura to interpret other genres —such as rap in his version of a Public Enemy song—. Roorback (2003), their most hardcore album, continued this progression towards a thrash sound fused with punk >, while Dante XXI (2006) and A-Lex (2009) are two conceptual albums that followed in the vein of thrash metal with furious and powerful screams performed by Green.

Kairos (2011), shows a greater ambition for the thrash of the «old school» according to Kisser and its recording was made live with the instruments of a metal band -guitar, voice, bass and drums- and with the collaboration of the percussionists of the group Les Tambours du Bronx in the song "Structure Violence (Azzes)". For its part, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart (2013) shows greater speed than its predecessor and a wilder tempo. In Machine Messiah, Sepultura once again addresses the thrash and the hardcore of its predecessor and also incorporates a group of violinists and a version of the song from the Japanese series Ultra Seven. Quadra is divided, in Kisser's words, into four parts; the first one oriented towards the thrash metal of its origins, the second one inspired by the sound of Roots, the third one directed towards the acoustic instrumental track «Iceberg Dances» by Machine Messiah and the fourth, with a more melodic and calm sound culminating with the participation of the vocalist Emmily Barreto.

Theme

Recurring Themes

Max Cavalera and Kisser were the main litrists between the arrival of the second and the departure of the first.

From Bestial Devastation to Quadra, Sepultura has used different themes in the lyrics of his songs, although the main ones have been death, satanism, the paranormal, war, paranoia, violence and destruction. Originally, Max Cavalera translated the songs of his favorite heavy metal bands from English into Portuguese, however, since he did not master the language, the vocalist made several translations In addition, Max's strong Portuguese accent marked the band's early work. The theme of death, present in "Necromancer", "Funeral Rites" or "R.I.P: Rest In Pain"; as well as the theme about war, in tracks like "War", "Troops of Doom" or "Warriors of Death", are among the most frequent in his early works, while other songs show blasphemous points of view, such as "Crucifixion". In this way, the ensemble was scorned by Brazilian society, predominantly Catholic. In the following years, the group maintained their favorite themes, especially war, and included new ones such as violence and oppression, also some songs have denunciatory lyrics such as "Manifest", which deals with the Carandiru massacre. The images of the The covers are related to the music and lyrics, and they make use of a monstrous aesthetic and representations of nightmares, such as that of Beneath the Remains, which shows a red skull on a black background..

Political theme

Sepultura has also addressed political issues in its albums, something new in Brazil, a nation that had just emerged from a two-decade military dictatorship and in its early works, songs like "Anticop" or "C.I.U: Criminals In Uniform" they reflect a rejection of the established hierarchy and strong sentiment against law enforcement. This commitment to rebellion led to it being seen by conservative personalities as an incitement to violence.

Chaos A.D. was the album that marked an evolution towards metalcore with more vindictive, social and denunciatory lyrics, especially in relation to Brazil. Max Cavalera, aware of the danger that this entailed, he declared in 1991: "Sepultura opened people's eyes through his lyrics, but it is dangerous to do that in Brazil, because if people do not like what you say, they will kill you." In the song "Murder", included in the album Arise, the group paints a portrait of violence, racism, police repression and the inhumanity of arrests in Brazilian society. For For its part, the music video for "Territory" shows images of citizen clashes in Palestine, Northern Ireland and Brazil, and the song "Kaiowas" is dedicated to a tribe of Amerindians who committed mass suicide in protest of the expropriation of their lands. lands.

Nation and Roorback were the culmination of the band's political commitment and in which a certain left-wing ideology can be seen along the lines of hardcore groups punk. These two works cover in their lyrics themes such as corruption, political struggle, pacifism and non-violence, in addition, in the booklet of Nation there are quotes from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Albert Einstein and Gandhi.

Conceptual works

The divine comedy served as the concept of the album Dante XXI.

His next studio album, Dante XXI, was a conceptual work on Dante Alighieri's book The Divine Comedy, while on its successor, A -Lex, the set was inspired by the novel by Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange and its film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick. Kairos has as its concept time, in fact its title comes from a Greek term that alludes to a period of time in which something special happens, while the lyrics of The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart are partially influenced by Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis. In Machine Messiah, Sepultura "explores society's religious devotion to technological advancement with the idea of a savior God who he returns, turned into a cyborg, to save humanity." For his part, for the album Quadra, Andreas Kisser took inspiration from the book Quadrivium, which in his own words it deals “with the four liberal arts, which are cosmology, music, geometry and mathematics. The number four, according to Quadrivium, is the number of manifestations where everything happens."

Reception

Period with Max Cavalera

The Cavalera brothers (above), Andreas Kisser (center) and Paulo Jr. (below) would integrate the classical formation of Sepultura.

In its beginnings, the group could hardly stand out with its heavy metal in a country where Brazilian popular music had been the fashionable musical genre since the mid-1960s. For this reason, In addition to their limited distribution, his first two works, Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions, did not attract the attention of critics. However, the few reviews were not positive, criticizing the banality of the riffs, the lack of originality in their lyrics, and the unintentionally comic character of Max Cavalera's voice. Subsequently, both albums received good reviews. Critics and analyst Garry Sharpe-Young noted that the EP held promise: "The opening growl of 'The Curse' would have made a splash if the band had formed in Scandinavia or the rest of Europe. With a hellish rawness, dictated by their youth and lack of experience, Bestial Devastation offers a primitive death metal and without a doubt, one of the first examples of the now famous technique of blast beat on the song “Antichrist”. Despite the studio restrictions, the reverberation of Max Cavalera's guttural vocals, and the completely out-of-tune guitar, Bestial Devastation has aged well."

Schizophrenia received praise from the specialized Brazilian press and is considered the album that forged his thrash style with a denser and deeper sound and a particularly shrill voice. Eduardo Rivadavia of the Allmusic website gave it a score of 4 out of 5, calling it "an incredible creative leap". However, it was with Beneath the Remains that the ensemble met their first critical success. by important contemporary specialized media. The magazine Decibel positioned it in its hall of fame and pointed out that the album's songs "were the product of the desire to extend his wild hybrid of thrash -death beyond the borders of the city and country they called home."

Arise is often considered the album where Sepultura reached its peak in terms of technique and composition. Despite the censorship of the music video for the song "Dead Embryonic Cells", it had a good critical and commercial reception, since it reached position 119 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than a million copies, something unusual for a record by a heavy metal group. non-US. Chaos A.D., which peaked at number 32 on the US chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, surpassed the success of Arise and critic Steve Huey of Allmusic scored it 4'5 out of 5, calling it "one of the best heavy metal albums of all time". >Roots continued the streak of good reviews and reached the twenty-seventh position of the Billboard 200 —the best position in the band's career— in addition to obtaining a gold record awarded by the RIAA. Hue and rated it 4'5 out of 5 on Allmusic and in his opinion "cemented Sepultura's status as perhaps the most distinctive and original heavy metal band of the 1990s".

Stage with Derrick Green

The albums recorded with Derrick Green—in the image the vocalist acting in Germany in 2014—divided to the critique and only the first two were positioned in the Billboard 200.

Albums released after the arrival of Derrick Green received mixed reviews and charted worse than the last three albums recorded with Max Cavalera. Against peaked at number 82 on the Billboard 200, but garnered mostly negative reviews. Critic Steve Huey noted that "the problem is that it seems to lack a clear vision or direction", though he noted that the record "is much better than you'd expect." and there are just enough flashes of Sepultura's old luster." For its part, Nation only peaked at number 134 on the US chart, though it had better critical reception than its predecessor. Don Kaye of Blabbermouth remarked that "Sepultura sounds more like a band than on Against" and wrote that "Green's vocal style and melodic lines play an integral role in the songwriting". Roorback was the group's first album not to chart on the Billboard 200 since Beneath the Remains and received both good and poor reviews. Adrien Begrand of Popmatters called it "his most consistent and energetic work since Roots" and noted that the members of the The group "prove that they are more than capable of providing some exciting moments". For his part, Don Kaye commented that "from the opening of 'Come Back Alive' to the outro, Roorback is conclusive proof that Sepultura have lost much of their fire."

The critiques of Dante XXI and A-Lex continued in the vein of their three predecessors. Critic Greg Prato called the former "easily one of the group's most powerful releases with Green", while Alex Henderson noted that "line-up changes can have a very negative effect on a band, but Sepultura has kept the vitality going." all these years and that vitality is alive in the magnificent A-Lex.” Kairos divided critics, garnering both good and mediocre reviews. Jason Heller of The A.V. Club commented that unlike its predecessor, "Kairos is just a bunch of songs" and added that "the meat of the record is tough and bland and skewered by a repertoire of exhausted riffs i> by Andreas Kisser", while About's Dan Marsicano wrote that the album "is a celebration of everything the group has done in their 25-year career. It's almost like a greatest hits collection, where there's something for fans of all eras of Sepultura." For its part, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart had a better critical reception.. Blabbermouth's Ray Van Horn noted that best of all it "sounds suitably like a Sepultura album" and remarked that "Kisser's riffs are trustworthy, as always". Machine Messiah and Quadra received good reviews, with Allmusic's Thom Jurek calling the former "ambitious, furious and hungry" and the latter his first effort "resembling the classic trilogy on equal footing in quality." ».

Legacy

Sepultura's albums have exerted an influence on several subsequent groups, specifically with the albums Chaos A.D. and Roots, which synthesized thrash metal with tribal rhythms and that served as a reference for alternative metal bands such as Slipknot, Godsmack, System of a Down, Gojira, Between the Buried and Me, Vein, Code Orange, Toxic Holocaust and Nails. In addition, among the groups that have covered some of their songs are Napalm Death, Aborted, God Forbid, Apocalyptica, Kalmah, Children of Bodom, Trivium, Havok, Dimension Zero, Ratos de Porão, Krisiun, Hatebreed, among others. For their part, the members of Radiohead declared that they were influenced by the group: «We saw Sepultura a few years ago at a Dutch festival and we loved their gloomy Brazilian music with a bit of voodoo. They played with instruments from the tropical forests based on palms and beans. It was quite disturbing." Gus G., guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and Firewind, noted that "Sepultura was really important in introducing new styles to heavy metal, especially Roots. If you think about it, that's where nu metal comes from. I listened to Slipknot and Coal Chamber, they're all heavily influenced by Andreas's powerful riffing with that kind of beat. You can hear his influence in so many bands, not to mention what Sepultura did on the percussion thing."

According to the RIAA and the BPI, the group has achieved two gold records in the United States and another two in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the band has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. the world by 2014.

Members

Andreas Kisser
Guitar, choirs and voice

Paulo Jr.
Low and choirs

Derrick Green
Voice, guitar and percussion

Eloy Casagrande
Battery

Current members

• Paulo Jr. - Low (1985-present), choirs (1993-present)
• Andreas Kisser - guitar leader (1986-present), choirs (1986-1997, 1997-present), rhythmic guitar (1997, 2005-present)voice (1997)
• Derrick Green - voice (1997-present)percussion (2005-present), rhythmic guitar (1997-2005)
• Eloy Casagrande - battery (2011-present)

Previous members

• Roberto Raffan – bass (1984-1985)
• Wagner Lamounier – Voice (1984-1985)
• Jairo Guedz – Leading Guitar (1985-1986)
• Max Cavalera – rhythmic guitar (1984-1996)voice (1985-1996), guitar leader (1984-1985), choirs (1984-1985)
• Igor Cavalera – Battery (1984-2006)percussion (1984-2005)
• Jean Dolabella – Battery (2006-2011)

Timeline

Awards and nominations

MTV Video Music Awards

MTV Video Music Brazil

Prêmio da Música Brasileira

Metal Hammer Golden Gods

Discography