Sepultura - Dante XXI

Sepultura
Dante XXI
SPV



As someone who grew up listening to Fear Factory, I've never had a hang-up about concept albums. When artfully executed, concept albums are a rewarding experience. Dante XXI is one such album.

This 2006 effort is Sepultura's interpretation/exploration of Dante's Inferno. Guitarist Andreas Kisser and vocalist Derrick Green did a great job lyrically, exploring the nine circles of Hell. Coupled with the paintings of Stephan Doitschnoff, you should really buy Dante XXI to get the proper experience.

Musically, this is the first album in the Derrick Green era that I've honestly enjoyed. It's the first time since Chaos A.D. that they've played their patented brand of rythymically hot, musically coherent thrash metal. Highly recommended.



Sepultura - Dante XXI






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Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

Cavalera Conspiracy
Inflikted
Roadrunner



Let's get this out of the way up front: Inflikted (Why Max, Why?) sounds far more like Soulfly than Sepultura. You could probably guess that from the clever, non-cliche album title. It does sound somewhat like Sepultura, but in that way that everything these two do will sound like Sepultura. That said, Inflikted doesn't sound like any particular album or era.

On their debut album, the Cavaleras are joined by Soulfly's Marc Rizzo and Joe Duplantier from the mighty Gojira and they bash out 11 tracks of neo-nu-death-mosh-core-whatever. Hell, just knowing that Max and Igor wrote this should give away the sound.

A lazy person would say it sounds like Roots, but it doesn't. Inflikted sounds more like something Victory would have released back in the 90s. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that was the Cavaleras' intent. For example, the keyboards on the title track are used the same way that Earth Crisis did on the Slither album. The record sounds like death metal at times and like Pantera at others. There's no hip-hop influence on Inflikted, so progress is being made. Most metalheads will dig this record. However, if you hate Soulfly, you should probably keep on trucking. Hey, my co-workers hate this record, so Cavalera Conspiracy did something right.




Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted




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