What the fuck? Few bands have hit such heights and fallen so far as Sepultura. Having weathered the loss of Max Cavalera quite well, (Against wasn't really that much worse than Roots) the band hit the wall rather spectacularly here, with an album that was simply painful for long term fans. The album has two types of tracks (hardcore-oriented & tribal groove oriented) which it alternates between through the album's duration with little regard for the ebb and the flow of the disc. Derrick Green can't be blamed, as his performance is one of the better aspects of this album, so where does it go wrong? Simple, Andreas Kisser is not that good of a songwriter. Back in the day, Max Cavalera wrote the core of the material, and Andreas spiced up his ideas with some tasty leadwork, but he seems incapable of bearing the entire songwriting burden alone. A guest appearance by Jello Biafra on Politricks helps break the monotony, but the best track, rather worryingly, is one that the band doesn't really perform on. It's the outro, Valtio, which is performed by Finnish string quartet, Apocalyptica, with the band adding some bare tribal drum acompaniment. Unfortunate.
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