Calavera Band Famly: Sepultura, Soufly, De la Tierra, Killer be Killed Discography Review Work in progress

Sepultura

Roots (1996)

Genre: Death Metal, Groove Metal, Nu Metal, Alternative Metal 

Roots is one of those mile stone albums that comes out every once and a while, that really rewrites the book on what you can do and cannot do in a particular genre. The band slows down their tempo, fuses tribal and ethnic precaution in their style, use simpler but more organic riffs and you add Ross Robinson’s super heavy and textured sound =  master piece.

   

Vocals and Lyrics: Look Max expands his arsenal for the first time; he only used to yell, and now he screams, shouts, whispers and sound crazy. He isn’t very good at making lyrics but he’s really intent into trying his best on this album. Overall you get a Max the sounds freaking intense and really mad about something.  Also I must add you have Mike Patton and Jonathan Davis as guests in “Look Away” track.   10

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Down tuned guitars, give a super thick sound to the album, Adreas works on texture and much more simple riffs.

Bass: This is the only album you can actually hear Paulo Jr. actual do something in the background, and he uses some cool bass effects too. 7.1

Drum and Percussion: Igor Cavalera shifts his style from speed to groove, having a more organic style, plus he fuses tribal and ethnic drumming into his repertoire, making him a very original drummer.    

Melody and/or Structure: The songs are simpler and more direct, with some moments of experimentation. And when a say simpler I don’t mean predictable.  7

Sound, Production and Feeling: Ross Robinson’s best work by far, nuff said, and I must add Dj Lethal’s work on “Look Away” is fantastic.10 

Songs: It’s a long album, but it’s so good it actual sounds much shorter than it is. 15

The Bad: 

Originality: Fusing world music to their sound makes these guys stand out, and this will set the frame work for Max’s next band Soulfly. 12

Overall: 61.1

Soulfly

Soulfly (1998)

Genre:  Alternative Metal,  Nu Metal

Max breaks away from Sepultura and creates Soulfly, and Calavera uses Roots as a sonic jumping point,  progressing in that sound and style, but really take advantage of his liberty exploring musically in many directions. I discovered this album on a trip to Bariloche that like a 2 day drive from where I live, a friend of mine bought it when we arrived, so this album and the Los Tetas Mama Funk were the sound track to that month long trip. 

Vocals and Lyrics: Max  is sort of riding a lyrical high ( I know his lyrics are super basic), but he actually writes some memorable lyrics on this album, and the album has a ton of  all-star guest vocalist to make things really interesting Burton C Bell (Fear Factory), Fred Durst ( Limp Bizkit) who just kills it on "Bleed" and Chino Moreno (Deftone) just to name a few. 12

Instrumentation:  

Guitar: Max's guitar basically is the heavy artillery to his assault, but on the instrumental track s he shows off his skill as a musician, he also play a sitar on those tracks. 7.5

Bass: Marcelo Dias just lumbers around with a super low end sounding Bass 6.5

Drums: Roy Mayorga (future Stone Sour)  does a really good job,  he really stands out in this album, the leans heavily on rhythm,  Roy takes that ethnic percussion approach that Max started with his brother 7.5

Others: You have DJ lethal a guest on 2 tracks.

Melody and/or Structure: The band fuses heavy metal, with some ethnic influences and extended Jams on a couple songs,  and these are the basic ingredients that will characterize Soulfly and their style of writing.  10

Sound, Production and Feeling: I love Ross Robinson's  production  and his treatment of this band, he uses a super interesting sonic pallet of effects and  textures, plus you have Andy Wallace at the mixing board you can't miss . 10

Songs: The album goes in many direction Max tries new stuff on each track, so the album in its entirety is like a box of chocolates each song has its own surprise, but never compromising focus  15

The Bad:  

Originality:  Max set out to ride the Nu Metal wave with Style 10

Overall: 64.1

 

Soulfly

Primitive (2000)

Genre: Nu Metal

 This album is the Batman V Superman of music, Max throws in too many ideas and too many guests in with weak material , making a album chucked full of contradiction and lack of focus ,  now some of the ideas and collaborations are pretty good, for example you have tracks with Chino Moreno from the Deftones and  Grady Avenell from Will Heaven making one amazing song, there's the killer track with John Lennon's son Sean Lennon and Terrorist with Slayer's Tom Araya, which is the high point of the album, but some of the  songs are total stinkers, like Jump the Fuck up with Corey Taylor from Slipknot/Stone Sour, Flyhigh  with Asha Rabouin and In Memory Of...  with a bunch of C-list  rappers, these tracks are literal train wrecks, they are terrible.

Now the album sounds  over produced at moments, sort of killing the songs and Max blatantly tries to repeat what they did on their previous but album diving deeper in a safer Nu Metal sound.   

overall: 44.06

Soulfly III (2002)

Man Max has hit a creative wall, this album is as redundant as they come, compensating going more heavy but nothing can save the pile of crap and Tree of Pain  one of the tracks off this album is just a mess.

Overall: 38

Prophecy (2004) and Dark Ages (2005)
Genre: Groove Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Alternative Metal. World Music

Thank god Max got out of that creative slump he had with Soulfly III, now  on these two albums we have him rejuvenated and inspired Calavera, really bringing it on with the world music influences, it like his versions of Paul Simons Graceland and Rythem of the Saints, jajajaja and he's diving deeper in heavier territories leaving Nu Metal mostly behind. The bands sound much better Marc Rizzo ex Ill Niño just ups the instrumentation and the creative level, there is some impressive guitar playing on this album and the jam part of the songs are more interesting. Max does tries much harder in song composition and structure, and there is much more attention to detail instrumental arrangements, even a couple of cool bass fills.
We Can Say that Dark Ages is the heavier of the two productions while Prophecy experiments more with World Music. The only negative that I can find on these two albums is Riot Starter is a terrible plagiarism of Fire Starter of Prodigy.

Overall:
Prophecy: 56.6
Dark Ages: 56

Conquer (2008)

Thrash Metal, Groove Metal, Death Metal

Max still has some ammunition from Dark Ages, he doesn't break new ground but the album track selection is really good, none of it sounds redundant and it's sound super fresh with some really pleasant surprises.

Overall:52.8

Sepultura

The Mediator between the Head and the Hand Must be The Heart (2013)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Death Metal, Speed Metal, Heavy Metal

Ok I’m going to start off by telling you guys I had zero expectations for this album, I had zero faith in this band. I must add I don’t even know why I put this album in my playlist, maybe an act of divine inspiration, because when I first heard it I was blown away. I was walking to my car, that was parked three blocks away, and I stop in my tracks just to listen in detail the first song. It’s the best and the most interesting super heavy album that I’ve gotten my hands on in a long time.

Vocals and Lyrics: Derek green sound like a crazy monster, he’s scary. He sounds like a guy that’s hungry, out to prove something. It’s the first time that he really in sync with the band.  8

Instrumentation:

Guitars: Andreas Kisser’s work on this album is really good; there are some great solos and some smart use of pedal effects.

Bass: Basic Stuff

Drums: Eloy Casagrande is an injection of young blood he adds the energy that the band desperately needed to stay relevant in the metal world. He reinvigorates the band. 7.5

Melody and Structure: Apocalyptic Riffs with mad black man, nuff said.8

Sound, Production and Feeling: Ross Robinson kills it on this album, its sound heavy, chaotic and menacing, just perfect for a Sepulture album. 9.3

Song: Every song on this album is incredible, especially the opening track that sets the tone. 10

The Bad: The last track is really good but it doesn’t fit in, in the context of the album.

Originality: It feels like a band that remembered that they love to play heavy metal. 10

Overall: 52.8

  

Sepultura/Les Tambours du Bronx

Metal Vein; Rock in Rio

Genre: Super Heavy Metal Tribal Industrial Chaos

So here we go with my review of this live collaboration album between the Brazilian bad boys of Sepultura and the French maniacs of Les Tambours du Bronx. Man it’s a perfect team up, the two bands come out swinging, the percussion and industrial treatment of du Bronx to Sepultura’s songs is mind blowing

Vocals and Lyrics:  Derek Green is on top of his game, in a live set metal singers tend to run out of air, but Mr Green is relentless from start to finish, and the Track where du Bronx guys sings is pretty cool too. 8

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Adreas nails each song perfectly. 8

Bass: Paulo does his basic bass playing as usual. 

Drums: Eloy plays the hell out of his drums, but he does have to limit himself a bit to leave room for Du Bronx Percussion which adds a lot to the crazy heaviness.

 

Samples, Midi stuff and Keyboards: The Du Bronx guys add an industrial aspect to each song which brings new life to these metal classics. 8.5

Melody and/or Structure: Sepultura obviously depends on super heavy Riffs. 8

Sound, Production and Feeling: There are more than 20 musicians playing in this live set, so this is pretty hard to record as a live album. ¿So how does it sound? Well it sounds great no one is too dominant, everything sounds clear and crisp. 8 

Songs: It’s good from start to finish, and they play Prodigy’s Firestarter. 12

The Bad: The sheer energy at moments leads to too much chaos and it’s hard to understand what the hell is going on, the good thing is this only happens at the begging of the album. The other thing is, that if you have a Percussion band like du Bronx, ¿why isn’t Ratamahatta on the track list?, Sepultura screwed up here. -2

Originality: One of the best collaboration albums that I’ve come across in a long time.  10

Overall:  61.5

De la Tierra

De la Tierra (2014)

Genre: Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal, Groove Metal, Death Metal

Ok I flipped out when I found about this band, I had regained my faith in Sepultura at the time because their last album was fantastic, so when I found out Kisser had joined force with Andres Gimenez (D-Ment and A.N.I.M.A.L), Alex Gonzalez (Mana) and Sr. Flavio ( Fabulosos Caidilacs and La Mandinga), to make a band and a album I had high expectations. The album is really good it has some minor issues but its freaking effective. Now I saw these guys at a local festival called Cosquin Rock, they knocked my socks off, there are the heaviest sounding band I ever seen they put a 110% into the show and the odd things was that at moments they where smiling during show which you don’t see metal bands do, but these guys are just a bunch of friends having fun and that has a impact in there sound and energy.Check out their show at this Link, the sound for TV isn't the best but you'll get an idea if how these guys are live.

Vocals and Lyrics: Lyrically they cater to a Mexican and Brazilian audience, than to an Argentine audience from where the lead singer is from, but I don’t blame him the metal culture is very fractured here in Argentina, while the Mexican and Brazilian market has a lot more to offer. Andres Gimenez does a great job and there is some singing in Portuguese by Kisser which makes things interesting, because he sounds a guy in the background. 8.5

Instrumentation:

Guitar: I was expecting much more on guitars because Sepultura’s last album “The Mediator between the Head and Hands must be the Heart” (checkout my review of that album at this post), had some really interesting guitar playing. But the playing is great anyways, and there are some interesting dual guitar solos that sound great.

Bass: There some sick bass arrangements by Flavio, he’s an incredible bass player, there are some cool slapping on some tracks.  

Drums: Alex Gonzalez releases decades of repression from playing in Mana, jajajaja7.9

Melody and/or Structure: Super Heavy Riffs and Melodic Choruses, they don’t reinvent the wheel, but they do a good job in metal composition.   8

Sound, Production and Feeling: Heavy heavy sound, lots of texture with some beautiful distortions. 8

Songs: Pretty solid album, for a super group. 10

The Bad:

                                                                                                     

Originality: The band sounds a little fractured, a patchwork of ideas, it will take awhile for these guys who come from very different musical backgrounds to really be able to make a mega album, but these guys try their best to bring something new to the table. 8

Overall:  50.4

Killer be Killed ( Dillinger, Soulfly, Mastodon and Mars Volt side project) Album Review Killer be Killed (2014) Genre: Sludge Metal, Groove Metal

Killer be Killed

Killer be Killed (2014)

Genre: Sludge Metal, Groove Metal

Here we have the first and only album from the super group Killer be Killed with Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plane), Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura and ex-Nailbomb), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and David Elitch (The Mars Volta and Antemasque). These guys have put out a pretty straight forward but extremely effective metal album that is highly recommendable for people getting into the heavier side of the genre.

Vocals and Lyrics: Greg, Max, and Troy really do a good job together each one taking turns on each track, they play off each other very well.  10

Instrumentation:  Instrumentally the band sounds great, good chemistry between them it seem as they have been playing for ages with each other.   7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Simple but direct super heavy songs, with good choruses and Greg and Troy  vocally add a good dose of melody to each song.  8

Sound, Production and Feeling: Album sounds great, the band is just rocking  out and letting a lot off steam, and we the listeners just hitch along for the ride. 8.5 

Songs: Surprisingly good songs for a super band, the album is super solid from front to back. 11

Originality: This album is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant world of heavy metal and thanks to it I discovered The Dillinger Escape Plan that left me in total in shock in how good these guys are the first time I listen to them. Also Max should reevaluate the crap his doing lately with Soulfly 10

Overall: 55

Soulfly

Archangel (2015) + Live show review

Genre: Groove Metal, Thrash Metal, Alternative Metal

With this album we have a band that sound reinvigorated, that doesn't break new ground,  but lands a couple of  really   good head bangers. Now I saw them live touring for this album and I was shocked to see Max in the state he was in, I had the image of him from back in the 90's and saw a fat and tiered man, he looked like a angry Santa Clause, but when the show started the man gave 110% he knows how to manage a crowd, and the set list was fantastic he played most of Archangel, with Sodomites just knocking my socks off and he played just about every other Soulfly classic,  plus Sepultura's Refuse and Resist, Roots Bloody Roots and Orgasmatron. Thanks Max for being so cool with the fan service, the dude know he's not in his prime but really wants to make fans happy.   

Overall:49.2