Cavalera - “Morbid Visions” (Track. Nuclear Blast, 2023)

I discovered Sepultura around the time they released “Chaos A.D.” - which is a fantastic album of Extreme Heavy Metal, period - but it on “Roots” that I was absorbed by their music. Sepultura was, at this time, a massive creative machine. “Roots” was “denied” by the Old School fans, and embraced by avid music lovers that were getting into Heavy Metal via Nu-metal. The album has, in all honesty, moments that now make me question the band, but at the time it was all awe for me. Later on, I travelled back and get acquainted with their older stuff, that did not have a great impact at that time. I was into a more “commercial” side of Heavy Metal with the likes of Megadeth, Metallica, and Iron Maiden, mostly. So, an album like “Arise” was a slap on the face and a big question mark!

Old Sepultura is, to this day, some of the best Black Death Thrash Metal we can find. The band did reach much higher levels of commercial success, but these old releases have such an innocence and anger in them, that the band was unable to ever match it again. Quarrels aside, they all went their way, and the band is still around, and still creating some exceptional music… just not like this, of course. But why are we here? We are here because the two brothers, Max & Igor, decided that some of their older recordings needed a fresh look, a fresh sound, a fresh everything. and what better way to start, than from the beginning.

“Morbid Visions” is the band’s first Full-length album, and it shows a band eager to desecrate and destroy, as simple as that. Max, Igor, and Jairo, the three crafted one of the best releases in the genre, in my opinion. And why is it good? It has the licks and the riffs, it has the groove and the powerful drums, it has Max’s strong voice, and it has “Troops of Doom”. I have always felt for the rawer and visceral recordings the most. Do not confuse Raw and Visceral with poor and sloppy production, please. Early Sepultura was tremendous and relentless. Take a track like “Crucifixion”, for example. The change in tempo was a trademark for the band’s sound, and the way they jumped into the Thrash or Death Metal melodies, was so well done that even today these tracks resonate with us, the fans. Igor’s drums were amazing on this one!

Let us now leap forward into the future, into 2023. The brothers released the first rerecorded track from “Morbid Visions”, the title track, and let me tell you, if this had come out in 1986… wow! I was taken aback by the news of the re-recording, but after I saw the new artwork, wow! The sound! Oh, the sound. Listening to old Sepultura is always a way to go back to when I was a kid, playing basketball and discovering music, “Chaos A.D.” sweatpants (still love them and hate the fact that I was never able to get one of those). The re-recording of this track really leaves me wanting more, expecting to be blown away by the sound and Max’s vocals. Absurd how he sounds better than I last recall LOL Igor’s drums are, as expected, destructive and powerful. The man is, still, a beast. Funny how checking this track made me go back to an album that has very little to do with “Morbid Visions”: “Against”. An album that takes on the tribal feeling, and moves forward (Igor is, once again, a beast) with the help of a lad I like very much: Derrick Green.

In conclusion, the brothers took a risk in re-recording such a symbolic and relevant album, but from what I could hear from just one track, this will blow people’s minds and probably make a lot of people respect the band’s legacy.



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