Cavalera Conspiracy
Psychosis
Napalm Records
2017
Women (g/f and wives) in music can really [email protected] you and your career up, Yoko Ono, Yoko Liva, Sharon Osbourne (although she’s managed to keep Ozzy popular that happened by eliminating almost all cred he had, with a reality show). Gloria has been the reason behind Sepultura’s demise and the reason the two Cavalera brothers didn’t speak at all for more than a decade. Since burying the hatchet more than a decade ago, some four albums were released by this mix and match project, where the two bros were joined by Marc Rizzo and other musicians, the first couple of albums, generated some excitement, but sales got progressively lower; Roadrunner let the band go and Napalm picked them up, on probably their weakest effort, “Pandemonium” that coming back to back with the “Killer Be Killed” album suffered as a result, with sales plummeting even lower.
Regardless of how well it will fare sales wise, “Psychosis” is a lot more focused… which makes it surprisingly probably one of the best albums the brothers have been part of since Sepultura’s heyday, back in the early 90s. It’s not an absolute return to form, but rather the return of “the form” that made the brothers + co popular in the first place. Heavier on the death/thrash rather than nu metal/groove (which is kept to minimal levels), “Insane” and “Terror Tactics” seem to have come out of the earlier days of the Seps. “Impalement Execution” and “Spectral War” occupy similar space as the “Chaos AD” tracks did… just before Sepultura submitted to the horn of Kornucopia. Rizzo is no Andreas Kisser, but he stands his own ground with some neat leads… however at times his heavy reliance on pedal effects tends to spoil things a bit. “Crom” is different, with an ambient intro before it goes in turn ultra-fast and then atmospheric… it tries to mix things up, but comes off a little pretentious, I guess.
“Hellfire” is industrial and monotonous and feels out of place, trying to copy Godflesh, spoiling the flow of the album with its disruptive pace. “Judas Pariah” tries to reverse that a bit, but it’s too much flash and too little substance, to do anything. The title track is a three plus minutes of semi ambient, bullshit that feels it’s there, just to add to the playing time, as other than a nice but repetitive riff somewhere in the jungle fever, there’s not much else to it. “Excruciating” is the album’s closer and could be an apt description for the title track too (haha), but at least it’s more like it should be…
Other than the first couple of tracks, the album isn’t particularly “amazing”, but it is solid enough and having at long last an album that sounds the closest to Sepultura in their prime than anyone including the band, which carries the name, have managed ever since the glory days, is something cool… Now if they could only get rid of the “bad bitch vibes” and do a proper reunion, it would be even cooler. Cooler than Antarctica.
Regardless of how well it will fare sales wise, “Psychosis” is a lot more focused… which makes it surprisingly probably one of the best albums the brothers have been part of since Sepultura’s heyday, back in the early 90s. It’s not an absolute return to form, but rather the return of “the form” that made the brothers + co popular in the first place. Heavier on the death/thrash rather than nu metal/groove (which is kept to minimal levels), “Insane” and “Terror Tactics” seem to have come out of the earlier days of the Seps. “Impalement Execution” and “Spectral War” occupy similar space as the “Chaos AD” tracks did… just before Sepultura submitted to the horn of Kornucopia. Rizzo is no Andreas Kisser, but he stands his own ground with some neat leads… however at times his heavy reliance on pedal effects tends to spoil things a bit. “Crom” is different, with an ambient intro before it goes in turn ultra-fast and then atmospheric… it tries to mix things up, but comes off a little pretentious, I guess.
“Hellfire” is industrial and monotonous and feels out of place, trying to copy Godflesh, spoiling the flow of the album with its disruptive pace. “Judas Pariah” tries to reverse that a bit, but it’s too much flash and too little substance, to do anything. The title track is a three plus minutes of semi ambient, bullshit that feels it’s there, just to add to the playing time, as other than a nice but repetitive riff somewhere in the jungle fever, there’s not much else to it. “Excruciating” is the album’s closer and could be an apt description for the title track too (haha), but at least it’s more like it should be…
Other than the first couple of tracks, the album isn’t particularly “amazing”, but it is solid enough and having at long last an album that sounds the closest to Sepultura in their prime than anyone including the band, which carries the name, have managed ever since the glory days, is something cool… Now if they could only get rid of the “bad bitch vibes” and do a proper reunion, it would be even cooler. Cooler than Antarctica.