Sepultura

Roots

"MOTHERF***ER, You Don't Understand..."

Review Score:

(10/10)
In the year 1996, the Brazilian Metal Gods Sepultura (Grave) decided to make something different. They set out to invent something called Tribal Metal, which they had previously tampered with on Chaos A.D. (1993). Tribal Metal consists of attitude, anger (most of the time), a variety of ideas, tribal drums/percussion and of course knowledge of your Roots. It was something that managed to bring people together; with the exception of those that stick to Beneath the Remains and Arise (good albums) and refuse to evolve fearing its selling out or whatever.

Max, Andreas, Igor and Paulo Jr. ventured into the Brazilian forest to spend time with the Xavantes Tribe in which they recorded the live song Itsari. The influence of what they did shows throughout the album. This results in not being the average Metal Album however. There is also some slight punk influence/atmosphere of rage on Cut-Throat, Ambush, and Endangered Species not to mention the short thrash song Dictatorsh*t. There is a small Acoustic song by Andreas Kisser called Jasco. Roots doesn't focus on Guitars as much like they did in previous releases. The amount of solos diminishes although doesn't become absent. The solos just are not that great but they don't drag the songs down.

Instead the album focuses on the Tribal drums of Igor Cavalera. I myself am a drummer/percussionist and highly enjoy weird sounds, different styles among other things. An example would be that Igor uses a rusted Propane tank and a Djembe on the kick@ss song known as Dusted, Or the Berkimbau that Max uses on Attitude. (one of the best songs) Sadly, though Max has overplayed the usage of the Berimbau after the 3rd time of doing so in Soulfly.

The people that I spoke of earlier that stick to the Sep albums from 1985-1991 often accuse Roots of being a sellout album and slander it with it being "Nu-Metal". Sorry but it isn't "Nu Metal". Nu-metal involves Metal with Rap/Hip Hop influences (none here clearly) and no solos at all. Like I said earlier, while the solos have diminished and are not as impressive, they are still here and it concentrates more on the drums and overall sound. Max was still pissed off here like he was in Beneath the Remains or Arise or Choas A.D., it's just how it is carried out. For one thing he swears a lot more, but not on the overdone level of Soulfly's "Primitive" and fortunately a PA Sticker is not present (I hate those friggin' things). Despite this I can understand why it is labeled by those as Nu Metal because of appearance of Jon Davis (Korn) and it being produced by Ross Robinson (Korn's first 2 Albums and other things) and even the Appearance of DJ Lethal. But this was back in 1996. The abominable Limp Bizkit didn't exist until the next year.

The song Lookaway is written by Jon Davis and features him (you can hear him better on the remix) but at the same time we have Mike Patton to settle things out. The song is eerie and actually in a way, it keeps the album fresh. Tracks 5-7 may be considered filler by some, but the mood of Lookaway changes everything and grabs your attention. Don't worry it's not a rap song. I'll confess, I like Korn and very, VERY few other Nu-Metal bands, but other then the bizarre lyrics, this is not a Korn song and once again I'll bring up the fact that you can hardly hear Jon at all on this version.

Roots was the best Tribal Metal Album that Max ever made and sadly it gets worse and worse with each Soulfly album. The effort and thought that went into Roots is part of makes it so good. They worked their a**'s off. Every song has its greatness. This was the last album with Max Cavelera who left during the Roots Tour when his Stepson was killed and there were a few tension within the band. However I can't help but feel that maybe it was for the best. I could easily see that if Max didn't leave that it may be a combination of Soulfly and the modern Sepultura. Sepultura will always leave their mark and leave us memories as one of the greatest metal acts in history. Buy this album for this is the true Sepultura (With Max). I hope this was helpful.

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