Sepultura

Roots

Well, at least its better than Soulfly

Review Score:

(6/10)
I guess I could scream at Sepultura for releasing this album and accuse them of selling out by removing the solos and slowing down even more than they did on Chaos AD. But I look at it like this: - when Sep released Chaos AD, (the album where, if they ever did, they sold out) nu-metal was barely off the ground. Korn (groan) had only just released their debut, Limp Bizkit and Deftones (boo, hiss) weren't gonna surface for another 3 years. Even on this album, Sepultura are more extreme than all those bands. My point is, Sepultura were part of creating what nu-metal was gonna become (they didn't create it in the beginning, but they did contribute), they didn't just jump on the bandwagon when they thought that thrash was unfashionable. I'm not denying that fashion had something to do with it, but this isn't a straight-forward sell-out. The fact is that although I don't like this direction much (I'd rather they continued to release albums like Schitzophrenia or Arise), they were part of creating that direction, they didn't jump on it when it became trendy.

Also, why should release the same sounding albums over and over? They'd been around 11 years when they released this - why should they have to release a similar album to one they did 9 years before? They'd released 4 albums and an EP of death metal before Chaos AD. Listen to Arise and you see a few tribal elements; listen to Chaos A.D. (which I like even less than this) and you see quite a bit of Tribal stuff; listen to this and it's offered on a plate. They progressed - they didn't go from a death metal band to a nu-metal band overnight. A band should be allowed to expand and experiment without being accused of selling out, regardless of what fans of their old stuff think of the new stuff. I listen to their old stuff coz I think it's much better, and I do feel that they could have done the tribal stuff on a less commercial base, but its their life and their musical career. What they do with those things is up to them, not their fans.

That doesn't mean that I think this album is great myself. Although I recognise how important this album is (although contributing to the nu-metal movement is hardly something I would personally praise a band for), there's not a song that I REALLY like. Roots Bloody Roots, Attitude, Rhattamahatta, Spit, Dusted and Born Stubborn aren't bad by any means, but Cut Throat, Breed Apart, Straight Hate, Lookaway and Endangered Species are pretty awful (especially Breed Apart and Lookaway). I like the quiet, chilled-out instrumentals more (Jasco, Itsari). I'm not gonna deny that I really liked this at first (this was my first Sepultura album and I was more into nu-metal at the time) but whereas when I first heard it, it was one of the heaviest things ever, now I've heard the true meaning of brutality with pure death metal, this feels somewhat controlled. I know heaviness doesn't mean good (I listen to black/death metal a lot but Iron Maiden are my favourite band), but when I stuck it on for the first time in a long time last night, I expected it to be insanely mental and very heavy - the way I remembered it. It actually felt too controlled compared to how I'd remembered it. It also lacks the technicality of earlier stuff - mostly its very easy to play and like I said earlier, there are no solos.

I think Roots is an album that most metallers either love or hate. I think I'm one of the very few who sit in the middle. People either see it as a benchmark and highly original nu-metal album before the horrible world of rap-metal exploded (ok, so that started in the 80s with Aerosmith and Run DMC but I'm talking about Limp Bizkit), or they see it as sell-out and corporate, and they hate it (the fact that Roots Bloody Roots is a nu-metal anthem probably rubs further salt into the wound, although it does prove that Sepultura were there relatively near the beginning). Which category you fall in to is, quite obviously, entirely up to you.

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