sepultura - roots (box set edition)

the last sepultura album of the set is the last album the band recorded with max cavalera. after an dispute with the rest of the band (mainly kisser) concerning gloria bujnowski and her declining managing qualities in the cause of the death of her son and max cavalera's step son dana wells, max left sepultura in bitterness. a dispute that max and igor compromised over a decade afterwards and which is still lingering between the older cavalera brother and kisser. but what came before one of the most renowned feud in metal was an album that set sepultura on the metal throne in the mid nineties. "roots" shook the earth and i think i can say without any exaggeration that sepultura's sixth full length is their most famous one.

back then in 1996 i was just exploring heavy music with rammstein's "sehnsucht" album i got on cd for christmas. korn came afterwards and i think it was in 1998 when i found "roots" in our local library. they had a few metal related albums on cd in their stock. i remember that i borrowed biohazard's "mata leao" and said "roots" cd. back in the days i listened to my cd's way more intensive because i just had a handful of them. "roots" was on heavy rotation. as soon as nu metal faded from my daily playlists in the early 00's, sepultura also disappeared. i probably didn't listen to this record for at least ten years, so i was quite excited to drop the needle on it.

after the first run-through of this re-press i was pretty underwhelmed. somehow "roots" didn't age well for me. i think with their previous records now being part of my metal canon, i only see how this drastic change in style is the complete opposite of what i learned to love in all the preceding records. a few more spins didn't help to change my feelings. but regardless of personal taste this re-issue looks lovely. i thought the double lp re-press from roadrunner and cargo records from 2011 was the only vinyl pressing of "roots" but there was actually a first press from 1996. as usual with this box set, this re-press is a detailed replica. the vinyl colour is perfect in combination with the cover art. even though i repeat myself this box is a pleasure for eyes and ears alike. give me more of them rhino! 2017.

sepultura - chaos a.d. (box set edition)

a mammoth release and probably this what they call a game changer. sepultura's "chaos a.d." saw a pretty strong progression of the sound the band developed on each of their preceding records. after "arise" was a huge success the band had all the freedom they wanted to record their fifth full length. the four-piece chose to work on "chaos a.d." in isolation and booked rockfield studios in south wales on the recommendation of producer andy wallace.

"arise" already emphasised the new groove element in the sound of sepultura and "chaos a.d." took this to the next level. next to pantera they became leaders of a new artificial genre called groove metal. the cavaleras, kisser and paulo jr. more and more left their classic thrash metal path and incorporated more hardcore punk, the already mentioned groove and of course the tribal instruments and percussions. "chaos a.d." became a big surprise box with so many ideas somehow linked together and making it sound as if made from one piece.

hardcore influenced stuff like "biotech is godzilla" greets songs like the hypnotic industrial mantra "we who are not as others", the lovely new model army cover "the hunt" or the instrumental "kaiowas". the latter song was recorded in the ruins of the chepstow castle. because there was no roof even some seagulls can be heard. i can't imagine that they got permissions to record music in the monumental protected ruins back then. anybody knows something?

the re-press is made from the first european pressing this time under the name of the mother label roadrunner records. the colour-way of the vinyl is a clear blue with light green splatter. the splatter pattern looks a bit odd. unusual tiny dots instead of streaks, looks cool anyway. someone at rhino really spent some thoughts on matching the vinyl colours to the cover artworks of the records. another great re-issue in this overall great box set. five down, one to go. rhino records. 2017.

sepultura - arise (box set edition)

arguably the band's most loved album among long time fans. "beneath the remains" set the tone and "arise" is the manifestation of each band member's talents molded into one metal masterpiece. the album was an instant classic. it recieved great reviews in magazines worldwide and achieved platinum sales throughout the world after one year after its release. roadrunner granted a way higher budget for the production of "arise" and so sepultura went to record their first full length outside of brazil. morrisound in florida was the destination where a lot of famous death metal records were recorded when the genre peaked in the late eighties and early nineties.

bands like suffocation, deicide, obituary or atheist got their sound polished in the studios - the place to be for an uprising metal band at the time. with the budget sepultura took their time to prepare and perfect the sound before they recorded. time well spent, "arise" sounds really forceful. musically a lot of new elements found their way into the sepultura cosmos. more groove oriented drumming and riffing, experimental song-writing and those tribal percussions which will increase in future sound of the band. "arise" is a fantastic record on all accounts. i love the progression from album to album even if it meant the band released records i can't relate to anymore - a little foretaste of the "roots" record - but there was never stagnation.

still "beneath the remains" is my favourite album but "arise" ranks damn close to it. i almost feel ashamed that i never listened to those records before i bought this box. this rhino re-press comes in the shape of the first european roadracer pressing from 1991. again everything looks pretty much the same. love that. the vinyl colour is well chosen. although i don't really like solid gold vinyl, i can't deny that it matches the iconic cover art by michael whelan very good. rhino records. 2017.

sepultura - beneath the remains (box set edition)

sepultura's breakthrough album was the first one initially released on roadrunner records. with the international distribution and this killer album up their sleeve, sepultura gained a lot of recognition and many positive reviews especially in europe where the first records weren't recieved well. actually roadrunner wasn't really convinced of the sale potential when they signed the band and so the label granted a relatively small budget which even doubled in the process of recording. little did roadrunner know that "beneath the ashes" would become a thrash classic which sold over 600.000 copies and was listed among the top twenty thrash records of all time by u.k. metal magazine terrorizer.

concerning my personal taste i can only praise it with the same superlatives like the music press did. this album is pure gold from first to last tune. the musical development in all departments is remarkable. "schizophrenia" sounds like the band had yet to find themselves. instead of trying to sound like the big bands of the genre, "beneath the remains" shows a group of grown musicians with better understanding for each other and a clear idea of what their very own sound was going to be like. check out the whole thing here.

the re-press is, just like "schizophrenia", a detailed re-work of the european roadracer pressing from 1989. rhino chose a clear orange colour-way for "beneath the remains" and i can only congratulate to this decision. works quite well with the cover art by michael whelan. the artwork is famous because it wasn't originally planned for the album. the artwork by whelan the band actually chose was given to obituary's "cause of death" by the label. the printed insert for this re-press is one-sided with a blank back. i wonder if this was the case with the original pressing. couldn't find any pictures. rhino records. 2017.

sepultura - schizophrenia (box set edition)

sepultura's second full length "schizophrenia" was, like "morbid visions" and the split with overdose, released on cogumelo records and came out in 1987. it seems that cogumelo released the album only for the south american market. later on the album got a few pressings on different labels, for example shark records from germany, but it was never fully distributed internationally. as i already stated in the preceeding post, sepultura was signed to roadrunner in 1989 for the release of "beneath the remains". a year afterwards roadrunner re-released "schizophrenia", this time on an international scale.

by the time it was re-released on cd, cassette and vinyl. there are a few cd and cassette pressings under the imprints of r/c records and roadracer records and also under the name of the mother label itself. why roadrunner worked with these different imprints i really cannot say. i read that they used roadracer in the states to avoid name right problems with the comic character roadrunner from the looney tunes but that doesn't explain r/c records. anyway, this box set version is a detailed re-press of the european pressing from 1990 on the roadracer imprint.

besides a sticker on the cover advertising the re-mastered album and the bonus track "troops of doom" (a re-recorded version from "morbid visions") and few legal informations in the fine print, this rhino re-press looks like it came out twenty seven years ago. of course it is the easiest way for rhino to keep this re-press as close to the blue prints from the roadrunner archives as possible but this suits me just fine. i love my re-press that way. even the printed dust sleeve comes on standard paper quality that feels so eighties and not with a glossy finish which is common these days.

musically the sound improved quite a lot in comparison to "morbid visions", the production is sharper. the songs are still that early slayer and metallica influenced thrash metal with a few excurses into the realm of death metal here and there. an important event for the future of sepultura was the joining of andreas kisser as lead guitarist for "schizophrenia". nevertheless sepultura's sophomore album remains to be the one i like the least. a shame because the vinyl colour used here is the slickest in my opinion. a lovely baby blue which reveals its marble effect held against the light. rhino records. 2017.

sepultura - morbid visions (box set edition)

the first lp of the set is "morbid visions" from 1986. it is the band's debut full length released by brazilian label cogumelo records. it was recorded in belo horizonte during a seven day session. i never listened to any songs beforehand and wasn't expecting too much from this release. after a few spins i find myself rather enjoying it. of course, the production sounds a bit thin, max cavalera's vocal performance sounds quite untrained, the artwork is hilarious and the lyrics immature but the whole album is so full of energy.

you can really feel that they wanted to record some bad ass metal and hit as hard as possible. no fancy production, a small budget but the sheer enthusiasm of teenagers recording their first real album. this is probably what i like the most about this record. it's not really the music itself but the vibes it transports. one can tell these four brazilians had a strict slayer diet but a few death metal hints are to be heard as well. roadrunner actually re-released the album for the first time in 1990 on cd.

back then they were already part of the roadrunner roster for one year and "beneath the remains" had been released in 1989. as for the rest of this box set re-pressings rhino records stood absolutely true to the original editions, this one is the exception. everything is identical to the roadrunner vinyl re-pressing (out on the sub-label r/c records) from 1991 except of the centre labels. they seem to be the ones used for the polysom re-issue from 2013. strange because i couldn't find any explanation how this came to be. anyway, love the inclusion of "bestial devastation", the band's side of a split shared with overdose. it's pretty raw and i like it even a bit more than "morbid visions". clear red with black splatter vinyl. rhino records. 2017.

sepultura - the roadrunner albums: 1985-1996

when this thing came out in january this year i was thinking if i should buy meself a copy. to be honest, i was never the biggest sepultura fan. i know their "roots" album from the mid-nineties because anyone who was slightly interested in metal back then knows that record, and i know their "chaos a.d." record from 1993 of which i bought a re-press five years ago. that's that. never listened to any pre-nineties sepul albums let alone any post max cavalera stuff. therefore i wasn't sure if i wanted to invest round about one hundred bucks into this box set. it drifted a bit out of my focus the coming months. in march i read a string of posts of sean and his skullfuckery blog.

he wrote about his box set and when i saw the pictures my interest grew. still other stuff was more important. finally this month the time was right for the sepultura box set and me. it helped that i found a copy in a media markt electronic store in neumünster on a trip with the wife and kid. with this physical copy in front of me and a good price tag on it, i couldn't deny it anymore. after i examined it closely i came to the following conclusions. the box set is more or less a re-press of a cd box set which roadrunner released in 2013. it was part of a series called "the complete roadrunner collection". the label released cd box sets of a handful of bands which had most of their discography put out by roadrunner. back then it didn't include the "morbid vision" record which thankfully has now been added.

this new release sees all the titles re-pressed on vinyl and for the first time all on colour vinyl. the label responsible for the re-issue is rhino records. since 2006 roadrunner records belongs to warner music and is part of one of the three major labels in the music business (sony music and universal music being the other two). after a little research i found out that rhino records also belongs to warner, so there was no licensing process. all just warner re-warming archive material. i love the kick of nostalgia anyway. maybe rhino re-presses some more of the "complete roadrunner collection". i would love to see some obituary or fear factory box sets. the slip sleeve looks a bit too simple in layout but the records make up for that. although sean already posted about every single record, i will do the same in the coming days because it's what i do. so stay tuned for some classic brazilian metal coming your way. rhino records. 2017.