Sepultura - Kairos (2011) CD-Rip

Ok, a lot of people is getting impressed with the new Sepultura’s album, named Kairos. I do understand this surprise, because this album breaks a sequence of hardcore based albums released by the band in the past few years. Sepultura’s music has passed through a profound transformation since Max Cavalera’s departure in 1996. Kairos is definitely an attempt to bring back the aggressive and raw sonority the band had before Roots. So there are a few things to be said:

Hardcore and Tribal influences
Talking about the music, since the first valid track (I mean, a non introductory track, because there are 3 of them, not to mention the covers) we see that Sepultura has left behind the tribal influences in this album. So, if you’re expecting Brazilian native sounds like explored in the previous releases, you won’t found them here. Kairos almost sounds like a pure thrash metal album. Of course there are tracks in which the hardcore influence is still perceptive, but as a whole, Kairos is much more similar to Arise and Chaos A.D. than Roots, Nation, Against or any other.

Speed and Riffs
Kairos is a fast album. At least when we compare it with other recent releases of the band. Songs like the album title, “Kairos”, could be easily inserted in Chaos A.D. without disturbing the album sonority. The speed increases as the album advances. The riffs are more simple and, even with the fact they do not show anything completely new, are the clearest examples that Sepultura tried to go back in time. A proof is “Sethe” which contains 10 seconds of pure Slayer influenced trash metal: fast and noisy. The other tracks are also rapid, like “Relentless” and “Mask”, with good guitar variations.

Andreas, Derrick and Jean, the new drummer Jean had the responsibility to replace one of the greatest metal drummers of all times, Igor Cavalera, and he surprised me for the good job done. It’s precise, without much advanced technique, and what really matters, fits perfectly to what Sepultura intended, in my opinion, to sound like: a pure thrash/death metal band. So, do not expect to hear more than regular beats and double pedals. Derrick vocals, that I always considered poor, are pretty good in this album. They sound more strong and constant, not having volume and potency variations. But what is really worth to say is that finally Andreas Kisser has returned to the old great times of pure, creative and fast guitar solos! Ok, I’m a fan of his work, but it’s impressive the way he plays each of the tracks in Kairos, inserting more aggressiveness to the songs. Pay attention to what he does in “Kairos”, “Relentless” and “Born Strong”.

So, this new album is worthy to listen to, and shows a much more mature Sepultura, trying to recover its good old roots of thrash/death influences.