Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

by Simon T Diplock

Metal's Brazilian brothers return, together again, to wreak heavy havoc

"‘Sanctuary’ descends into an abyss of Slayer-esque noise before snapping into the best riff of the year. Hell, three songs in and it's difficult to see why they didn’t just call this a Sepultura album and be done with it."

Now some folks would have you believe the metal world has been waiting for this for over a decade. Yup, as that band name suggests, the event in question is the reunion of the founding members of Sepultura and brothers Cavalera, Max and Igor - something that’s been apparently impossible since their spatty split (Max forming Soulfly, Igor soldiering on with Sepultura) in 1996. But really the metal world has had better things to worry about (obvious if you’ve been keeping an eye on the siblings’ continuing record sales) and the real worry is that instead of breathing new life into an old partnership, Cavalera Conspiracy is going to be a futile attempt to recapture past rage and past glories with no success and much embarrassment.

You can scrap all the concern though when the opening title track roars into life here. Sounding burly and brutish and defiantly old school (no ‘core’ of any kind thank you very much), it might even have you thinking the brothers have hit the bullseye getting back together and then some. And it just gets better from there- ‘Terrorize’ giving Igor ample opportunity to show just what an accomplished sticksman he remains and ‘Sanctuary’ descending into an abyss of Slayer-esque noise before snapping into the best metal riff of the year, hands down. Hell, three songs in and its difficult to see why they didn’t just call this a Sepultura album and be done with it.

But then the dumb roar of ‘Hex’ flies past, dull and pointless, and then some even lazier riffs slip into the mix, and, while Cavalera has never been the finest of lyricists, preferring volume and profanity over point or poetry, lines like “Never trust /  The emo kids / Never trust / Fall Out Boy” are shockingly redundant and, worse than that, will age this record at an incredible speed. The muscle-bound two-minutes of 'The Doom Of All Fires' is a riotous return to form but the damage has been done.

Still, existing converts of the Cavalera church will lap this up, all of it, without a doubt. Die-hard metalheads too, will be too busy banging their heads to bother checking the lyric sheet. Even those looking for the white-hot fires that stoked classic Sepultura will find a few things to salivate over. But while this is a muscular addition to the Cavalera canon, and not exactly embarrassing, it’s no classic. And, even if you have been desperate for it for the last ten years, it’s not entirely worth the wait either.
captain ricebox said on April 2nd 2008 [report abuse]

i aprove. i do actually love this album at the moment, but as you pointed out that is because i can ignore max's shouts, and focus on the fact that there are SOLOS, real life SOLOS, and MAX and IGOR, and actually CRUSHING THRASH RIFFS and some other things and i can deal with that.

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