Hessians were always searching for anything heavy back in the eighties. Digging deep into the import section or buying blindly from catalogs or zines were the only ways to hear anything that could be heavier outside of rarely engaged in underground tape trading. Slayer was the heaviest mainstream metal ever got. Sepultura was one heavier.
Anything that even sounded aggressive was spun after Celtic Frost, Bathory. and Possessed were memorized. Random Kreator records sold tens of thousands of copies. Turd bands like Sacred Reich and Dark Angel released multiple albums. Time Does Not Heal even had a sticker on it claiming “246 Riffs!” None of them were more than background chugs and bouncy bullshit for the awful vocals.
Brazil was the exception. Sepultura and Sarcofago started out on by releasing inspirational early black metal records on Cogumelo Records. Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and I.N.R.I. came out in short order. The original studio lineups of both groups fell apart. Sarcofago passed away for our purposes here and now. Sepultura quickly regrouped with new lead guitarist Andreas Kisser and put out Schizophrenia. The smooth and fluid tremolo progressions of Jairo Tormentor were nuked back into speed metal.
Sepultura were building towards death metal by Beneath the Remains. Each track was centered around key big heavy riffs arranged into a vague verse and chorus structure as in speed metal. However the verse riffs were arranged into a riff maze like Mercyful Fate and early Slayer. Beneath the Remains was a very effective hybrid and heavy as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Weg_mc6bk
Igor Cavalera’s drumming was an adept hybrid of Dave Lombardo and Chris Witchhunter with tons of creative fills. Max Cavalera’s machine gun riffs were hyperspeed thrash while Andreas Kisser’s leads resembled an orientalist Iron Maiden. Each track progressed forward in the progressive style of Metallica on Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets but with nothing extraneously thrown in to kill time and let more indulgent band members jam out. Everything works well together and fits like a puzzle. Beneath the Remains was a highly influential record, blowing out minds to realms unseen. Yes, Sepultura went astray in the nineties but their artistic sons lived on. Where can you go from there?
Massacra – Final Holocaust (1990)
Massacra stripped out all the fixed structures, heavy metallisms, and Iron Maiden theatrics from Beneath the Remains. They had to. It was begging to be done. Final Holocaust was rhythmically precise and almost robotic, Sepultura by way of terminators or maybe even machine elves. Final Holocaust emphasized riff variations that slowly shifted forward like Morbid Visions while keeping the TNT of Beneath the Remains.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzMc7KNxPJ4bfT50xPGNsSamr2yjNDACx
Dismember – Like an Ever Flowing Stream (1991)
Dismember sidelined all of Sepultura’s speed metal elements. Metronomic d-beats minimized rhythmic flash. Leads moved from oriental mysticism to otherworldly thunder conveying celestial truths. Autopsy riffs oscillated back and forth like a minimally-phrased, sawing Morbid Angel gone grind. Thrashing wires pulsed through the sky like lightning from the Emperor, transcending both material space and time. Like an Ever Flowing Stream is heaven-sent comprehension of a chaotic, invisible reality.
Death – Human (1991)
Human sprinted backwards. Death dumb downed enlightenment into secular humanism. Machine gun riffs retarded into highly repetitive speed metal triplets with only occasionally progressed fills. Human sounds composed just for Chuck Schuldiner and Paul Masidval to wank off on; tissues for selfish indulgence instead of profundity. Schuldiner’s lyrics are whiny expressions of self-loathing that the music is frequently secondary too. Ultimately, Human is the kind of lame shit Testament would make if they were trying to play death metal instead of grunge in 1991.
Demigod – Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)
Demigod cut back all flash and atmosphere to focus on a handful of twin chromatic riffs resolving from dissonance to consonance. No big dumb rhythm parts distract from the guitar interplay. The riffs float vary like spinning flying saucers, occasionally harmonizing in unison. Slumber of Sullen Eyes is no human achievement. Demigod are not a terrifying horde of aliens but rather warring extra-dimensional entities making their true ways known only to the most blown out of Hessians who transcend earthly samsara. Slumber of Sullen Eyes is not humane or epic. It is cosmologic.
Serpent Ascending – Ananku (2016)
Serpent Ascending proves the spirit and the material are not one, not two, not different, yet not the same. Harmonically intertwined in the N.W.O.B.H.M. mold, Ananku occasionally uses spolia as columns for the metallic past to hold up a novel cathedral of otherworldly yet humane architecture. Godly spires are built atop primitive hand prints in the deepest darkness. Ananku’s genius transcends the Mass Hypnosis of mortal desire, gradually unifying genre, time, space, past, present, into the here and now. Nothing is reduced. The subtleties are not separated from the whole. The past is no longer real and the future is yet to happen. Where will metal grow?
Tags: ananku, article, beneath the remains, Brazil, death, death metal, demigod, Dismember, influences, Like an Ever Flowing Stream, massacra, sepultura, Serpent Ascending, Speed Metal
Perhaps you forgot this highly influential album
Solstice – solstice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXRopcfjUKs&ab_channel=DanaGuill
Highly influential to whom?
Thp thp thp thp thp thp thp thp
I think the verdict on Human is harsh. I alwaya thought of it as a technical speed metal and as such I have enjoyed it. I concur with your assertion that much of it was written for Schudliner to wank off too though.
Cool article though. One of the better ones from recent memory
Beneath the Remains is the sound of Sepultura throwing out their own unique formula and trying to do a faster kewler version of Ride the Lighting. It stinks of globalization and McDonald’s. Plus it was Scott Burns’d. Listen to it on decent speakers and maybe you’ll be surprised how toothless and sloshy the guitar sound is.
So what would an example of great guitar tone?
Filosofem, Pure Holocaust, anything that transcends the electric guitar tone.
I bought that latest Serpent Ascending, I had their first CD for a while and was surprised to find horrible Alice in Chains vocals all over the new one. It was like a bunch of 90s guys who had local rural grunge bands were breaking into my house like zombies with dyed goatees and they were all going “ahhhhh ahhhhhhhrgh aaahhhh” at once in a grunge chorus of trailer meth and unpaid child support. The album itself is alright, I’ve been listening to more Malediction, I don’t give a shit, I am only interested in old stuff mostly. Bands can sound good now, in fact sound like anything you want them to but not many can write songs and as said here good bands are usually buried in the avalanche.
Demo-era Death is heavier than their albums.
Yes sir! You are correct!
True, but you still can’t go wrong with the first 3 Death albums. Spiritual Healing was their last good album. Anything after that is gay instrumental masterbation.
No, you’re just a whiny little bitch who doesn’t bother to pay close attention to the music.
Final Holocaust is different from the demos; The Sepultura influence on Massacra is obvious. All of Massacra’s early material was re-pressed by Century Media recently. Sepultura has never gone out of print. Check them out.
Demigod, the Sepultura influence is the most present of all the Finnish bands.
Dismember, it is incredibly obvious on Like an Ever Flowing Stream. Pay attention. Watch the DVD that was reviewed here a few years ago if you have ADHD. The entire thing is on YouTube.
The Sepultura influence on Serpent Ascending is huge. Pay attention to the drumming. Listen to Ananku right after Beneath the Remains.
Ananku is the best metal record since Godless Arrogance.
I’d say a significant Sepultura influence can be heard in early Immolation. Wouldn’t be far fetched to say Dawn Of Possession could’ve easily been on that list.
I fail to find how come Demigod is so related to Sepultura.
But I’ll listen to “beneath” again, it’s been years since I listened to it. The Demigod one I cannot listen to it anymore, I worn it out.
Current record being worn: the last one from Krypts. ***Magnificent!***
Krypts? Boring.
Speaking of early Brazilian black metal, Vulcano’s Bloody Vengeance is worthy of just as much mention as Morbid Visions or INRI.
I consider Schizophrenia to be Sepultura’s finest hour, it retains the rawness of Morbid Visions, but combined with the razor sharp thrash that would be the trademark of BTR. If you think about it, it’s the perfect blend of MV and BTR.
Another newer album that belongs to the Sepultura bloodline.
Excoriate-On Pestilent Winds