Sepultura – A-Lex

Given that Max Cavalera left the band almost twelve years ago and Igor followed, who was replaced by Jean Dolabella, the only member of Sepultura from the original line-up, still in the band, is Paolo Jr. on bass.

This is more than enough to make us wonder why on earth this band is still around?! The answer to that question lies in Sepultura’s latest album, A-LEX; another concept album in a row by Sepultura based on Anthony Burgess’ book “A Clockwork Orange”, which for those of you who haven’t heard of it, was made into a truly outstanding movie by Stanley Kubrick!

Even though I was very judgmental of A-LEX in the beginning, since it’s the very first album of Sepultura without either of the Cavalera brothers, soon after listening to a couple of the tracks included in it I changed my mind. Powerful sounds and upfront and aggressive lyrics by Derrick Green – who above all has long proven to be a very well chosen replacement of Max Cavalera for Sepultura – together compose one of the very good albums that were recently released. What was truly unexpected was the introductory part of “Sadistic Values”, where Derrick Green sings melodically. However, the track slowly moves to more powerful sounds and a faster rhythm and given that the whole album is rather strong, “Sadistic Values” is very versatile and well adjusted to the general context. Other than that, I can’t help but love “Forceful Behavior”, where it’s obvious that Jean Dolabella is rather perfect to replace the former outstanding drummer of Sepultura, Igor.

However, I have to admit that I expected slightly more from Sepultura this time… I mean, we’ve already listened to a concept album by them before and we’ve seen all the tribal percussions – mostly present in A-LEX’s “Filthy Rot” – blend with their upfront lyrics and their powerful music; and let’s not forget that they’ve been in this scene for almost 25 years! This makes them true experts as far as I’m concerned in composing, mixing and producing high quality music. However, A-LEX, unexpectedly is an album with one major fault! Production-wise there are times when the sound is rather chaotic and instead of bringing out the talent of each member, what we get is really messy and unstructured. Overall we have in our hands a genuine effort of the “veterans” Sepultura!