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Sunday Old School: Sepultura Introduces Metal To The Third World

Band Photo: Sepultura (?)

Thrash metal is best known for making metal stars out of bands from America and Germany, but every now and then, it would present a hero from somewhere no-one expected. In this case, it made metal legends out of a Brazilian band named Sepultura. The group was formed in the city of Belo Horizonte by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, along with bass player Paulo Xisto and vocalist Wagner Lamounier. Lamounier left the band the next year and Max took over the spot behind the microphone, so the band recruited guitarist Jairo Guedes to be the band's lead player. This lineup would record the EP "Bestial Devastation" and the full length album "Morbid Visions" before Guedes left, to be replaced by Max Cavalera's former guitar technician Andreas Kisser. This is perhaps the best known lineup of the band, recording five studio albums together and breaking into the metal mainstream, becoming one of the genres leading young bands alongside Pantera.

The group began to receive commercial success in 1993 with the release of their album, "Chaos A.D." which features the singles, "Refuse/Resist," "Slave New World" and "Territory," three of the band's most well known songs. The group gained further success three years later when they released "Roots," an ambitious album that saw them embrace their Brazilian heritage, even recording a song with the Xavantes tribe. However the good times were not to last as Max Cavalera left the band on bad terms when the other members informed him they did not wish to renew the contract of their manager, who was also Max's wife. The band replaced their old singer with American, Derrick Green, who had previously released an album with the band Outface. This lineup released the record "Against" in 1998 but the album did not do as well as they had hoped.

The band recorded and released three more albums "Nation" (2001), "Roorback" (2003) and "Dante XXI" (2006) and a live album in 2005 before Igor Cavalera decided to leave the group he had founded over twenty years prior, unhappy with the musical direction they were taking. Cavalera was replaced by Brazilian drummer Jean Dolabella and the band recorded the album, "A-Lex" in 2008, releasing it in January the next year. The album is based on the infamous novel "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess and is scheduled to be re-released sometime this year. When looking at the history and music of Sepultura, one can see how they were not only an influence on thrash, death and groove metal, but also an inspiration for metal fans who live in third world countries and are impoverished, that they too can break out of their life cycle if they put their faith in their music.

Sepultura - "Arise"

Sepultura - "Slave New World"

Sepultura - "Ratamahatta"

Sepultura - "Mind War"

Sepultura - "Convicted In Life"

Sepultura - "We've Lost You"

Ollie Hynes has been a writer for Metal Underground.com since 2007 and a metal fan since 2001, going as far as to travel to other countries and continents for metal gigs.