SEPULTURA
Nation
RoadrunnerTrack listing:
01. Sepulnation
02. Border Wars
03. Revolt
04. One Man Army
05. Vox Populi
06. The Ways Of Faith
07. Uma Cura
08. Who Must Die?
09. Saga
10. Tribe To A Nation
11. Politricks
12. Human Cause
13. Reject
14. Water
15. Valtio
On their second album with lead singer Derrick Green (who replaced founding vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera after six previous studio efforts),the pioneering Brazilian metal quartet SEPULTURA sound more like a band than on Green's debut, 1998's Against. This time around, his vocal stylings and melody lines play an integral part in the songwriting (on Against, he merely came in and sang what the rest of the band had written),and there's a renewed sense of confidence and cohesion in both his performance and those of guitarist Andreas Kisser, drummer Igor Cavalera, and bassist Paulo (Jr.) Pinto.
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As a result, Nation features material such as "Sepulnation" and "Border Wars" that holds up well next to their best efforts on albums like Chaos A.D. and the 1996 masterpiece, Roots. Likewise, the band continues to expand their own artistic borders by seeking out new musical combinations, whether with dub wizard Dr. Israel on "Tribe To A Nation" or the Finnish string quartet APOCALYPTICA on "Valtio". Nevertheless, Nation falls just short of greatness a tendency to veer wildly from introspection to brutality makes the album play like a series of occasionally explosive moments with dead spots in between, and some of the later material doesn't hold up to the standard set in the album's opening moments. The best parts of Nation find SEPULTURA sounding like a band that has laid their past to rest, while the rest sounds like they're still unsure how to move forward.