Review: Cavalera Conspiracy – Inflikted (2008)

The history of Sepultura is a long storied career that I really don’t feel like wasting time in this review going over. However, one thing that does need to be mentioned before I can go on are the divisions Max Cavalera had with the rest of the band after his departure, in particular his brother. For nearly a decade, Sepultura did their own thing and Max went on to do his Soulfly gig (which he is still actively contributing to). However, in recent times, Max and Igor have begun to mend their divisions, and the obvious choice for two musicians to go about rebuilding a relationship is to make music together. Now that Igor has unceremoniously quit his lifelong commitment to Sepultura, Max and him have formed a brand new project called Cavalera Conspiracy releasing a new album entitled Inflikted this year. The only question left to ask now, is this new project as worthwhile to the fans as it is to the Cavaleras?

The simple answer to that question is absolutely. Combining speedy riffs and drumwork that made early Sepultura so infamous, the post thrash/groove sounds of newer Sepultura, and finally the tribal sounds inspired by Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy represents a familiar sound, but not one that people were expecting. You see, many a fan have become disenchanted with the Cavaleras. It has been many years since Sepultura has released anything that has been widely praised by the metal community, and Soulfly has always been a pariah, so to say that widespread opinion of this new album has been “cautiously optimistic” would probably be an overstatement. However, to the millions of minions to the Brazilians (I just came up with that, pretty amazing eh?) out there, your optimism has paid off, because overall, with the expectations we had, Inflikted has turned out to be what we were all hoping for.

Is this the grand re-invigoration of the old days of Sepultura? Well, no, but does anyone actually expect that to happen? Let’s face it, the glory days of Sepultura are long gone. The tastes of Max and Igor have obviously evolved, so to get an album that is as thrashy as it is, shoud be a blessing to many. To be more specific, I’d say that Inflikted sounds like a combination of Chaos AD era, a few bits from Arise, and Soulfly’s last album, making this much more thrashy than anything that Sepultura has released in many years. Another comparison could be made to Machine Head, but Inflikted runs circles around virtually anything Machine Head has ever put out. If that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what would. Some other cool tidbits; Rex Brown (Pantera) makes an appearance on “Ultra-Violent” on bass, and perhaps ever cooler, is a bonus track with a kick ass cover of Possessed’s “The Exorcist.”

It’s hard for me to criticize this album to anyone familiar with any of the projects from the Cavalera’s I have already mentioned, because the negatives are apparent. The basic, down tuned riffs permeate some of the songs quite frequently, and considering this is the type of music that inspired “nu-metal”, some people may start having flashbacks to 2000 when spiky haired buffoons were screeching to 12 year olds to “jumpdafuckup.” For the majority though who can look past this and accept it as a style that will forever be ingrained in the music that Max and Igor create, you will be able to discover some gems that really hearken back to the glory days of thrash in Brazil.

VERY GOOD

Top Tracks: Sanctuary, Must Kill, Hex
Similar Artists: Sepultura, Soulfly, Machine Head

1. Inflikted 04:31
2. Sanctuary 03:23
3. Terrorize 03:37
4. Black Ark 04:54
5. Ultra-Violent 03:47
6. Hex 02:37
7. The Doom Of All Fires 02:12
8. Bloodbrawl 05:41
9. Nevertrust 02:33
10. Hearts of Darkness 04:29
11. Must Kill 04:50

Max Cavalera – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Marc Rizzo – Lead Guitar
Joe Duplantier – Bass
Igor Cavalera – Drums

Roadunner Records
http://www.cavaleraconspiracy.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cavaleraconspiracy

Written by CODY