Sepultura

A-Lex

Steamhammer/SPV 2009

The Brazilian metal legends Sepultura return with an album that revolves around the book, A Clockwork Orange.  I have been off of Sepultura since Chaos AD.  And truth be told I was not really expecting anything out of A-Lex.  So... hmmmm...what do we have here?  Surprisingly enough a blistering affair of harsh thrash mixed with punk aggression not unlike Discharge.  Moloko Mesto speeds right out of the gate with some raw intensity but the riffs are somewhat flat until the song breaks about half way and drags into some mid-tempo material with some interesting samples.  The in-your-face frenzy kicks back in again to finish off the song.  A Nu-metal-esque chugging riff carry's Filthy Rot along and only the interesting clean-vocalled chorus saves this track.  An almost industrial death metal feel permeates We've Lost You with gruff vocals and mechanical sounding beats.  A serious moshing power overrides any faults I have on What I Do.  Metamorphosis has a mean groove that slowly batters the listener with meaty riffs and a sharp snare drum.  About a third of the 18 tracks on A-Lex the album are strictly instrumental with various styles on display ranging from classical (Ludwig Van) to ambient metal hybrid (A-Lex III) to just bizarre, as with the synth and trip-hop bliss of A-Lex IV.  Sepultura have utilized interesting non metal instrumentation within the framework of their albums though the actual "Metal" material is somewhat lacking and flat even at its most aggressive.  As to illustrate this point the album closes out with Paradox whose straight-ahead violence seems somewhat forced and lacks any real power.  For me all fundamental traces of old Sepultura are gone.  That is not necessarily a bad thing but the new incarnation of Sepultura needs to work a little harder on creating better music.