SEPULTURA — Beneath the Remains (review)

SEPULTURA — Beneath the Remains album cover

Album · 1989 · Thrash Metal

4.5/5 · 2019-02-14
UMUR

"Beneath the Remains" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Brazilian thrash metal act Sepultura. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in September 1989. Sepultura was formed in 1984 and released an early death/thrash hybrid in "Morbid Visions (1986)" and followed it up by the more purely thrash metal oriented "Schizophrenia" from 1987. By that time very few outside Brazil had heard of Sepultura, but that would radically change when they were picked up by Roadrunner Records, who gave "Beneath the Remains" a worldwide release. An almost instant hit among thrash/death metal fans the world over, "Beneath the Remains" to this day remains one of the seminal thrash metal albums in the brutal end of the scale.

Stylistically the music is aggressive and energetic thrash metal with the raw barking vocals of Max Cavalera in front. While the music is thrash metal to the bone, Sepultura was often associated with the early 90s death metal scene, and there are indeed some death metal traits to be found on "Beneath the Remains". The death metal influence is predominantly a result of the Morrisound Recording sound production courtesy of Sepultura and Scott Burns. "Beneath the Remains" was recorded in Nas Nuvens Studio, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in December 1988, but mixed at Morrisound Recording, Tampa, Florida. It´s one of the first thrash metal releases to be graced by such a meaty, brutal, and heavy sound production, and the sound made the album stand out upon release.

Of course that wouldn´t have been enough, if the songwriting didn´t follow suit. But the material on "Beneath the Remains" is generally very well written and memorable. Personally I´ve always felt that the first part of the album is slightly more memorable than the second part of the album, and especially tracks like "Inner Self", "Stronger Than Hate", "Mass Hypnosis", and the title track stand out. The quality and catchiness of the remaining tracks are really high too though. The greatest asset regarding the material is probably that it has a unique sound. Many artists can play and write moderately interesting material, but Sepultura wrote material for "Beneath the Remains", which sounds original. You know almost instantly that it´s them playing when you hear the music.

In addition to the fast-paced thrash metal riffing, and the mid-paced heavy grooves, the music also features a couple of atmospheric parts, and some blistering solo work. The latter is both fast-paced screaming chromatic solos and more melodic themes and solos. The musicianship is strong and although Max Cavalera is a pretty one-dimensional vocalist with greatly accented vocals, his voice and phrasing still suits the music well.

So upon conclusion "Beneath the Remains" is arguably what you´d call a thrash metal "classic". It´s not that there aren´t artists out there who hadn´t released more ferocious material before this album was released (Slayer, Possessed, Kreator/Sodom/Destruction, and Dark Angel, just to mention a few), but Sepultura still managed to put a more brutal twist on thrash metal that helped build a bridge to death metal without being death metal, and that was something pretty new at the time. At least in the perfected form as it´s heard on "Beneath the Remains". A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.