SEPULTURA — Kairos (review)

Album · 2011 · Groove Metal

4/5 · 2011-07-04
adg211288

Kairos is the twelfth studio album from long running Brazilian metal band Sepultura. It was released in 2011 and is the second Sepultura album to not feature either of the Cavalera brothers within the band’s line-up. It is also a noteworthy release for a couple of reasons. The first and most obvious is that as of this album there is just as many Derrick Green fronted Sepultura albums as there are Max Cavalera fronted albums. The second only becomes apparent when listening to the album – the band is drawing on thrash metal much more than on other recent releases, making Kairos very much like a bridge between the older Sepultura releases like Beneath the Remains and Arise to the newer Green fronted albums.

Bit of personal history here, I’m one of the few in the camp that thinks the Derrick Green fronted Sepultura is the better Sepultura. That’s in terms of consistency mainly, although I do consider Green as the superior vocalist as well. I for one will not however deny that the thrash era Sepultura albums, namely Beneath the Remains and Arise, are the strongest releases I’ve heard the group do (I do confess that I am not completely familiar with the band’s back catalogue. I have never heard their first two albums or Roorback), along with A-Lex. But I also firmly stand on the belief that Max Cavalera also took the band to an all time low on his final album with the band, which was Roots, at which stage the band went pretty much in an Alternative Metal direction that was carried over into the early Green fronted Sepultura albums. More recent releases though have seen more thrash sounds coming back, which brings us in 2011 to Kairos, which is the band’s most thrash influenced album for a long time, although elements of the groove metal and hardcore sounds of previous Green fronted albums remain, but in smaller measure, and the album is notably less experimental in nature to the group’s prior album A-Lex from 2009.

Let’s get my main gripe out of the way first though. It’s those interludes, which on Kairos have been named with numbers such as 2011 and 1433. Sepultura seems to have become very fond of including such tracks on their albums – I had the same issue with Dante XXI, though not so much A-Lex as they were more actual instrumentals rather than interludes on that one. To cut a long story short the inclusion of these is a pointless exercise and always will be; they add literally nothing to the album and only hinder my enjoyment of it. The skip button was invented for this, it seems.

Now that I’ve gotten that issue out of the way I’m pleased to report that Kairos is a very good effort from Sepultura. It can hardly be given masterpiece status, but it will at least be pleasing to those fans who didn’t abandon the post-Max Sepultura (or perhaps even the post-Igor Sepultura). Of course if you did stop following Sepultura after Max departed (or perhaps even before that), then this release may not be for you, as it still sounds very typical of the Green fronted Sepultura that people seem to love to hate, though it is a very different sounding album to prior Green fronted releases. It has much more thrash stuff in it, which is quickly evident in the album’s title track which is the second on the release, but there are also some very dominant groove metal parts to it, which the band had begun to flirt with as far back as Chaos A.D. One thing I can safely say is that the release lacks any of the Alternative Metal elements that were introduced with Roots. It is, for the most part, a thrash metal album. So if that sounds appealing to you, read on.

The musicianship on Kairos is consistently strong, though more basic in nature when put up next to A-Lex. There is a notable improvement on the drumming of new drummer Jean Dolabella, which I considered the weak link on A-Lex, and guitarist Andreas Kisser is delivering some really great lead guitar work as well as really tight riffing. Green provides a strong vocal as always. There are generally more solid tracks on the album as well, being of a consistent quality, those interludes aside. Even the Ministry cover of Just One Fix doesn’t sound out of place next to the original material. The groove metal infused opening Spectrum does an excellent build up into the album and the album is a powerhouse up until that first interlude, with both the title track and Relentless standing out as highlights, along with later tracks such as Born Strong, Mask, Embrace the Storm and No One Will Stand.

Towards the end of the album things start taking a funny turn though with Structure Violence (Azzes), which is an Industrial tinged track, and is easily the weakest on the album. It doesn’t sound that far off from something that would have been on Roots and that is the problem. Another one of those number tracks closes the album so in all fairness, as a good album Kairos really ended with No One Will Stand, and you can feel safe to switch your CD player off at this point.

Still despite some faults Kairos stands as another great Sepultura release, but I have to say that overall I preferred A-Lex out of the two post-Cavalera albums, which I actually consider to be one of the group’s best albums, groovy hardcore-tinged experimental thing that it is. Kairos is certainly more of the old Sepultura sound than the band has been for a long time though, and while it is no Beneath the Remains certainly, it’s probably as close as the band is ever going to get at this point in their career. If it hadn’t been for the sudden downturn in quality at the end of the album and those pointless interludes this one may have got bumped up a tier in terms of scoring, but as it is it stands as a solid and recommended release from the band, and yeah, that’s for fans of both the old and the new.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 8.2/10)

more than 2 years ago
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adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Intro's, interludes, outros... it's a very rare album where I find these things actually work. I especially hate albums where these tracks sound like a part of the song that follows or precedes it, using the same melodies, etc.

Thanks for the comments. And I'm sure they'll be a Max favoured review on here before long.

Coffin Joe wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Meant to say: On Kairos they SEEM pointless, as they don't add anything to the album - other than being a nuisance.
I need an edit button on shout, or maybe an automated "kill typos" button

Coffin Joe wrote:

more than 2 years ago

On Kairos they some pointless, as they don't add anything to the album - other than being a nuisance.
"Bit of personal history here, I’m one of the few in the camp that thinks the Derrick Green fronted Sepultura is the better Sepultura."
-seems the reviewers in here favor Green so far. Looking forward to some other opinions on the album, as we general agree on the album. It's a pretty decent effort, and hopefully it will help the band gain momentum.