Sepultura-Beneath the remains

Roadracer
1989

By 1989 speed metal was very popular and there were bands from many countries playing this sub-genre of metal. Brazil's Sepultura were a band who had started out in the mid-1980's playing a "speed for the sake of speed" style that was fairly noisy and not particularly innovative. Yet after a couple of releases, they were growing more focused and developing their skills. This album hears the band channelling and controlling an aggressive style of thrash. The most important factor in their favor might be they were controlling the pace rather than the pace controlling them. They knew when to go forth with frenzied all out parts, but they also were becoming adept at slowing the tempo down and building changes as well. At this point in time the two biggest speed metal scenes were likely the Bay area scene and the German scene. Both had somewhat distinctive styles and although Sepultura have a few elements of both in their sound, they also were bringing some of their own ideas to the table as well. They were using different tones and their song structures were not that predictable anymore. Above all else, these guys were keeping it heavy and that was a point that too many bands missed. Too often a speed metal progressed to some extent, but they would lose some of their heaviness. Not here as the progression in Sepultura's style allowed them to take concentrate more on pounding through their songs and the heaviness actually became more pronounced. This is certainly a strong speed metal album that doesn't always get it's due.