Sepultura - Roots (1996)

After a brief dalliance in major label land, Brazil's best known musical export lands back at their original musical home, Roadrunner Records. The resulting release, Roots, is, without a doubt, Sepultura's strongest effort yet. The band's musical growth over the course of their last few albums is impressive, the maturity that they bring to their current work showcased wonderfully by Roots. Dismissed by mainstream critics as a "genre" band, Sepultura have surpassed that label, becoming instead a truly international phenomena, lyrical and musical spokesmen for a generation of dispossessed and alienated young fans across the planet.

Metallic, as a word, doesn't even come close to describing Sepultura's music. They're at their best when they're tearing the roof off of the motherfucker, playing it loud and loose. Lead vocalist Max Cavalera has a singing voice that lies somewhere between pain and pleasure, not so much caressing his lyrics as much as bludgeoning the listener with them. Six-string maestro Andreas Kisser knocks off molten riffs like a steel foundry forges concertina wire, razor-sharp and beautiful. The rhythm section shakes and roars like a flaming jet engine. It's a potent, explosive musical brew that Sepultura concoct, thick and frothy and quite intoxicating.

It's their lyrics that have won them an international audience, however, with Cavalera's sincere treatment of issues like social justice, poverty and the environment touching upon concerns common to all mankind. As such, Roots lives up to and, in some cases, surpasses the band's previous efforts. Songs like Roots Bloody Roots, Endangered Species, Dictatorship or Straighthate tread on familiar lyrical ground, yet are infused with new wisdom and knowledge. Although not the most poetic of songwriters, Cavalera is akin to a hardcore Woody Guthrie, reaching people with the genuine intelligence and straight-forwardness of his timeless messages.

Sepultura have yet to capture to the mass audience they deserve stateside, and quite honestly may never break through to the mainstream. Their art is too primal, too raw, too loud and too honest for the tender palates of most music buyers. For those of us who like our rock and roll a bit rough at times, Sepultura will do just fine, thank you. The band has never compromised their sound or their message, always delivering what their legion of loyal fans crave and then some. Roots may not be a watershed effort, but its a damn fine collection of music...and that's all we can expect from one of the planet's most exciting and vital bands. (Roadrunner Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Roots from Amazon.com)