Archive Review: Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. (1993)

With Chaos A.D., Sepultura lay claim to being the baddest thrash outfit on the planet, delivering an album so awesomely full of monster riffs and rhythms that you’ll have to reinforce the floors and walls before playing it at a truly appropriate volume. Singer Max Cavalera’s muscular vocals are supported by a gifted trio of musicians, from the ringing guitars of six-string maniac Andreas Kisser to the rhythm section of bassist Paolo Jr. and drummer Igor Cavalera. Together, this Brazilian quartet make some of the toughest, meanest music to be found in any rock style today.

Underlying and often overshadowed by Sepultura’s powerful music is their lyrical subversion. Brazil’s best-known export are also musical freedom fighters, guerilla poets using their words as weapons to showcase the ills of a world gone mad. Thrash is a music made for political commentary, and Sepultura utilize it to its fullest, breathing passion and fire into songs like the apocalyptic “Refuse/Resist,” the violent “Manifest” or the haunting world-view of the Jello Biafra-penned “Biotech Is Godzilla.” 

The wonderful instrumental “Kaiowas,” inspired by a Brasilian Indian tribe who committed suicide rather than be oppressed by the powers of authority, provides a welcome break in the fury. Most of Chaos A.D. is appropriately unrelenting, however, with Andy Wallace’s fine production brightening the already sharp instrument that is Sepultura. If the band’s last album, Arise, was their big breakthrough, then Chaos A.D. is their destiny. (Roadrunner/Epic Records, released 1993)

Review originally published by R.A.D! zine, December 1993

New Music Monthly: February 2020 releases

Winter's icy grip is embracing most of us here in the U.S. but that doesn't mean that there aren't some red-hot tunes on the horizon this month to keep you warm! It's a short month, to be sure, bu if new music from folks like Green Day, Sepultura, Tame Impala, Guided by Voices, Supersuckers, and Ozzy Osbourne, among others, doesn't light your fire, maybe a five-disc Eric Burdon & the Animals box set will make the weather more tolerable.

Release dates are subject to change and nobody tells me when they do. If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy! 

FEBRUARY 7
Cadillac Three - Country Fuzz   BUY!
Green Day - Father of All...   BUY!
Nada Surf - Never Not Together   BUY!
Sepultura - Quadra   BUY!
Stone Temple Pilots - Perdida   BUY!
Supersuckers - Play That Rock 'n' Roll   BUY!

FEBRUARY 14
Huey Lewis & the News - Weather   BUY!
Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright   BUY!
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush   BUY!
The Third Mind - The Third Mind [with/Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher & David Immergluck]   BUY!

FEBRUARY 21
Eric Burdon & the Animals - When I Was Young, The MGM Recordings, 1967-1968 [5-CD box set]   BUY!
Greg Dulli - Random Desire   BUY!
Grimes - Miss_Anthrop0cene   BUY!
Guided by Voices - Surrender Your Poppy Field   BUY!
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man   BUY!
Nancy Priddy - You've Come This Way Before [vinyl reissue]   BUY!

FEBRUARY 28
Caribou - Suddenly   BUY!
Dom Flemons - Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus   BUY!
Mondo Generator - Fuck It   BUY!
Soccer Mommy - Color Theory   BUY!

Album of the Month: Eric Burdon & the Animals - When I Was Young, The MGM Recordings, 1967-1968 is a five-CD box set comprised of the band's late-period albums for the label including 1967's Winds of Change (with the hit single "San Franciscan Night") and 1968's The Twain Shall Meet (with the hits "Sky Pilot" and "Monterey"), Every One of Us, and Love Is plus assorted rarities and singles edits. An underrated period for the band, to be sure, coming in between the Animals early success as part of the British Invasion and Burdon's later solo work.  

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal

Excitable Press and That Devil Music’s Rev. Gordon are happy to announce the publication of the third volume in the Rev’s ongoing series of archive interviews. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal is a budget-priced collection of ten vintage artist interviews from metal pioneers like Living Colour, Faith No More, King’s X, and Sepultura as well as cult artists like Killing Joke, Voivod, and Warrior Soul, among others. The book also includes album reviews for many of the featured artists.

The “Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been writing about music for 45+ years. A former contributor to the All Music Guide books and website, and the former Blues Expert for About.com, Rev. Gordon has also written for Blurt magazine, Creem, High Times, and The Blues (U.K.), among many other publications, and has written fifteen previous music-related books, including The Other Side of Nashville and Scorched Earth: A Jason & the Scorchers Scrapbook.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal is a 70pp 5.5” x 8.5” paperback with B&W photos, priced at $6.99 for the print book and $2.99 for the eBook version with the same content. Get your copy through the handy Amazon.com links below:

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal print edition

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Three: Heavy Metal eBook

Also available:

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Two: Punk Rock print edition

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume Two: Punk Rock eBook edition

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers print edition

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers eBook edition

New Music Monthly: January 2017 Releases

Welcome back to That Devil Music's "New Music Monthly" column! Life begins to get back to normal  in January after a lengthy hiatus for the holidays, and while there's still a smallish slate of releases for the month, how can one complain about a new year that kicks off with a new Brian Eno CD? Throw in new albums from bluesman Ronnie Baker Brooks, the Flaming Lips, and the Dropkicks Murphys along with the reissue of a classic album from Cream and it's a good month, indeed!

JANUARY 1
Brian Eno - Reflection  BUY!

JANUARY 6
Cream - Fresh Cream [deluxe]  BUY!
Dropkick Murphys - 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory  BUY!

JANUARY 13
Eric Ambel - Lakeside   BUY!
The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody   BUY!
Sepultura - Machine Messiah   BUY!

JANUARY 20
Bash & Pop - Anything Could Happen   BUY!
Ronnie Baker Brooks - Times Have Changed    BUY!

David "Honeyboy" Edwards - Live at the G Spot   BUY!

JANUARY 27
Chicago - Chicago II (Steven Wilson remix)  BUY!
John Mayall - Talk About That   BUY!
Ty Segall - Ty Segall   BUY!

Album of the Month: Bash & Pop's Anything Can Happen, the first album in 23 years from Replacements' bassist Tommy Stinson. After the Replacements broke up in 1992, Stinson grabbed a guitar and formed Bash & Pop with guitarist Steve Brantseg, 'Mats drummer Steve Foley, and Steve's brother Kevin on bass. The four released a single album, Friday Night Is Killing Me, in 1993 but broke up the following year. Stinson had been inspired to write new material during the past two years and after a PledgeMusic campaign, reformed the band to record the long-anticipated Anything Can Happen.