May 2020 Feature Release - The Pit Edition
It's now May which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter.
This month's feature release for The Pit is 1993's classic "Chaos A.D." album from Brazilian thrash metal gods Seputlura. The album saw the band continuing to indulge in their tribal heritage whilst moving towards more of a groove metal based sound which has seen it becoming a benchmark release for the subgenre. We're excited to see what you think of it.
https://metal.academy/releases/535
Sometimes events in life mean that an album takes on a much greater significance for us than others and has meaning beyond the mere music on the disc. For me Sepultura's Chaos AD is one such album. Due to a life-changing family tragedy in the spring of 1990 I pretty much abandoned metal music and it's occult and violent imagery as we dealt with a very difficult time in our lives. If I did listen to any music at all during this time it was more likely to be Pearl Jam, Nirvana or some fairly anodyne Britpop.
Then one day I was browsing in a new record store that opened nearby and came across Chaos AD. I had been briefly aware of Sepultura before '90, but it was the cover that drew my attention. Anyway, I bought the CD and took it home, then.. wow, this was THE shit. Aggressive, powerful and yet with a meaningful message beyond the usual bland rantings and macho posturings of a lot of metal. I was hooked from the opening of the riff on Refuse / Resist (a song with a sentiment I strongly identify with). Territory, Propaganda, Manifest and the awesome Nomad are all fantastic metal songs, but beyond that actually fucking MEAN something. Kaiowas is a nice interlude that reflects something of the band's roots and is a nice looking-glass into the band. There is even a cover of one of my all-time favourite songs, The Hunt (although I prefer the New Model Army version, Max's vocals not quite suiting the ominous nature of the track).
So, this isn't just a great album in it's own right, it is solely responsible for allowing me to find a way back into metal music when it seemed I had left it behind for ever. I will never forget that and still play this regularly to this day.
I'd be lying if I didn't admit that "Chaos A.D." wasn't a bit of a disappointment for me at first. I mean I was absolutely crazy for all of Sepultura's previous material & picked it up on the day of release expecting more of the same. What I got was significantly different to my expectations but I gave it a chance & over time I definitely warmed to it. I'm not gonna say that I regard it as a classic or anything but I certainly consider it to be a very strong release in its own right.