Sepultura - Roots (1996) Reviews

It came as a bit of a shock to me but I actually don't think I've ever listened to "Roots" up until now. I was previously under the distinct impression that this was the point that Sepultura lost me but given that I've experienced no semblance of familiarity with most of the tracklisting I can only assume that my interest was simply too heavily entwined in the extreme metal scene to pay any notice to the Brazilians sixth full-length. But you know what? It's not a bad record to tell you the truth. It was certainly the band's least appealing offering to the time & is far too inconsistent to even think about my higher scores but I can't say that I find it to be as repulsive as many other ol' thrashers seem to.

"Roots" offers an interesting combination of styles with Sepultura having completely dropped their trademark thrash metal sound by this stage, instead adopting an approach that sits somewhere between groove metal, nu metal, hardcore punk & Brazilian tribal folk music. I can't say that it always works & there are a fair few failures along the way (particularly the God-awful "Ratamahatta") but when the band get it right they can still produce a very solid piece of bottom-heavy metal music, even though it won't be as musically & melodically impressive as they were capable of in their late 80's/early 90's prime. The Korn influence is plain for all to see but that's not to say that Sepultura do a bad job at incorporating nu metal into their sound. The parts that annoy me the most tend to be when they use the scatty Brazilian vocals over a metal backing or even opt for snippets of turntablism. The hardcore sections sound really natural though with gravel-throated Max Cavalera fitting the mould very well while the expanded focus on the traditional music of their Brazilian homeland was the natural destination for the journey they'd started with 1991's classic "Arise" album. The noticeable omission is Andreas Kisser's lovely touches of lead guitar melody seem to have become the victim of a more modern approach which is a shame.

While this might not be the most inspirational or addictive Sepultura release it's hard to deny that the band's intentions were in the right place as they can't be accused of simply repeating the formula that they'd built their career on. My personal preference in metal isn't really in line with the groove/nu metal direction that "Roots" has taken but the simple riffs contain enough quality to keep me interested, especially on the darker songs like "Cut-Throat", "Lookaway" & "Ambush". The beautiful acoustic folk guitar piece "Jasco" is a nice addition too. "Roots" may not be essential listening but I think it's worth a few spins nonetheless.

For fans of Soulfly, Machine Head & Korn.