Review by Ben for Sepultura - Beneath the Remains (1989)

A huge step up in production and songwriting quality, Beneath the Remains is an exhilirating thrash metal classic.

Sepultura’s second full length album Schizophrenia had finally given the band the international attention they deserved. In February 1988, Max travelled to New York to negotiate a deal with Roadrunner Records, which would surely give the band the type of budget and distribution that had simply not been available to them in their native Brazil. We can only speculate what occurred between Max and the label representatives behind doors, but we do know that it took them an entire week to come to an agreement. Despite Roadrunner offering a seven record deal to the band, they were clearly not certain that Sepultura were a profitable addition to their roster. They gave the band a peculiarly small budget ($8000) with which to record their first Roadrunner backed album. On the positive side, this did give them the opportunity to use a better studio than the limiting Estudios where all their material had been recorded so far, so the band booked Nas Nuvens Studio in Rio de Janeiro. What this miniscule budget didn’t allow for was the cost of a decent producer, but the metal gods were clearly smiling upon Sepultura at this time. After his stellar work with great death metal bands such as Obituary, Death and Morbid Angel, Scott Burns could easily demand large amounts of cash to produce albums, but his interest in travelling to Brazil and working with a non-English speaking band caused him to accept a measly $2000 for the job.

This was a vital decision for Sepultura as Burns brought with him a wealth of experience, helping the band to take the next step up in professionalism and quality. With the help of a translator, Sepultura and Burns worked between the hours of 8pm and 5am from the 15th to the 28th of December 1988 to record what would become Beneath the Remains. I’ve only recently noticed that there are a few websites around that suggest Andreas Kisser performed all bass on the album as opposed to Paulo Jr., but I have no definitive proof to say whether that’s truth or myth. Either way, once the tracks were recorded, Burns flew the result back to the States, where he personally mixed and mastered the album at the infamous Morrisound Studio in Florida. I assume that it was during this stage that a bunch of other Morrisound clients, including John Tardy from Obituary and Kelly Shaefer from Atheist, performed the gang style background vocals for Stronger Than Hate. Apparently Shaefer wrote all the lyrics for the track too and I can only assume this relationship was created through his association with Burns. Beneath the Remains would officially be released on the 5th of September 1989 and would be the first of four Sepultura albums to have cover artwork by Michael Whelan. This particular piece, entitled Nightmare in Red, holds far more complexity than what the viewer might initially see, and is strikingly set against a pitch black background for optimal effect.

Beneath the Remains was immediately met with international acclaim on release and listening to it over twenty years later it’s not hard to hear why. The step up in production and the finely tuned songwriting gave the album a consistent force that their previous albums could only display in patches. The band had evolved further away from death metal into a more pure style of thrash, but while there is little argument from a technical point of view, the Morrisound production combined with Max’s gruff vocals and Igor’s intense drumming style still give Beneath the Remains a death metal feel overall. The musicianship is first class with Igor marking himself as one of metal’s elite drummers with this album while Andreas and Max flawlessly execute exciting, memorable thrash riffs throughout. Andreas’ leads are fantastic and I’m not sure I’ve ever given him the credit he deserves for the simple reason that he doesn’t draw attention to himself. Every solo plays an important role in the surrounding track rather than simply show off the ability of the performer, and there really isn’t any filler material on Beneath the Remains whatsoever. It’s one classic track after another, with the likes of the title track, Inner Self, Stronger Than Hate, Slaves of Pain and Primitive Future all vying for highlight status. I can’t even consider not giving Beneath the Remains five stars which is not something I can say about anything Sepultura have released in the past fifteen years at least.