Sepultura - Chaos A.D.

Great album. Sepultura let the Thrash for something heavier. This album is a turn in the Max Cavalera career!

Among the first metal albums that I heard and loved, and I still appreciate it until this day

One word "classic"

Its not a thrash metal album but a great modern groove metal album. I like it a lot.

This is a great mixture of styles and influences. Some punk riffs, some thrash riffs, tribal pseudo Latin drumming, some groovy riffs with not too much emphasize on the groove and you cannot forget Max's furious shout.

Coming after the awesome "Arise" (which I consider to be the pinnacle for Sepultura), this one was a bit of a letdown. However, I still like this album a lot, and it's experimental vibe definitely rubs me up the right way. The heightened emphasis on tribal/latin sounds really gave this album a unique sound at the time, and as someone who bought this album at the time of it's release, it remains a landmark release due to that factor. It does lack the sheer steamrolling power of it's predecessor, but it does have a captivating charm, that is impossible to ignore.

Certainly as a more experimental work, this album succeeds where it's immediate follow-up ("Roots") largely failed. It is a shame there is only one moment of breakneck thrash on the album ("Biotech Is Godzilla"), but I do love most of the songs on the album when taken individually. And "Refuse/Resist" is a classic opener!

This is simply my favourite Sepultura album. When I hear the word "Sepultura", the first thing that comes to mind is those tribal drum beats. Their earlier albums were okay, even good, but for me this album is the most essential.
And Territory is also my favourite song of this band.

Brilliant guitar sound, but the biggest letdown is Max changing his delivery from a rhythmic bark to a completely monotonous growl.

Cant keep up with both its classic Thrash predecessors, of course. But it is obviously their last decent album. And it is an adventurous journey through a variety of (sub-)genres that makes it a unique album, in particular at the time. Propaganda, Nomad, and of course Territory stand out for me here.

My favorite Sepultura album

I still don't get why this is so high in the ratings. Someone on MA claimed that Max sounds like an angry caveman in every single song and that's exactly what comes to my mind listening to this.
After the brilliant Arise (talking about the title track in particular) I was so disappointed and couldn't understand all the media hype and fuss concering this release. 25 years later, I still think this is one of the most primitive and overrated albums in (thrash) metal history. Would give a maximum of 4/10 if this would still be in my collection (sold it back then in 1993 after a few joyless attempts of getting into it).

It's a pity that so many bands tried to copy the style of Chaos A.D. (and Sepultura's inexplicable success thereon) which led to countless other soulless, primitive and pseudo-aggressive releases, morphing from Thrash Metal to Groove Metal to Nu Metal. I really think that Sepultura and in particluar this album (in companion with Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power) are to blame for this mournful development.

Written by Starvynth on 27.11.2018 at 16:53

It's a pity that so many bands tried to copy the style of Chaos A.D. (and Sepultura's inexplicable success thereon) which led to countless other soulless, primitive and pseudo-aggressive releases, morphing from Thrash Metal to Groove Metal to Nu Metal. I really think that Sepultura and in particluar this album (in companion with Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power) are to blame for this mournful development.

There is probably some truth to that.
Though I would say that this doesnt make the two scapegoats bad albums.
Actually nothing makes these two bad albums.
In particular for the time this is excellent stuff imo, much better than any Groove or Nu that followed -- if we are to compare this here.

Written by Redel on 27.11.2018 at 21:44

There is probably some truth to that.

Thanks, I honestly didn't expect anyone to at least partially share my point of view.

Written by Redel on 27.11.2018 at 21:44

Though I would say that this doesnt make the two scapegoats bad albums.
Actually nothing makes these two bad albums.
In particular for the time this is excellent stuff imo, much better than any Groove or Nu that followed -- if we are to compare this here.

You are probably right saying these two albums stand out, considering the time they have been released and the massive infuence they exerted to the genre. I do not question that talking about Groove Metal, Chaos A.D. is one of the most important and maybe even best releases. But praising this album to someone who doesn't like Groove Metal at all (me) is like trying to persuade a person suffering lactose intolerance of the healthiness of milk and the tastiness of chocolate bars.

For me, Chaos A.D. truly marked the decline of the American Thrash Metal culture. All over sudden, good stuff à la Arise and Seasons In The Abyss couldn't satisfy the taste of the masses anymore and instead of songwriting qualities we were given primitive rhythms, uninspired riffs, buzzword lyrics and caveman shoutings and this new but questionable style of Thrash Metal ruled for years to come.

I'd say Chaos A.D. is a total masterpiece when compared to Roots. Now that was a truly shite album. Okay, Chaos A.D. doesn't come near the quality of the Sepultura albums that came before, but damn, it does blow Roots away.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 28.11.2018 at 16:19

I'd say Chaos A.D. is a total masterpiece when compared to Roots. Now that was a truly shite album. Okay, Chaos A.D. doesn't come near the quality of the Sepultura albums that came before, but damn, it does blow Roots away.

So let's agree that Chaos A.D. stands for the beginning of Sepultura's downward spiral and that they never managed to even scratch the surface of their glorious era (Beneath The Remains and Arise) again.
Anyway, 8.6/10 is a tremendous score for the beginning of a neverlasting downfall...

Chaos A.D. was a good album, a good experiment by the band Sepultura. The difference between the previous albums is that the songs are much slower and there are also the Brazilian rhythms and sounds. Are there any good songs? Yes there are, like the classic Refuse/Resist or Territory or Slave New World. It is the last good album of Sepultura, then came the experimentation of Roots that was a very bad album, and after that Max Cavalera left the band and they released worse albums

But it's true that that the previusly albums (Arise and Beneath the Remains) are much better than this album

9/10

When I first listened to this it was mind blowing.
After listening to the records before and listen to them for many years it is still a real good one. Not near Arise und BtR but IMHO it´s their fourth best release. Schizophrenia is a bit better.

Faves: Refuse/Resist, Slave New World, Propaganda, Nomad, Manifest and Clenched Fist