Band:	Cavalera Conspiracy
Album:	Psychosis
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	November 17, 2017
A review by:	nikarg

01. Insane
02. Terror Tactics
03. Impalement Execution
04. Spectral War
05. Crom
06. Hellfire
07. Judas Pariah
08. Psychosis
09. Excruciating

I am going to try and write this review without mentioning the name of Sepultura at all (okay, this one doesn't count).

The accomplishments of Max Cavalera after leaving Sepultura (ahhh, fuck it!) never particularly clicked with me with a couple of exceptions; Soulfly's Dark Ages and especially Cavalera Conspiracy's Inflikted. The conspiracy of the Cavalera brothers now has a new album out and when I read that Max tried to "tap into the whole mentality of the early Sepultura (yeah, I have completely given up) records that was that mix of death metal and thrash metal", I was intrigued.

The truth is that Psychosis draws many elements from Schizophrenia and Chaos A.D. There is Arthur Rizk's old-school sounding production, which takes you back to the late '80s. At the same time there is an insane amount of groovy riffs in this album that will make your neck hurt badly. Psychosis does indeed have this throwback atmosphere, which, production aside, is also achieved by the album's unchained aggression, but at the same time it embraces more modern sounds. The problems start when the band tries to get "experimental" and things get kind of awkward.

The first half of Psychosis is a total thrash attack and includes some of the strongest stuff the brothers have ever released. The band has also used noise and feedback and samplers and ambient stuff and those things work very well up until - and including - "Crom". However, "Hellfire", with Justin Broadrick of Godflesh fame as guest, sounds like it doesn't belong at all and "Psychosis" is a tribal instrumental track in the wrong place at the wrong time. In-between these two, "Judas Pariah" starts as a blackened thrash bludgeoning, but it slows down halfway and it peters out until the end in a somewhat clumsy transition.

The closer, "Excruciating", sums up my whole impression about this album. The first two minutes are full-throttle, no-seatbelt thrashing, until the song slowly starts exploring more ambient territory. It could either finish there or pick up the speed again and go out with a thunderous finale. Instead, it transforms into static noise with spoken words and it is the worst ending I have heard since the laughter outtakes from "We Who Are Not As Others" in the hidden track after "Clenched Fist" (from Chaos A.D.).

Psychosis is like having very intense sex for the first 23 minutes and when you are just about to have a super-powerful orgasm someone taps you on the back making you lose concentration. When you realise what is going on, you punch this someone in the face and get on with it again, but soon the same tap on the back distracts you once more. This goes on until the album finishes and you are left high and dry, thinking that this could have been some of the best sex of your life, had it not been for this annoying person constantly preventing you from discharging your accumulated excitement.

If you were hoping for a new old-school Sepultura (this is the last time, I promise) album, I am afraid Inflikted remains the closest you can get to that, unless you're planning to only listen to the first half of Psychosis. This does not take away the fact though that it is the best effort by Cavalera Conspiracy since their debut.

"Under the sun
Nowhere to run
No one to thrust
You're alone"