Band:	Cavalera Conspiracy
Album:	Inflikted
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	March 24, 2008
Guest review by:	Stuart

01. Inflikted
02. Sanctuary
03. Terrorize
04. Black Ark
05. Ultra-Violent
06. Hex
07. The Doom Of All Fires
08. Bloodbrawl
09. Nevertrust
10. Hearts Of Darkness
11. Must Kill
12. The Exorcist [Possessed cover] [bonus]
13. In Conspiracy [bonus]

Many Sepultura fans lived in hope for more than a decade that one day Max would return to Sepultura and the classic line-up would be complete again and the brothers would be reunited, but we all knew that was never going to happen. Especially when Igor (or Iggor as he's now known) stopped playing with them and Max was making every effort in the media to state that he had no desire to return to the Sepultura fold. After much rumour it was announced that the brothers had settled their differences and were working on new material in a totally new project. It was said that it was some of the most brutal and aggressive music they had ever made. So you can understand the excitement around this album, the Cavalera collaboration which we knew would never happen is indeed finally here.

To the music then: This may possibly be the most brutal album either of these brothers has made since "Arise". There is very little of that tribal vibe in this music, this is straight up Thrash Metal, it is fast and full of great riffs. They sound truly pissed off again, it is full of political rhetoric and has some classic metal lyrics as on the track "Must Kill". The solos are fast and fairly technical, but you do find yourself wishing for the emotion of the solos that Andreas Kisser used to pull out again and again in the early days of Sepultura. It is unquestionable that the Cavalera boys were born to make music together as each and every riff is literally made for the drumming Iggor gives us and he really rips up the kit with incredible intensity.

How does it compare to the Sepultura of old? Well it is very difficult to compare because each Sepultura album was quite different to any other album. The best way to describe this album is to say it is like a mix between Soulfly's "Prophecy" and "Arise". The song structures of very reminiscent of "Arise" but the songwriting just doesn't seem to ever quite reach those same heights. It still sounds very much like Max doing a continuation of what he was doing on the last album with Soulfly but with a damn good drummer behind him. It doesn't completely blow you away but it is a really good, solid, aggressive piece of Thrash Metal which is very seldom seen these days.

There are virtually no fillers on this album but for me the stand-out tracks are "Terrorize", "Heart of Darkness", "Sanctuary", "Must Kill" and "Bloodbrawl" for no particular reason other than they reminded me of the classic Sepultura. Overall I was pleasantly surprised and the album is still in my regular playlist after a good few months of listening to it.