Cavalera Conspiracy - Blunt Force Trauma review
| Band: | Cavalera Conspiracy |
| Album: | Blunt Force Trauma |
| Style: | Thrash metal |
| Release date: | March 28, 2011 |
| A review by: | Troy Killjoy |
Disc I [CD]
01. Warlord
02. Torture
03. Lynch Mob
04. Killing Inside
05. Thrasher
06. I Speak Hate
07. Target
08. Genghis Khan
09. Burn Waco
10. Rasputin
11. Blunt Force Trauma
12. Psychosomatic [bonus]
13. Jihad Joe [bonus]
14. Electric Funeral [Black Sabbath cover] [bonus]
Disc II [DVD] [Live Les Eurockéennes Festival]
01. Sanctuary
02. Territory
03. Terrorize
04. The Doom Of All Fires
05. Inner Self/Nevertrust
06. Arise/Dead Embryonic Cells
07. Desperate Cry/Propaganda
08. Wasting Away
09. Black Ark
10. Holiday In Cambodia/Biotech Is Godzilla
11. Hearts Of Darkness
12. Refuse/Resist
13. Troops Of Doom
14. Must Kill
15. Roots Bloody Roots
+ Sanctuary [video]
Everyone knows the story. Max Cavalera left Sepultura in the '90s (with brother Igor finally departing about 10 years later) and everybody felt simply swell about it. No feelings were hurt, everyone moved on with a smile.
Naturally, fans felt torn between the "old" Sepultura and the "new" Sepultura. Then a magical thing happened: Max and Igor overlooked their differences and reunited with Cavalera Conspiracy. And thus, the fans rejoiced. With the release of their debut, Inflikted, in 2008, the Cavaleras set the bar relatively high for its follow-up.
And that's when this fan jumped off the bandwagon.
Blunt Force Trauma is a straightforward groove metal album. Not necessarily the "four-letter word" kind of groove metal, but the good kind. Almost. See, what prevents this from actually being "good" (subjectivity warning) is the total lack of variation. The riffs are incredibly simplistic, repetitive, simplistic, repetitive, sim -- okay, you get it. This is the musical equivalent of watching the pendulum inside a grandfather clock.
Now, in spite of the repetition, there is a decent amount of groove. Obviously. Hence the name of the genre. This is where it gets tricky. Because all the songs sound the same, and riff-by-riff there isn't anything special going on, one could argue it's filled with danceable music. Others may argue it's completely dull, and they definitely have reason to believe that as a result of the incredibly formulaic song structures.
That isn't the only problem with Blunt Force Trauma. It feels devoid of passion, as if the songs were thrown together overnight. Kind of like this review. All in all what you're left with is a major disappointment... or at the very least, a minor one. It really depends on what you thought of Inflikted. As with any band whose background story has a way of superseding the music, Cavalera Conspiracy have released an album that will likely divide their fans: a situation the Cavaleras aren't exactly unfamiliar with.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 5 |
| Originality: | 5 |
| Production: | 7 |
 | Written on 25.11.2011 by I'm total pro; that's what I'm here for. |
Comments
| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
I'm starting to get the feeling mainstream albums are arbitrarily going to receive a negative review from you... I'd agree with the review to some degree, but it's not THAT bad.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by Doc G. on 25.11.2011 at 21:47 Nah, it's just part of my negative review series. I'm wrapping it up soon, only 3 more to go. But there are plenty of mainstream albums I like this year. My list of top-bottom 2011 releases is proof of that (Insomnium, Benighted, Shining, Amon Amarth, etc.).
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 25.11.2011 at 21:52 Mainstream in the sense that they are popular within the world of metal (for the most part) and even more popular within the confines of extreme metal.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 25.11.2011 at 21:56 That's it? Huh. That's unfortunate... I figured between the hype Icon received online and then with a new release this year they'd be a lot more popular. Oh well, I still stand by the fact that not all mainstream music is bad. If I could review Adele's latest on here it would probably receive a high 7, so I'm not as biased as these reviews likely make me out to be. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted Written by Troy Killjoy on 25.11.2011 at 21:58 Nah, I know you're going for the obviously poor releases, and poor for a reason. Evanescence are still decent though 
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| Edmund Fogg Posts: 1752  |
Wait. Am I reading this correctly? A cover of Electric Funeral...Worth to chect the album just for that. I don't think Cavalera Conspiracy was made to have albums that listens in one spin. A few trracks from time to time and this might get a better rating. Edit: Okay..listened to Electric Funeral and it's a definite No for me.
---- You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan
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| sbgmetal Posts: 874  |
It really isnt that bad i jus expected more from their second c.d considering that the first one had a lot of cool riffs in it
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| bluegreengod Account deleted |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Feel free to write your own review.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
"Inflikted" was far from being a masterpiece, but it was pretty good, even ocassionally great. This album is definitely quite a bit weaker IMO...
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Angelic Storm on 26.11.2011 at 01:39 My thoughts exactly. It's not like I was dying to listen to more of Inflikted but it was definitely much better than this album.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.11.2011 at 01:40 Well, "Inflikted" was quite a way off from the greatness of the best Sepultura albums, but on it's own merits it was decent enough, and showed a bit of promise. But instead of building on that, they seem to have gone backwards with their latest. It's only saving grace is that it is probably better than "Kairos", but then that wouldn't be difficult. 
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| NLthrasher Posts: 189  |
The Black Sabbath cover is a big joke...:lol: probably one of the worst covers i've ever heard
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by NLthrasher on 26.11.2011 at 05:14 Agreed. The copy I reviewed didn't feature the track so there wasn't anything for me to say about it, but I listened to it later on Youtube and wow. Would have spent a good paragraph bashing that.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| NLthrasher Posts: 189 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.11.2011 at 05:15 For the most part I agree with your revieuw. Saw them ones live as support act for Judas Priest and they are not my cup of tea though
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
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| Kuroboshi Posts: 1208  |
Hey Troy, I just love reading your bash-reviews. They're a hoot.  Don't have time to listen to all of the albums though, busy as I am.  I'm really impressed by the amount of metal that you manage to digest, how the hell do you find time? :O
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Merchant of Doom on 26.11.2011 at 11:10 My problem is that it was overly simplistic. I mean, I listen to a lot of black and doom and those genres definitely have their share of simplicity, but this takes simple to:
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Kuroboshi on 26.11.2011 at 11:26 Thanks for the compliment.  For the most part I spend all my free time listening to music. Before my work shut down I would listen before I left for work, on my mp3 player on the way to work, on my break at work, mp3 on the walk home, then at home until I went to sleep. More or less the same now, only I'm not working.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Boxcar Willy REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Posts: 9211  |
WHOLE. . . . . . . . . . . . 'Nother . . . . . . . . . . . . Level.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Boxcar Willy on 27.11.2011 at 06:37 No no more like "hoa...nuth-a...lebba".
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Boxcar Willy REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Posts: 9211 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 27.11.2011 at 06:40 You are a very wise man, you know that?
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 27.11.2011 at 07:06 You know as the years go by and he's involved with more and more of these derivative releases it really is hard to build a strong case for him. He's like the personal embodiment of Metallica: a strong, influential start to a career that quickly spiraled out of control in a matter of albums.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Kuroboshi Posts: 1208 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.11.2011 at 22:04 ...That's a lot of listening... Don't you get tired? I get exhausted sometimes when I've listened several hours. Maybe you should start writing some music of your own; I bet you have a lot of ideas. (Or maybe they were all used up in "Dethday". )
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Kuroboshi on 27.11.2011 at 15:32 I think the only time I get tired is when I check out a bunch of new releases and all of them suck. Times like that I just listen to something I know is good though. It's different when I review albums like this though, because I've already listened to it before to get an idea of how bad it is so it's no longer a "shockingly bad" release. As for ideas... I suppose I get some from time to time, but I've never been good with constructing artistic stuff. My Dethday demo is a lot better than Blunt Force Trauma, for the record.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| RockeRoy Posts: 641  |
Boring as hell, Inflikted was much better... imo Blunt force trauma is one of the worst Metal releases ever by a band who plays in a genre that i usualy like.
---- You found god? If nobody claims him in thirty days, he's yours Walk with me in hell
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| Slinky666 Account deleted |
Slinky666
Account deleted
This music is simplistic but its sound and lyrics are sufficiently entertaining for me 
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| 4look4rd The Sasquatch Posts: 841  |
Listening to metal for complexity is like going to a McDonalds and expecting a gourmet meal. Inflikted is a great album, the first half is easily a 9/10 in my book but the quality drops as you go along. Blunt Force Trauma is a lot more consistent but not as good, 7/10.
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