Sepultura-Beneath the Remains (1989)

Sepultura-Beneath the Remains (1989)

“Ireland, Italy and Brazil are the most musical places for me. They're extremely musical cultures and anything you pitch they basically catch.

James Taylor

By: Ghost Writer

In 1989 I was already in junior high school and Music was already a big part of my life, buying at least one record a week became a habit and I became known in school as the kid who bought records every week, I was sort of a weirdo because although everyone knew I loved music, they were sort of thinking: "What kind of music does this freak listens too?" I loved music that was unique, not what the radio or MTV had to offer, I was into whatever sound mystical, transcendental and dangerous, at the time I listened to Slayer a lot, I drove mom crazy with that music, but she was always cool, she laughed a lot, I guess she enjoyed having a crazy kid, and tried to understand was I was into, but the noise was a little difficult for her.

In those times music came in recorded cassettes, it was all about take trading. I lent some music and friends lent me some other, quality was not an important issue as obviously these cassettes had been recorder over and over so many times; One day someone lent me a cassette, the name of the band was crazy, Sepultura, Were they Mexican? "No, they ate from Brazil" I was told? What the hell? They play something else besides samba? A whole world was opened to me, I can tell you I got hooked on Brazilian extreme music, Sarcofago, Krisiun, and Ratos de Porao came after that, but the first and best of all Brazilian metal records for me was Beneath the Remains, up to this day is my favorite Sepultura record, the pinnacle of everything they did, my friends loved Arise and Chaos AD, I don't consider those bad records but they never excited me the way Beneath the Remains did.

From the brutal near Neanderthal beats of the title track, Sepultura was way between thrash and death, the fact that they weren't from the U.S. or Europe gave them an edge, it made the more violent and leaning mire to hardcore than metal and that was so cool, they were beyond Venom or Slayer, yet they didn't have the polished sound Obituary or Death were looking for, Igor Cavalera was a beast in drums, primitive and effective at the same time, while Andreas Kisser gave the band some great stomach churning guitar solos.

Although Inner Self was a slower tune, its guitar were the crunchiest thing you could he's in those years, Max Cavalera the singer and guitarist was awesome, powerful and you could understand every word he screamed, Stronger Than Hate again belonged to hardcore punk territory, but also displayed awesome neo classical guitar arrangements thanks to Kisser, and Mass Hypnosis the next theme was one of the strongest in the whole record with incredible guitars, brutal drumming and some of the catchiest extreme metal you could hear in at that time.

After listened to Beneath The Remains too many times I can assure you that it has aged very well, I guess way better than Chaos AD or Arise, it is a record whose raw qualities make it timeless, it is a record with amazing songs and it shows perfectly a still struggling little known band, coming out of nowhere, hungry for recognition and that is precisely the formula for this great powerful record.