Sepultura - Quadra - flyctory.com

Sepultura - Quadra

3.6

Rating

3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Very good instrumentation
The Sepultura sound

Flyctory.com Cons

No outstanding title
Not too outstanding in variety and songwriting

Sepuiltura are true Heavy Metal legends – with Quadra, the Brazilians already released their 15th studio album, 24 years after their debut. This time, the release is a concept album, drealing with the number four and the Qaudrivium (arithmetics, geometry, music and astronomy). The album has been released on 7th February 2020.

Sepultura – About The Artists

Sepultura formed in 1984, found by the brothers Igor and Max Cavalera, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The band was also a reaction of the sudden death of their father, a model and diplomat. It took them a while to find a reasonable line-up, which they finally found by playing with Wagner Lamounier, Paolo Jr. and Jairo Guedes. They already got a record deal in 1985, and as an EP they shared with another band got quite some reputation, they decided to move to the larger city of Sao Paolo. Guedes quit the band and was replaced by Andreas Kisser in 1987, but the band was on the rise. Their first three albums did not draw too much attention out of Brazil, but the 1991 Arise was already a huge success with chart placements like #25 in Germany. The 1996 album Roots was likely the peak of the band history, when the album was int he Top 10 in multiple markets. The two founding brothers finally left the band in 1996 and 2006, bassist Paulo Jr. is the only remaining artist of the early era.

Sepultura – Quadra – Track by Track

The twelve songs of Quadra last 51 minutes.

1. Isolation

My first thoughts, when listening to Isolation were about Eloy Casagrande. The current drummer of Sepultura has a very tough job from the very beginning. Isolation is definitely one of the best songs of the album and thus a great start.

2. Means To An End

This song feels to have different sections, very loud ones with shouting and hard guitars, but also comparably quiet moments. Nice.

3. Last Time

All you say
Won’t make it go away
Killing by myself
I’m not here to stay
Already crossed that line
Lucky I’m alive
Climbed out from the bottom
Can’t rule my life
Never far behind
Closer every time
I’m the one who saved me

The first three tracks have been released before the album. Last Time is quite classic Sepultura sound. Again, there are some contrasting moments in the song, which even uses a background choral in the interlude.

4. Capital Enslavement

The song starts with African sounds and has its very own character. Nice one.

Can’t make out the faces
Keep changing with time
Search for an answer
Hope passes us by
Must keep always moving
You stop when you die
Created this world
No escaping this fuckin’ game

5. Ali

Stand against the foe
Is a sweeter death to know
A battle for our right
Is a sweeter death to know
Better to stay and fight
Is a sweeter death to know
Stand against the foe
Is a sweeter death to know

Hard and straight lyrics, hard and straight guitar play make a hard and straight metal song. Nice!

6. Raging Void

Raging Void is comparably slow and by that a perfect headbanger. Thus, it is one of the best songs of Quadra to me.

7. Guardians Of Earth

Guardians Of Earth is the best song of the album to me. I like the melodic battle between the guitars and the shouting on the hand and gothic chorals on the other. Good composition!

8. The Pentagram

The Pentagram is a quite impressive, more than five minute, fully instrumental track with very strong guitar play. Nice!

9. Autem

Authem is a trip back to the hard guitars and the loud shouting. Very rhythmic track, cool to listen to.

10. Quadra

Here we go, the title track… Oh, we are done already? Yeah, it is just a 46 second melodic (piano sound) interlude.

11. Agony Of Defeat

If you do not like metal to be too hard, this may be your track of the album. Agony Of Defeat is significantly “softer” than other tracks on the album. Good track, though, definitely. By the way, it is also the longest track on the album, close to six minutes.

12. Fear; Pain; Suffering

In this song lost souls travel free. The track is again not too hard and a good listen if you don’t like the strings to be shredded really hard.

Sepultura – Quadra – Spotify

Here are Sepultura’s 2020 sounds as a preview:

Sepultura – Quadra – My View

Sepultura produced a quite solid album. Loud, good instrumentation – but not too catchy finally. I would have also loved to feel the concept of the album more than it does show. Overall, it is definitely above average, but not a must-buy – also because smashing hits are missing.