The pressure of writing a great SEPULTURA album, years after Max Cavalera departed, has certainly been a daunting one. After getting back on track with A-Lex, the new offering, Kairos, has its moments of “classic SEPULTURA” elements, but the aggression and speed are stripped away. There are heavy moments with catchy riffs, but for the most part, what you will find on Kairos is a mixture of mid paced and mediocre tracks.
“Spectrum” starts off slow with a groovy and simple riff that sounds decent, and the listener expects the speed to increase somewhere within the song, but the tempo never picks up. The pattern continues, as the title track starts off well and shows great potential only to decrescendo and slow down again. “Relentless” finally shows some spirit, as the beginning riff is reminiscent of the slow, catchy, crunchy style of early OBITUARY, and finishes off with an Arise era solo. The album starts to wear thin as songs like “Dialog” and “Born Strong” drag with their slower beats and rhythms. Aside from the occasional slow double bass, drummer Jean Dolabella does not let loose, and takes a “simpler is better” approach.
The start of “Mask” contains a riff and vocal pattern that is interestingly very similar to CAVALERA CONSPIRACY’s “Inflikted,” with Jean finally showing aggression and blasts in the song. There is a tasty solo towards the end – showing that there are a few good tracks on Kairos. The short and thrashy “No One Will Stand” and “Seethe” sound like classic SEPULTURA and help liven the album up. However, the pace of the other tracks outweigh these thrashier songs. SEPULTURA has never been afraid to experiment, and “Structure Violence (Azzes)” is an interesting collaboration with the French percussive group, LES TAMBOURS DU BRONX, but at the end of the day, most fans would probably skip this track.
Kairos includes the MINISTRY cover “Just One Fix,” and while the original sounds great, this cover would have been better suited for a future EP release. The digipak CD/DVD version of Kairos includes their cover of THE PRODIGY’s “Firestarter,” and is easily one of the best tracks the band recorded during the Kairos sessions – it’s aggressive, catchy, and the solo by Andreas is amazing. The other bonus track of the digipak version is “Point of No Return,” an aggressive song which sounds like a mix of A-Lex and Chaos A.D. Why the band chose to leave these tracks off of the normal version is an enigma, as these bonus tracks would have spruced up the album immensely.
The concepts and lyrics on Kairos are interesting and very well suited to the current incarnation of SEPULTURA. Derrick Green still does a commendable job on vocals, and Andreas puts in an amazing effort in terms of bringing back remarkable Arise-like solos throughout the entire album. Although Kairos is an above average record, most of the songs may be too slow and bland to keep the listener interested throughout the entire voyage. While some Max-era SEPULTURA purists have missed out on some great albums such as Nation and A-Lex, Kairos offers more variety and melody, but a lot less aggression and speed than the new CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. (Nuclear Blast Records)
Now that the celebration of the Cavalera brothers reuniting and putting out a strong, hard hitting debut album is over, we can all see what album number two from CAVALERA CONSPIRACY is all about from purely a musical perspective. Blunt Force Traumaa is good but the songs as a whole are simply not as good as its predecessor. 
Once again, anticipation is high as ex-SEPULTURA brothers, Max and Iggor Cavalera, are set to release 
Ever since guitarist 
On November 14th, The Congregation Gallery will be hosting the second annual METAL Art Show, curated by Cam Rackman. Over 50 original paintings and sculptures by Vincent Castiglia, Max Cavalera, Johny Chow, Chris Peters, Nikko Hurtado, Christopher Conte, Cam Rackam, Cam De Leon, Axis, Zac Shavrick, Krystopher Sapp, Vince Locke, Joachim Luetke, and many more will be showcased.
If Dark Ages was Max Cavalera’s return to true extreme metal/punk, then Conquer is a definitive statement that nü-SOULFLY won’t be around any time soon. Conquer just might be SOULFLY’s heaviest album to date. While much of Conquer conjures up sounds and feelings of old SEPULTURA, there are plenty of (subtle) sounds and styles that we’ve never heard from Max Cavalera before. The war anthem of “Blood Fire War Hate” sets the brutal tone of the album. MORBID ANGEL’s David Vincent lays down some of his great vocals and really helps the song to reach a new level. “Warmageddon” has a great sludgy, doomy MORBID ANGEL-like intro before launching into an urgent, charging tempo that recalls Beneath the Remains and Arise. The song only gets faster and more intense and easily scorches most of today’s popular metal bands in a matter of minutes. “Enemy Ghost” sees Max bringing back the theme and mantra of rising up as evidenced by his lyrics, “Rise above and rise within.” The next song, “Rough,” is a bruiser with prime hardcore riffs that any contemporary hardcore band would sell their souls for. At this point in Conquer, you might wonder whether the intensity will take a break but the band are out to destroy and the grinding main riff of “Fall of the Sycophants” is unrelenting. The middle section of the song is also highly reminiscent of latter era DEATH complete with Chuck Schuldiner-style guitar solos. SOULFLY busts out a cool dub jam to end “Doom.” “For Those About to Rot” burns out with a cascading doom riff before turning into a meditative Middle Eastern/Indian-style interlude. “Touching the Void” is undoubtedly an homage to BLACK SABBATH with its sludgy riffs and song title (i.e. SABBATH’s “Into the Void”) that could’ve come from Master of Reality. The comparatively mellow instrumental, “Soulfly IV,” may be the best instrumental in the band’s collection thus far. It’s very impressive to hear the high quality and power of Conquer considering the fact that Max also wrote the CAVALERA CONSPIRACY album at adjacent periods of time. The rest of the band are in peak form with top-notch performances. And despite what all the magazines may say or omit to say, lead guitarist Marc Rizzo is a true guitar hero and easily negates most of the media’s most touted guitar stars. Conquer effortlessly and unquestionably communicates its message through urgent, heart pounding relevant music. (Roadrunner Records)