'Against' is the first Sepultura record without Max Cavalera. New vocalist Derrick Green had too big boots to fill up, because with his great raspy voice and big character, Max also took his guitar playing with him when he left. Max formed Soulfly, but I have to admit I've heard a few songs only and they didn't convince me (Soulfly already have three albums out).

On 'Chaos A.D.' (1993) the band took a few steps away from thrash metal. The trend continued with 'Roots' (1996) and now with this one. There is no thrash metal to be heard any more. What Sepultura have lost are the riffs. The music is very rhythmic. Over the heavy and still pretty good rhythm section of Igor Cavalera's drums and Paulo Jr.'s bass, the guitars are just "wanked" on and on. I mean Andreas Kisser seems to like more of the weird and tortured sounds his guitar make (well, I understand if he wanted to get bad stuff out of his system) than a good, memorable riff. The most memorable parts seem to come from the rhythm section altogether. The songs vary from hardcore-ish ones to, well "jungle-ish" ones and then Korn-ish "mud". There are a lot of guests on this album, most notably Jason Newsted (ex-Flotsam And Jetsam, ex-Metallica), Gordo of Ratos De Porão and Japanese KODO drummers. I have to admit that flutes and stuff are used well to create ethnic atmospheres, as well as well-known South American percussion work. I just wonder why the band has now taken these Japanese influences. I don't mean they're bad, but has the band run out of fresh ideas? One of more striking of all songs is 'Hatred Aside', which owes a lot to Motörhead, but it rolls on with power and help of Mr. Newsted.

Mr. Green doesn't sound as pissed off as his predecessor, nor does he possess same level of charisma. He does his job okay, but my memories just disturb the whole listening session, whether it's the music or the vocals. And while the music is partly very angry, it is just not same it used to be. The sound is organic and very heavy. This helps to some extent, but of course its the music that should rule, eh?!

It's truly a sad direction the band have decided to move to. Gone are the true metal spirit and the ability make a great song. No matter how hard I try to like this album, only a few of the songs seem to be something more than just uninteresting and bland. Easily the worst album by Sepultura to date. And what I've heard of Soulfly, it's not a million miles away from this, but still way more mallcore or groove metal... The split destroyed this great band. I just wonder how many new fans of the band who have bought this first, like the older classic records at all (which for me are 'Beneath the Remains' [1989], 'Arise' [1991] and 'Chaos A.D.')?!

Rating: 4 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/16/2002 22:15