Cavalera Conspiracy – Psychosis
Album Review by Adam McCann
Label : Napalm Records
Year : 2017
From beneath the underground slums of a Third World…
The best thing about Cavalera Conspiracy is that it is Max and Igor doing what they are good at and what they do best. There is no pressure with Cavalera Conspiracy to sound like Sepultura, Soulfly or Nailbomb and that gives the Cavalera brothers the breathing space they need to capture that good old fashioned, no frills thrash metal sound.
2017 brings us a new Cavalera Conspiracy album, ‘Psychosis’ and once more Cavalera Conspiracy invoke that era of Sepultura between ‘Beneath the Remains’, ‘Arise’ and ‘Chaos A.D.’, when the band gave the world the sound of the brutal Brazilian monster in a time before the nu-metal touches and intense tribal rhythms.
There are some killer and heavy riffs on ‘Psychosis’, from the opening track of ‘Insane’ with its pounding drums and skull fucking riff which makes your head feel as if there is a very tired jaguar waking up from a long days sleep to find out his wife has been making love to the jaguar from further up the Amazon, whilst the hypnotic loop of ‘Judas Pariah’ manages to make a relatively average song extremely likeable.
However, the accolade for the best song on the album goes to the utterly superb ‘Terror Tactics’ as once more, terrorism feels the full-blown Max Cavalera fury. The anger seething from this song gives ‘Terror Tactics’ the feeling of a lost-Sepultura song and therefore, the groove of ‘Terror Tactics’ carries the album alone. Unfortunately, just like every Cavalera Conspiracy album there are a few dull tracks which peter out on the second half of the album and if ‘Terror Tactics’ is the lost Sepultura track, then ‘Hellfire’ is more like a poor Nailbomb outtake.
‘Psychosis’ is a more than decent album, it is fun and would appeal to any fan of old school Sepultura and we know there are plenty of them. Those longing for the days of pre ‘Roots’ will find a great album with ‘Psychosis’ and those looking for some old school thrash that sparks the mosh might just be pleasantly surprised.
Rating : 75/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
