For those not familiar with the story of Max and Igor Cavalera, here it is: In 1983, the brothers (Max, guitar; Igor, drums) formed the Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura and achieved worldwide acclaim by 1990. Then they abandoned visceral extremity for mainstream, tribal-sounding modern metal. In 1996, they split after an argument and didn’t speak for a decade, while Max formed Soulfly and Igor continued with the increasingly lacklustre Seps, leaving them in 2003. The brothers finally made it up last year and – ¡che cojones grandes! – here’s their new album.
Inflikted is gobsmackingly violent. The Cavaleras don’t hit their best form often (Sepultura’s work has been generic since 1995, and Soulfly are always patchy) but, perhaps fuelled by the expectations, they’ve hit it here. The 11 tracks combine hardcore punk (without the crappy production) and thrash metal (without the clichés) to produce an insanely fast record loaded with references to their best work: Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains and Arise. It’s too modern to sound close to those records, of course, but in terms of attitude and riff weight it matches them beat-for-beat and riff-for-riff. Those thousands praying for the Max-era Sepultura line-up to reform can get off their knees: the key reunion has happened.
