On
their second album with lead singer Derrick Green (who
replaced founding vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera after
six previous studio efforts), the pioneering Brazilian metal
quartet SEPULTURA sound more like a band than on Green's
debut, 1998's Against. This time around, his
vocal stylings and melody lines play an integral part in the
songwriting (on Against, he merely came in and
sang what the rest of the band had written), and there's a
renewed sense of confidence and cohesion in both his performance
and those of guitarist Andreas Kisser, drummer Igor
Cavalera, and bassist Paulo (Jr.) Pinto.
...
As
a result, Nation features material such as "Sepulnation"
and "Border Wars" that holds up well next to
their best efforts on albums like Chaos A.D. and
the 1996 masterpiece, Roots. Likewise, the band
continues to expand their own artistic borders by seeking out
new musical combinations, whether with dub wizard Dr. Israel
on "Tribe To A Nation" or the Finnish string
quartet APOCALYPTICA on "Valtio".
Nevertheless, Nation falls just short of
greatness a tendency to veer wildly from introspection to
brutality makes the album play like a series of occasionally
explosive moments with dead spots in between, and some of the
later material doesn't hold up to the standard set in the
album's opening moments. The best parts of Nation
find SEPULTURA sounding like a band that has laid their
past to rest, while the rest sounds like they're still unsure
how to move forward.
