Sepultura - Arise (1991)

After the highly-regarded thrashfeast of Beneath the Remains, the jungle boys cleaned up their act a bit and pulled back on the reins to produce Arise, a more professional album featuring a restrained, yet familiar take on their style. Gone is the wild, urgent thrash edge, replaced by the self-confident pace of a Sepultura slowly branching out in a new direction. Arise may be a transition album, but that doesn't make it any less worth listening to.

One of the most noticeable changes on Arise is the warm, dry sound of the album. It's definitely a "better" mix - the instruments are more balanced with each other, bringing about a smooth cohesion and consistency to the album - but it's a sharp about-face from the raw, immediate punch of Beneath the Remains. Although this doesn't help the overall heft of Arise, I don't find the change to be lacking at all. Starting with the fantastic cover art depicting Yog Sothoth in a wasteland of drab, muted colours, Arise creates the impression of a vast, barren world that is perfectly matched by the warmth of the music. Ominous introductions add an excellent sense of space, while the music itself hints at an encapsulating vastness. The guitars are still sharp, yet moreso like the sting of sand blown in a strong desert wind than the previous razor edge. Some might call the riffs on Arise tame - they're certainly not going to win any awards for speed or complexity, that's for sure - but that doesn't stop them from being as catchy as the plague. Max and Andreas had (had, mind you) a fantastic knack for writing memorable songs from fairly simple riffs, and it's a testament to them that they could do so at the fairly sedate (for thrash) tempo of Arise. Max's voice has also matured here, eschewing the sneering spite seen previously for a confident strength that imbues much more character into the humanistic lyrics drawn from the struggles in Sao Paulo and the world. Capping off with a killer cover of Motorhead's "Orgasmotron," the fourth Sepultura LP ends on a rocking note that fits perfectly with the rest of the album.

I have no objection to the common opinion that the songwriting on Arise is less impressive than Beneath the Remains and less unique than Chaos AD. However, that has never hampered my enjoyment of it, and therein lies why this album gets such high esteem from me. Even now, a bit past ten years later, Arise is every bit as entertaining as when I first came across it. In my mind, there are no out-of-place riffs, weak points, or duds to be found anywhere on the album. Sepultura aren't pushing themselves to their limits here, but they're doing what they do, and doing it damn well.

Verdict: Epic Win [5/5]

http://sepultura.uol.com.br/v6/