{"id":15129,"date":"2013-10-25T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=15129"},"modified":"2013-11-13T10:08:21","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T10:08:21","slug":"album-review-sepultura-the-mediator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-sepultura-the-mediator\/","title":{"rendered":"SEPULTURA – The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEPULTURA
The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

One of heavy music\u2019s most recognisable acts, Sepultura return with their 13th album, The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart<\/em>. The new album follows a string of progressive extremities based largely on philosophical principles that arguably began with 2006\u2019s Dante XXI<\/em>. Additionally, the new album marks the debut of drummer Eloy Casagrande.<\/p>\n

With Sepultura\u2019s assorted history, it\u2019s nearly impossible to predict what the Brazilian band might come up with shy of the fact that it\u2019ll be aggressive and heavy in some way. The Mediator<\/em> delivers heartily on both those fronts in an overall sense, adding slightly more groove into the mix while sacrificing anything overtly memorable. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s hard to take about this album is the fact that it\u2019s probably Sepultura\u2019s heaviest offering since before 1993\u2019s Chaos AD<\/em> (although 2011\u2019s Kairos<\/em> had its moments as well). Unfortunately, most of what we get here is heavy, not varied, and it just kind of all jumbles together. Case in point is the album\u2019s opening trio of songs, \u2018Trauma Of War\u2019, \u2018The Vatican\u2019 and \u2018Impending Doom\u2019. While all are technically impressive and dynamic, they all just kind of wander aimlessly through a maze of buzzsaw guitars, screams, and pounding rhythms. In some ways, they even follow similar formats and, in my opinion, it just feels lacklustre right from the start. \u2018Tsunami\u2019 and \u2018Obsessed\u2019 follow the same breakneck pattern, leaving the listener feeling pummeled but not ready to hit the repeat button.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that there aren\u2019t some great songs here though. As someone whose favourite Sepultura albums come from Chaos AD<\/em> to Nation<\/em> (2001), I particularly dig a few songs here that feature that heavy groove that vocalist Derrick Green fits so well into. \u2018The Bliss Of Ignorants\u2019 is probably the best of these with Casagrande\u2019s constant motion, the dissonant guitars, hints of tribal rhythms, and overall catchiness, capping itself off with Green doing more than just senselessly screaming his head off.<\/p>\n

\u2018Obsessed\u2019 is another such moment, showing a side of the band that is more than just pure aggression. The guitars are groovier here but also oddly circular, reminding me a great deal of the Against<\/em> album (1998). It\u2019s these songs as well as \u2018Manipulation Of Tragedy\u2019 and \u2018The Age Of The Atheist\u2019 that most likely have ignited the comparison to Chaos AD<\/em>, but these are just a small portion of the album.<\/p>\n

Overall, this is an average album at best in Sepultura\u2019s catalogue. I enjoyed the reintegration of some tribal elements and some more groove-oriented songs, but much like its predecessors, Kairos<\/em> and A-Lex<\/em> (2009), a lot of this is just ramped up angst and at this point in Sepultura\u2019s career I feel like they have more to offer than a \u201cwall of sound\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEPULTURAThe Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 5\/10 One of heavy music\u2019s most recognisable acts, Sepultura return with their 13th album, The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart. The new album follows a string of progressive extremities based largely on philosophical principles that arguably began with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sepultura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15129"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15134,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15129\/revisions\/15134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}