Sepultura: Kairos

Often, I am faced with the question, "If a newer band wrote this album, would it be considered good, better, or just as bad?" This question I ask of myself when listening to the new Sepultura album, Kairos. To be honest, I've given the now lengthy 'Post-Max' Sepultura enough of my time. For the most part, it's not good. There's certainly enough good songs sprinkled through the lengthy stint, but not enough to keep my interested. According to Wikipedia, the title the band chose for this album is the greek word for the right, supreme, or opportune moment. Perhaps this title was chose for a reason, but maybe not the one the band was looking for.

The whole reason I even gave this album the time of day was I saw live footage of their cover of Ministry's 'Just One Fix'. That alone should be the flag to raise caution. As you'd expect the band's cover of the Ministry classic comes off as predictable as you'd expect. Tribal drums after the first chorus to shake things up. Sure, it's a nice twist to the song, but I wouldn't really call it a change. The band makes the attempt to put their touch on a track that makes it more distracting than original.

As I first mentioned, above, I ask myself how good would I consider this album if someone else wrote it. This is what you'd expect from the band. It's their mid-tempo groove thrash. You've heard it before, and you don't have to hear it again. Perhaps 'Mask' provides a little change. There are blast beats and the riffs keep you interested, even through the solo, but it ultimately sounds like everything else you've heard from somewhere else.

Okay. I get it. You're not going to try anything new, but c'mon. Give it a rest already. This band hasn't put out anything unpredictable in a while. If you're expecting something new and exciting, look elsewhere. Sepultura provides the predictable, but is it good enough these days? It's not that this album is horrible, it's not interesting. As the album title suggests, this might be a opportune time to stop. They are stuck in time. A band with a tenure such as yours shouldn't be writing these riffs anymore.