Beranda Music Cavalera Conspiracy – Morbid Visions

Music

Cavalera Conspiracy – Morbid Visions

2023-07-14

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Morbid Visions: The Cavalera’s Resurrected Nightmare

Cavalera Conspiracy’s Morbid Visions (2023) reclaims Sepultura’s 1986 debut with unrelenting force. Max and Igor Cavalera, reunited and relentless, sharpen their thrash-death roots—riffs slice, drums pound, and tales of doom hit harder than ever. From Brazil’s gritty ‘80s to Arizona’s desert now, it’s a brutal rewind: not a remake, but a reckoning. The past lives again, louder and meaner.

Cavalera Conspiracy’s Morbid Visions is a full-album re-recording of Sepultura’s 1986 debut, unleashed on July 14, 2023, via Nuclear Blast Records. Led by Max and Igor Cavalera, it’s a brutal revisit to their thrash/death metal origins, polished with modern grit.

A Past Reclaimed

Originally tracked in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on a shoestring budget with Sepultura’s early lineup—Max (vocals/guitar), Igor (drums), Jairo Guedz (guitar), and Paulo Jr. (bass)—Morbid Visions was a raw, sloppy snapshot of ’80s extreme metal. The 2023 redo, recorded at The Platinum Underground in Phoenix, Arizona, swaps Guedz and Paulo for Daniel Gonzalez (lead guitar) and Igor Amadeus Cavalera (bass). Produced by Max and Igor with John Aquilino, and mixed/mastered by Arthur Rizk, it’s a family affair with a pro sheen. Nine tracks, 33 minutes—same skeleton, but the flesh is thicker, the bones sharper. Think of it as the Cavaleras’ dusting off an old blade and honing it to kill again.

Sonic Evolution, Not Revolution

The album’s DNA—thrash speed, death metal’s guttural edge, and punk’s reckless snarl—stays intact, but the execution’s night-and-day. Take “Morbid Visions,” the opener: Max’s vocals, once a youthful rasp buried in tape fuzz, now roar with seasoned venom over Gonzalez’s razor-wire riffs. Igor’s drums, once a chaotic clatter, lock into a tighter, heavier groove—blast beats hit like artillery. Tracks like “Crucifixion” lean harder into blackened thrash vibes, with cleaner production exposing riffs that 1986’s murk obscured. Lyrically, it’s still a gore-soaked hymnbook—Satan, war, decay (“Funeral Rites” growls, “The black vulture will spread his wings / And then we’ll die”)—but the delivery feels less like kids playing evil, more like veterans owning it. The trade-off? Some of that primal, unhinged charm gets sanded down.

The Why Behind the Rewind

This isn’t just nostalgia—it’s reclamation. After splitting from Sepultura (Max in 1996, Igor in 2006), the brothers watched their old band drift into groove-metal territory. Re-recording Morbid Visions (and Bestial Devastation) is their stake in the ground: “This is ours.” The Phoenix sessions, post-reunion, carry a weight of reconciliation—Max and Igor, once estranged, now synced in purpose. Unlike Napalm Death’s Scum‘s fractured lineup birthing something new, Morbid Visions is a unified front refining something old. The animated videos by Ben Clarkson—skulls, fire, apocalyptic sprawl—echo that intensity, tying the album’s visual identity to its sonic rebirth.

What Sets It Apart

Here’s your fresh spin: Morbid Visions 2023 is a time machine with teeth. It’s not about topping the original’s cult status (pressed in Brazil for $500, now a vinyl grail); it’s about proving the Cavaleras’ early fire still burns. The album bridges their teenage rebellion to their grizzled present—less a museum piece, more a live wire. It lacks Scum‘s genre-defining chaos but trades it for focus and heft, a testament to roots revisited without rose-tinted glasses.

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