SEPULTURA - A-LEX REVIEW

Sepultura is back with their new concept album, A-lex. A-lex is inspired by the book, A Clockwork Orange. The album was compiled from a collection of studio jams. This lack of structure really helps drive the themes of the story home. Musically, it’s fairly similar to Dante XXI; only it’s faster, angrier, and more stripped back. It’s also the first album to feature Jean Dolabella on drums.

The album starts off with a brief intro before listeners are struck with the one, two punch of “Moloko Mesto” and “Filthy Rot”. “Moloko Mesto” is a brutal thrasher with a killer middle section and solo. “Filthy Rot” features tribal sounding drums with a mid-paced Meshuggah influenced riff and a chanting chorus. Cool stuff.

While all the songs are solid, the main highlights of the album are: “Sadistic Values”, “Forceful Behavior”, and “Enough Said”. “Sadistic Values” is a near 7 minute epic that starts off with a moody Tool/A Perfect Circle style riff accompanied by Derrick’s baritone clean vocals. At the half-way mark, the song turns into a no holds barred thrasher with an excellent variety of riffs. “Forceful Behavior” and “Enough Said” are hard hitting numbers with tons of energy and aggression.

The only song that doesn’t do much for me is “Ludwig Van”. It’s a cool idea, but it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the songs and goes on for too long. Overall, this is a very good Sepultura album even though half of the founding members are gone. Derrick proves once again that he is a powerful vocalist and Jean Dolabella holds his own behind the kit. I think this could be the best post-Max Sepultura album to date.