SEPULTURA Arise

Artist: SEPULTURA
Title: Arise
Year of Release: 1991
Label: Roadrunner/Cargo
Format: DLP

This is a recent reissue of the classic Sepultura offering from 1991. It amazes/amuses me that the bigger the label, the generally poorer the vinyl release is. Though this is a double LP version, and the vinyl itself is qualitative, the rest of the package leaves a lot to be desired. A single cover for starters, and the cover art especially is poorly presented; the colours are too dark and it looks as though it may have originated as a scan from a CD!

At least is has two full colour printed inserts. These are more or less adaptations of the gold remastered CD edition, and while they appear to be kinda thrown together, they are at least there, and engaging to a degree.

The point of this I suppose is why bother doing these releases if they are just the same old same old? What would it have taken to create a deluxe vinyl edition to rival some of the special edition CDs the label release? Though this is a Cargo Records pressing and as a result a licensed release, I can’t help but to feel it could have been done so much better.

Refer to any of the current Hells Headbangers, Nuclear War Now or AJNA Offensive releases if you’re unsure what I mean.

Though Sepultura were definitely on the frontlines of the burgeoning thrash scene of the mid-ish 80’s it’s amazing that this album received the acclaim that it did. Sure it warrants it for the most part, but considering that most of the monstrous thrash albums had come out years before this, and Nirvana and co had unquestionably sunk their teeth into the musical culture at large by this time, I wonder what factors contributed to this success beyond the music itself…

From memory, Sepultura were considered less a thrash band at this point and aligned comfortably with the death metal set. Not as heavy as Deicide or Obituary, the fan base was certainly aligned to a great extent, and perhaps in 2008, after all the punishing death metal hordes that have emerged over the years, this heavy, though still very thrash-centric opus is best viewed as that. You can’t really call ‘Arise’ a death metal album any more than you can declare ‘Soul Of A New Machine’ one, though even Fear Factory fell into that realm back in the day. History has a way of distorting the reality of what once was I suppose.

It’s no ‘Master Of Puppets’ or ‘Reign In Blood’ and while I think there were a number of bands who were on par musically and to an extent stylistically (Infernal Majesty anyone?) I think Sepultura had the right ingredients, the right spirit and of course, nothing to lose. If you desire to experience thrash from a non American stand point, this is definitely an album to pursue. Yes, they came from South America, but this is no Bay Area dealio to be sure.