ahhh Roots

well here we are, the album that separates most Sepultura fans. Sepultura has a few parts, either Max-era Sepultura or post-Max; or pre-Roots/post-Roots. I am inclined to go with the pre-Roots, post-Roots.
So what is this album about? Where to start (besides the scary looking guy on the cover) ... well for starters you don't hear the classic thick guitar sound, you hear a more 'nu-metal' downtuned guitar, heavy as all get out, but very distorted. The drums still go with the 'tribal' drumming and some tin can drums thrown in for fun. But like the past few Sepultura albums, this one kicks off with possibly the best song of the album Roots Bloody Roots. When I first heard this song I thought I was listening to St. Anger...seriously listen to Roots Bloody Roots and tell me you don't. The difference between St. Anger and Roots is that Roots works for Sepultura. The muddy guitar, tin can drums (which aren't throug-out, but thrown in for effect) the lack of solos; yes there are something like solos, but don't think Arise-era solos, those are gone. There are some wicked beats, very grove oriented at times (Cut-Throat& Breed Apart) but then there are also some times where they try to bring out some old thrash sound, like Attitude & Spit. Then there are songs like Ratamahatta that sound like they were left off a Korn album. A song like Dust combines the two sounds pretty well, one hand very grove metal and heavy, but has some thrash out moments. And like Chaos A.D. there are alot of tribal chants on the album in-between songs. Plus you have songs like Jasco, Itsari, and Canyon Jam.

Roots, the album that coined the term tribal metal. I don't know what that is, but I do know that this is a good album. If you expect anything like Chaos A.D. or Arise you won't find it here. What you will find is heavy downtuned guitars with some of the best drumming out there.

After Roots, their lead singer Max Cavalera had a fallout from the rest of the band, including his brother who is still their drummer, and was fired or quit depends on who you ask. So from here there are two directions; one is to continue with Sepultura and the post-Max era or go check out his band Soulfly. Sepultura sort of wondered for an album or two before they got back on track and Max started off strong, but then got a little lost.