This Brazil/Japan-only EP from São Paulo's toughest metal band includes eight "Sepulturyzed" versions of songs from artists as disparate as
U2,
Devo, and
Public Enemy. While heavy, thrash-influenced cover versions of well-known material might have become camp in lesser hands (and is a bit of a cliché in the metal genre), the veterans in
Sepultura treat the songs as seriously as they do their own. This envelops the EP with a visceral quality that the songs' individual resonance can't shake, forbidding most of the material to exist simply as snarky heavy metal cover songs.
Sepultura applies a chokehold from note one of
Hellhammer's "Messiah," and doesn't take its knee off the listener's chest until the brutal death throes of
Exodus' "Piranha." In between, the foreboding slow-motion groove of
Massive Attack's "Angel" is replicated without remorse, vocalist
Derrick Green's bloodcurdling growl replacing the spacy flow of
Horace Andy on the original. The contributions of DJ Gonzales and Brazilian rapper
Sabotage on "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" save what would have been a decent, yet toothless cover of the
Public Enemy classic, but the band fails with a listless take on
Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song." Fortunately, this is the only real low point.
Devo's "Mongoloid" is cheap and easy fun, while
Green and the band tear and snap at
U2's cynical, apocalyptic "Bullet the Blue Sky" with jaws that would swallow
Bono whole. Concluding Revolusongs is a throwaway bonus track marrying "Enter Sandman"'s riff with the lockstep thrash of "Fight Fire With Fire" from
Ride the Lightning. It's unclear whether its inclusion is a nod to
Metallica's
Garage Days Re-Revisited or simply a studio gag. But with
Sepultura still recovering from
Max Cavalera's departure, Revolusongs is definitely a chance for
Green to get a vocal workout while continuing to ingratiate himself with what's left of the band's fan base. ~ Johnny Loftus