Brazilian thrash and groove metal legends Sepultura make a return in 2020 with their new full length LP Quadra. This is the band’s fifteenth studio album and is preceded by their 2017 project Machine Messiah.
In interviews, the band has explained that the album is named after the Quadrivium, which is the word that describes the four arts—arithmetics, geometry, music and astronomy. This ties into the concept of the album as it signifies the four primary musical styles of the album starting with the thrash sound Sepultura is known for, moving into the second section of more groove based tracks, then a section that explores the band’s more progressive or technical side before finishing off with some more melodic, and slightly atmospheric tracks.
The opening track on the album, “Isolation,” opens the album with a little taste of what’s to come on the rest of the album. It features some dark, ominous synths, and some orchestral stabs before going leading into a classic thrash banger, which makes it a definite highlight on the album.
It isn’t until the fourth track, “Capital Enslavement,” that the album transitions into the more groove metal based tracks.
This track in particular contains passages with traditional Brazillian rhythm instruments—a musical concept the band pursued on one of their previous records. “Ali,” another track in this section, stands out to me in particular because it is a rather barebones thrash track that doesn’t feature much more instrumentation beyond the traditional guitar, bass and drums. However, there are some nods to traditional Brazilian rhythms in the drums behind all of the heavy riffing.
“Guardians of Earth” comes in as the sixth track of the album and begins its progressive portion. It starts off with a classical guitar passage and builds up as acoustic guitar, drums and chorus vocals layer on top of it in the mix before coming through with some slower, more groove-based, crushing riffs. The song is well-composed as it has different passages that feature different timbres. It also brings back the chorus and acoustic guitar in the heavy parts of the song.
Another stand out is the next track “The Pentagram.” This track features some more dissonant technical riffs, similar to what one would find on a Voivod record. The track also features some spacey guitar interludes, which reminds me of Voivod and other bands in the progressive thrash scene. “Autem” shows the band exercising their more alternative metal side as the track showcases some catchy vocals on choruses before it moves into a more technical metal passage.
After this track, we reach the more melodic, slow-burner tracks greeted by the short classical guitar piece “Quadra.” “Agony of Defeat” comes in with some soft electric pianos and clean, chorus-effect guitars before driving drums come through.
Vocalist Derrick Green brings us some gravely clean vocals to layer on top the first section before the slightly dissonant lead guitars build it up into a hard-hitting, groove metal track. This leads us into the final track “Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering” which features Emmily Barreto from Far From Alaska on vocals doing harmonies with Green which makes for a particularly harsh, yet smooth, texture.
If there were any issues I had in particular with this album, I would say that some of the vocal performances on “Agony of Defeat”, particularly at the beginning didn’t resonate with me all that much. I feel like Green’s singing vocals aren’t particularly as strong in a context where he has to sing at a softer dynamic.
I also feel like “Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering” could have used some work in terms of songwriting since the instruments get a little bland compared to the rest on the album. Even though the song had many interesting turns and changes in timbre throughout its runtime, the simplicity of the drums and guitar rhythms hurt the song rather than elevate it into something greater.
However, “Quadra” overall is a solid metal album and is worth a listen for any Sepultura fan or thrash and groove metal listeners.