the last sepultura album of the set is the last album the band recorded with max cavalera. after an dispute with the rest of the band (mainly kisser) concerning gloria bujnowski and her declining managing qualities in the cause of the death of her son and max cavalera's step son dana wells, max left sepultura in bitterness. a dispute that max and igor compromised over a decade afterwards and which is still lingering between the older cavalera brother and kisser. but what came before one of the most renowned feud in metal was an album that set sepultura on the metal throne in the mid nineties. "roots" shook the earth and i think i can say without any exaggeration that sepultura's sixth full length is their most famous one.
back then in 1996 i was just exploring heavy music with rammstein's "sehnsucht" album i got on cd for christmas. korn came afterwards and i think it was in 1998 when i found "roots" in our local library. they had a few metal related albums on cd in their stock. i remember that i borrowed biohazard's "mata leao" and said "roots" cd. back in the days i listened to my cd's way more intensive because i just had a handful of them. "roots" was on heavy rotation. as soon as nu metal faded from my daily playlists in the early 00's, sepultura also disappeared. i probably didn't listen to this record for at least ten years, so i was quite excited to drop the needle on it.
after the first run-through of this re-press i was pretty underwhelmed. somehow "roots" didn't age well for me. i think with their previous records now being part of my metal canon, i only see how this drastic change in style is the complete opposite of what i learned to love in all the preceding records. a few more spins didn't help to change my feelings. but regardless of personal taste this re-issue looks lovely. i thought the double lp re-press from roadrunner and cargo records from 2011 was the only vinyl pressing of "roots" but there was actually a first press from 1996. as usual with this box set, this re-press is a detailed replica. the vinyl colour is perfect in combination with the cover art. even though i repeat myself this box is a pleasure for eyes and ears alike. give me more of them rhino! 2017.
