Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
On October 19, 1993, "Sepultura" released its fifth album, "Chaos A.D.", in the United States.
This album is the band's fifth and it marks a change in its musical direction with the entry of Brazilian and groove metal motifs. This change can already be heard in the opening song "Refuse/Resist" which emphasizes heavier and slower riffs. The song opens with a recording of the rhythmic fetal heartbeat of Max Cavalera’s son Zyon, captured before his birth. These heartbeats predicted something for the future, because Zyon stayed with rhythm and became a drummer.
The change in the musical style is attributed, among other things, to the fact that this is the band's first album in which some songs use D standard guitar tuning, a whole step below standard E, which creates a heavier and "doomy" sound. An example of this can be found in the song "Nomad" which features slow and heavy riffs that were described by guitarist Andreas Kisser as Sepultura's response to "Metallica's" "Sad but True".
This album includes quite a few songs with political and protest themes, such as "Refuse/Resist" which we mentioned, whose title alone sounds like a protest slogan in a demonstration and whose video clip speaks for itself, "Slave New World" which refers to censorship, and of course "Territory" which addresses conflict and struggles for power, and whose video was shot in Israel.
The album also addresses mass violence. "Amen" concerns the 1993 Waco siege and fire involving David Koresh’s community in Texas; "Manifest" concerns the massacre of prisoners at Carandiru in Brazil; "Kaiowas" pays tribute to Brazil’s Kaiowá people. In an interview, Max described its inspiration as a story of mass suicide in protest at threatened displacement. This describes the songwriter’s account, rather than independently verifying the historical event.
An interesting story about "Kaiowas". This is an instrumental track which Max defined as a combination of "Led Zeppelin" and "Sonic Youth". This song was recorded live accompanied by acoustic instruments at "Chepstow Castle", an ancient medieval castle located in Wales. In this song, Max Cavalera and Andreas Kisser are in charge of the guitar roles, and Igor Cavalera and Paulo Jr. handle the percussion. When the band recorded this song they were sure they would never play it live due to the complexity of recreating the drum patterns on stage. However, the band changed their minds after watching a video of a performance by the American band "Neurosis" in which the band members put down their guitars and started playing drums. The band decided to give it a chance and after one rehearsal that sounded good enough, they did not stop playing the song live.
It is interesting to note that during the sessions for the band's album they recorded several cover versions for songs of bands such as "New Model Army" the English punk rock band, "Titãs" and "Ratos de Porão" the Brazilian rock band and "Final Conflict" an American hardcore band. Igor who was a fan of "New Model Army" persuaded the band to add the song "The Hunt" to the album and the rest of the songs appeared as b-sides or on compilation albums.
There is no doubt that this album is a milestone in the band's musical development, which continues to formulate the unique sound that characterizes it from the other metal bands that were active at the time.
During the "Celebrating Life Through Death" farewell tour, the band released "The Cloud of Unknowing" on April 24, 2026. It is a four-track EP, not a full-length studio album, and the band’s first release with drummer Greyson Nekrutman, who replaced Eloy Casagrande.
For listening: Spotify (Expanded Edition), Apple Music
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