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Sepultura > Beneath the Remains > Reviews
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

Mass Hyppy-No-Seece - 78%

Annable Courts, November 16th, 2023

First wave death-thrash bands; a postulated nomenclature for the sake of the review; offered interesting insight into what the following decade would hold. Bands like Possessed, Slayer or Kreator to name the popular ones along with the biggest metal band to come out of Brazil here would lay the groundwork for the next generation to feed off of, in that anyone listening to early 90's full-fledged death metal may be hearing a little bit of 80's Sepultura. It's there in those thorny riffs that often employ a tritone in some form (eg. opening riff on 'Inner Self') and guitar patterns too chromatic and dark for standard thrash that practically give out a feeling of abstractness - these generally minor-scaled, narrow intervals tightly packed together producing that palpably ominous effect. Look no further than the opening riff on the album launcher 'Beneath the Remains'. The heavy palm-muted shredding, especially when combined with the darker composition, sounds more like a mounting onslaught than the common speedy alt picking of standard thrash.

A strong emphasis on making songs is the obvious driving factor throughout the album, with intros that often entice using a unique characteristic before some sort of heavy verse takes over and leads with noticeable cohesiveness to a hook. The title-track serves as the best example here of how Cavalera meant to include indelible sections in: "Who has won - who has died? Beneath the remains". The fret-work isn't all grim and dark as lead guitarist Kisser spends a good portion of the album either contributing his more colorful riffing; exotic and tension-relieving; or brighter lead work (often palm-muted motifs) on top of Cavalera's suspended power chords when it isn't the impressive soloing. On those, Kisser avoids the trendy atonal stuff that makes sense to no one (not even the guitarists themselves) that overcrowded the style at the time and shows off a fairly rich repertoire of carefully crafted phrasing along with the more reckless shred sequences associated with the genre, and a bit of interspersed dive-bombs for a bit of flash and craze.

Moments like the atmospheric tap section on 'Inner Self'; reminiscent of Schuldiner's Death; thrust the record forward, allowing for smoother navigation across it through these peculiar sections that don't leave the audience indifferent. The album's inaugural acoustic guitar by Kisser over the somber synth-choir or the bass solo performance at the end of 'Stronger Than Hate' are among these more distinctive displays.

Despite all that good stuff that's just been dissected, what there is to be found beneath the remains turns out to still be a whole lot of chug-chug-chug, power chords left right and center, and rapid jigga-jigga-jigga-jigga palm muted shredding. And although these are obviously the essentials for early death-thrash, they are a formula that hasn't aged all that well in comparison to other styles that may not feel as stereotypical and redundant, even decades later. It's a bit difficult to find as much fascination for this sound later in life as during one's teen years. Metallica's 'Master' or Slayer's 'Reign in Blood' albums just seem to have that extra gear in them, that extra spark. Undeniably though, it's a very well made album for the genre, and benefits from a bit of pioneering status despite being overlooked some times.

Final threat - 80%

colin040, August 4th, 2023

From the early blackened death hotchpotch of Bestial Devastation, to the cleaned up thrash achievement of Beneath the Remains, Sepultura were a force to be reckoned with. Yet, as with many bands, it would only be a matter of time before the band would collapse and as far as I’m concerned, Sepultura were better of calling it quits once the 90’s had arrived. After all, Arise saw Sepultura thrashing through the motions and the introduction of groove didn’t help either.

Of course, today’s review isn’t about Arise let alone about anything that followed. Beneath the Remains marks Sepultura’s breakthrough in the loud-pounding world of thrash metal and while it’s easy to see why this was the case, I’m not overly enthusiastic about the record in question. At this point in their career, the band knew how to handle their instruments; but refined musicianship has never been the key to writing excellent extreme metal. Max Cavalera and Andreas Kisser are clearly capable of launching heavy riffs that could demolish the exotic jungles of Brazil and yet, their talents aren’t used to their potential. Not even the crystal clear guitar tones are able to turn the overlong chug sequences of ‘Sarcastic Existence’ into glory and why ‘Inner Self’ takes nearly two minutes before it gets going, mystery to me. I won’t blame the band for sticking to a formula that’s practically set in stone, as the amount of variety in the writing department is limited, but the two aforementioned examples make me wonder what happened to the band’s hunger.

It also doesn’t help that Max Cavalera’s vocals fail to match the intense instrumental side of Beneath the Remains. You could argue that thrash metal generally isn’t about vocals, but this guy possessed some of the best vocals some years prior. On Bestial Devastation, he roared like a demonic being that would scare the hell out of you. On Schizophrenia, he sounds like an unhinged bushman that was ready to hunt you down and could eat you alive. On Beneath the Remains he sounds tired and dehydrated and makes lines such as walking down these dirty streets with hate in my mind and my feelings turn stronger than hate as unconvincing as they get.

Let it be clear that none of these complaints overshadow the positive traits of Beneath the Remains… it’s just that things could have worked out way better. After all, Sepultura would never thrash this well again and it’s clear by the time that the dynamic knockout punch launches into a gunfire verse. From here, Beneath the Remains has its subtle amount of ups and downs; but at its best, expresses itself as a determined thrash metal record with plenty of energy and hooks. The military rhythmic attack of ‘Mass Hypnosis’ rules and provides some soaring guitar solos in between, while ‘Slaves of Pain’ features a sick thrash break between the rapid-fire tempos and demonstrates the band’s ability to build and release tension. ‘Lobotomy’ is another savage creation of vulgar guitars that sound physically demanding and even Max Cavalera manages to inject a bit more venom into his voice with great effects, while the eternal mosh-worthy punishment of ‘Primitive Future’ leaves you yearning for more… albeit with a twisted neck.

As well produced as it is, Beneath the Remains isn’t my pick of choice of thrash metal, let alone my favorite Sepultura record. Needless to say, it remains an important record for not just the band itself, but also for plenty of others that followed Sepultura’s footsteps.

Crash-Course in Brutality - 100%

AxlFuckingRose, November 29th, 2021

Sepultura's career certainly had its ups and downs, from their brutal death metal roots to their forgettable nu metal and tribal-influenced days, but the band's thrash metal era was definitely their peak. Beneath the Remains and Arise are the two pure thrash records, released during the tail end of thrash metal's golden age, but they are two pillars of South American thrash that perfectly embody the region's sound. Brutal. Technical, but not overly polished to the point that any emotion is sucked out. And most of all, fun as hell to listen to.

After a warm intro, the band gets right into the carnage with pummeling riffs and Max Cavalera's growls. The guitar tone sounds tough and chunky, and as the band transitions from one riff to another the intensity never lets up. All of the songs on this album are perfectly crafted to showcase the sheer heaviness the band's sound was birthed from. The most comparable sound would be Sarcófago's debut, but Sepultura executes deathrash to a caliber that very few other bands can match. The tremolo picking from Max's riffs glides smoothly over Andreas Kisser's bass lines to create this uniform beam of riffing, and it's a sound that feels very unique to the band (even if the band utilizes some Metallica-esque chugging every once in a while).

This album is loaded with little tricks that add a haunting effect, like the guitar lick at 2:20 on "Inner Self" (and elsewhere on the album). Max uses an echo on some of the vocal passages as well, creating this distant, ghostly delivery. Most of the songs sound like they don't have a hook, even if they do, but they're dynamic enough to where it actually helps. A distinct hook would soften the sound, and Sepultura keeps the focus on the riffs, the core of the genre. Any good thrash band knows an album isn't built on hooks, it's built on riffs.

The strongest songs are on the A-side, but the B-side is far from a slouch. "Lobotomy" has some epic drum fills, especially on the bridge, and the soaring guitar solos on this song and the rest perfectly contrast the solemn atmosphere that's created. The songs feel well-written, tight, and meaningful. It isn't that the lyrics are anything atypical for the genre (death, hatred, suffering, the usual), but the music behind them is so forceful that they come across incredibly harsh, in a good way.

Of course, no thrash album would be complete without exquisite production. The mix on this album is very clean, all of the instruments are loud and the precision playing is reminiscent of the remastered version of Bonded by Blood from Exodus, but Sepultura doesn't go overboard. This record is produced with enough clarity to let the technicality shine, but it still maintains that edge that made Schizophrenia (their previous release) such an uncompromising listen. The songs are heavy and thick, but the band seems to have mastered translating the rage of their previous releases into brilliant songwriting. There are very few albums in thrash (and even in death metal) that come across with this much ferocity while keeping the clever song structures and catchy rhythms intact. Arise is a great album too, but Beneath the Remains was the best thrash album of 1989, and makes a case for the best thrash album ever recorded.

Make it - 84%

Felix 1666, February 12th, 2021
Written based on this version: 1989, CD, Roadracer Records

“Beneath the Remains” has become a prime example for the positive part of the make-it-or-break-it slogan which is omnipresent when it comes to the third album of a promising band. It catapulted Sepultura on the global map of thrash. Of course, “Schizophrenia” had already been a big step forward after the pretty crude "Morbid Visions", but “Beneath the Remains” marked a real quantum leap, maybe not in terms of the musical quality, but with respect to the degree of attention the dudes received. It was amazing. Sepultura were the new darlings of Metal Hammer and further metal “mass media”.

Anyway, “Beneath the Remains” was and still is a good album. It does not have the explosiveness of its precursor. Moreover, “Schizophrenia” scores with a higher level of juvenile defiance. Honestly speaking, I am sure that the more controlled approach opened the quartet the door to the metallic high society. Doubtlessly, tracks like “Lobotomy” or in particular “Primitive Future” are fiery thrash projectiles. Their jagged riffs, their cool melody fragments and the average velocity make it easy to enjoy them. I just miss one iota of madness, the ingredient that made tracks like “Escape to the Void” that fascinating. On the other hand, the album from 1989 proved evidence that the Brazilians had learned to write catchier and more compact tracks. It goes beyond my imagination that Sepultura could have thought about putting another seven-minutes-instrumental in the centre of the album.

From the beginning to the end, the entire material scores with great riffs and especially the first three tracks are absolutely terrific. Sepultura create long-lasting effects with simple means. Single parts like the bridge of the opening title track (“Who has won? Who has died?”) need exactly only one spin to keep sticking in the ear. “Inner Self” convinces with its dynamic tempo changes, its great riffs and the evergreen outlaw attitude of its lyrics. “Stronger Than Hate” mixes intensive high velocity sections with some less furious sounds. It has some rather melodic guitar parts that give the song an individual note, although it possesses a lot of generic thrash riffing as well. This triple strike at the beginning of the album shows impressively that Sepultura were not just the next media hype. Of course, Roadracer Records guaranteed them a better distribution, a higher budget and an almost omnipresent lobby than Shark Records or any other company before. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to call them just profiteers of the next hype.

Of course, a little bit of criticism is also necessary. "Beneath the Remains" could perhaps use a little more variety. But taken on its own, every single song scores. Even "Mass Hypnosis", which only has rather flat verses and a relatively weak chorus, improves considerably in the middle part and serves up many good melodies out of nowhere, with a surprising break thrown in for free. Apart from that, there is nothing to complain about. The production deserves no extra praise, but no criticism either. Without the charm of the underground, but with a good portion of clarity, directness and guts, "Beneath the Remains" pounds out of the boxes. Whether due to conviction or zeitgeist, here Metal Hammer and Co finally promoted the right ones.

The Best Album to Come Out of South America - 100%

Testament1990, November 19th, 2020
Written based on this version: 1989, CD, R/C Records

Sepultura's 3rd album is just bludgeoning and for me the best album to ever come out South America period, there is no competition from any other band from that continent past, present, and future that could even pump out something that even stacks up to this. This album is just that damn good and Sepultura put Brazil on the map for thrash metal and basically started the scene there back in the mid 80's paving the way for bands like Attomica, Acid Storm, Korzus, and many more. Beneath the Remains is one of the best representations of when thrash metal meets death metal and Sepultura had perfected this formula by this release. This album is packed with some of the most primitive and violent sounding riffs that just create the unique barbaric atmosphere this album carries. Majority of the barbaric just straight up primitive thrash was never my style as most of it was just horribly produced or the band was just trying to be overly heavy to where the album just turns into a muddy mess of nonsense. Beneath the Remains however is barbaric and primitive done at its absolute best and also features some pretty atmospheric clean guitar moments as well. This album sounds super professional compared to the previous 2 releases from the band but still keeps that brutal vibe and pacing throughout the entire album and never lets off the gas.

The production/mix on this release was definitely a massive step up from Schizophrenia and Schizophrenia was just monstrous even with the sub par production that record was still crushing especially with the addition of Andreas Kisser. Beneath the Remains just ups the intensity several notches and with a cleaner more vibrant sounding production. The guitars are downright savage and have that scooped mids sound of the day. Kissers lead tone here is the best in his entire career saturated in reverb and delay and despite the primitive atmosphere of this album his leads are really emotional and packed with immense amount of feeling. The lead in "Mass Hypnosis" is just immaculately phrased and will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. The bass tone here is crisp and sleek the outro of "Stronger Than Hate" showcases the beautiful bass tone and it's pretty much just Kisser laying down a beautiful melodic piece of bass playing that ends the song. Yes as odd as it is Paulo did not record bass on any of the classic Sepultura releases as he started recording with the band when they started to suck in 1993 which I did not know for the longest time.

Max and Igor are at their peak here both are honed in on their craft at a staggeringly brilliant level. Igor is at his prime and is one of the tightest drummers in the metal genre as a whole. The drum sound is amazing here as you can hear every piece on his kit being used with extreme clarity throughout this record and he puts on a drum clinic for the entire album. The most mind blowing thing about Igor here is that he was only 19 at the time of this albums release which is just ridiculous the dude is still one of my all time favorite drummers no matter how bad Sepultura would get with the release of Chaos A.D. in 1993. Max is also in his most evil sounding form on Beneath the Remains. His vocals here are just menacing and while his vocals are more clear here it still somehow tops the brutality of the first 2 releases. Max also stepped up his guitar playing here immensely. His song writing on this album had evolved to incredible heights not saying Schizophrenia wasn't rad because it's just a smidge behind this beast of a record. The whole band hit their stride with Beneath the Remains and delivered one of the most crushing albums of 1989.

This album starts with the title track and begins with an ominous clean chorus laced guitar that sets the atmosphere and bridges into the barrage of riffs this record contains. "Inner Self" is just classic a mid tempo rager about nonconformity and was a staple song in their live set at the time. "Stronger Than Hate" starts at a crazy fast pace with Andreas just ripping a fast lead right at the beginning the track. "Sarcastic Existence" and "Lobotomy" starts off with Igor demonstrating his skills right off the bat before kicking into the heinous onslaught of riffs this album has. I can't stress that enough this album has memorable brutal thrash riffs for days like this record has some of the most vicious and primitive riffs ever recorded. "Slaves of Pain" , "Hungry", and "Primitive Future" are all classic and I could go on and on about what goes down in all these tracks and how good this record is but this whole album is a must listen for anyone into any form of metal. Every single song here is just as good as the one after. Beneath the Remains never loosens its grip on you and just destroys what bands like Slayer, Dark Angel, and Kreator were doing at the time.

Overall this is a straight up thrash masterpiece and my all time favorite Sepultura album. The band and members of the classic Sepultura lineup in all their projects throughout their careers have never topped this release and this is the most intense Sepultura ever got musically. This was the entire classic lineup in their prime and features their best songwriting on any of their albums. Beneath the Remains is a skull crushingly fast thrash release that still contains slower mid tempo moments and packs in a lot of atmospheric acoustic and clean guitar moments that contrast the brutality on an extremely haunting level. The amount of influential and inspiring riffs here are off the charts and this album is a must listen for anyone into heavy music. I'd highly recommend Beneath the Remains to anyone as it is one of the best thrash metal albums from the golden era of thrash back in the 80's/early 90's and in my opinion the best album to ever come out of South America as a whole. Beneath the Remains is a downright classic and your library is incomplete without it.

Critical perspective 4: Filler riffs - 80%

gasmask_colostomy, April 3rd, 2018

I’m almost positive that if a thrash metal album has more than 25 reviews, at least a few of them should be negative, so this is the antidote to all the people who think Sepultura was great on Beneath the Remains and begin sucking not long after. It should be remembered throughout that I do think this is a pretty good album, but that there are some major flaws in the thinking that it could possibly be worthy of 100% or rank among the best albums in our genre.

First up, and this is the biggie for me, is creativity. Sure, thrash is not supposed to be a subgenre where experimentation or eclecticism is to be rewarded, but how Sepultura made their name on this and not the more diverse Schizophrenia is slightly beyond me. (Well, actually, it's because of the label, but you know.) All of the songs across 42 minutes cover similar ground with similar degrees of effectiveness and – though there are some atmospheric intros and interludes thrown in to make sure this doesn’t become totally monotonous – the Brazilians just didn’t have enough great ideas to make it work all the way through. There are some superb riffs, but there are also some really dud ones too and these are the places where Max Cavalera and Andreas Kisser should have changed the formula. Take ‘Stronger than Hate’ for example: the first riff is super simple but kind of hooky, after which the band go off on more of a death thrash bent, scrambling the guitars over with a semi-blast from Igor Cavelera on drums, which takes in a decent melody as it ends; however, the horrible chug that begins at 3:05 is exactly what I’m talking about, going absolutely nowhere and even returning more than once afterwards. There are too many filler riffs in several of the songs to make the experience anything like as consistently destructive as many claim.

Another problem that compounds the mixed quality of the riffing is the production, which is pretty dry on the rhythm guitars and a little clattery from the drums (I’m reviewing Roadrunner’s remastered edition from 1998), meaning that the power of the riffs is sometimes questionable, though a product of its time, and the boring ones are emphasized all the more from having no momentum. Scott Burns was a great guy for Florida death metal, but didn’t do the Seps many favours here. This issue is largely solved during guitar leads and in the clean sections that showcase more of the bass, yet the bass solo that ends ‘Stronger than Hate’ at 5:31 is slapped carelessly onto the end of the song and appears horribly out of touch with the rest of the experience. It may not be the band’s fault, but it certainly spoils the listen. If I’m allowed one final piss on the riffs, too much downpicking (the band’s main playing technique) results in quite a lot of similar rhythms in the guitar playing, which this time creates the problem of a great similarity between parts of songs, though admittedly not of songs as a whole.

At the risk of sounding like Max Cavalera himself and becoming repetitive, there is a large niggle with samey vocals as well. In all honesty, I’m not the strictest policeman of vocals in thrash, because there aren’t that many bands where the vocalist can do much more than keep pace with the band, choose suitable subjects, and occasionally drop a quick surprise, as with Tom Araya’s screams. Old Camouflage Max certainly doesn’t attempt to inject much drama into his vocals, opting for a low-pitched approach with the same kind of gruffness and approximate pronunciation as early Sodom, which is all very correct for lyrics about “Cities in ruins, bodies packed on minefields”, though doesn’t make for a terribly interesting experience, especially given that he often – unaccountably – sings over the better riffs and leaves the boring palm-muted chugs blank.

Andreas Kisser, playing lead guitar, benefits from giving songs the most definition and tossing out some nicely crazed solos, but also trips up by playing very similar “intro melodies” in most of the songs, all of which are based on the same technique. These appear at the beginning of ‘Hunger’, 2:16 in ‘Mass Hypnosis’, 1:38 in ‘Lobotomy’, 1:23 of ‘Slaves of Pain’, 1:28 in ‘Primitive Future’, 0:38 in ‘Stronger than Hate’, 1:49 in ‘Inner Self’, 1:18 of ‘Sarcastic Existence’, and there’s even a non-melodic version after the solo on the title track. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s one in every song…lame, wouldn’t you say? So even the lead guitar is pretty monotonous too.

That seems like an awful lot of problems for one album to contend with and there is indeed a part of me that wants to say that Beneath the Remains plain sucks, but actually it's still quite good. The reason for that is Sepultura more or less perfected the formula for non-melodic thrash on the title track to this album and then repeated it too many times with too little variation and minor grumbles about the vocals and production. As such, it's hardly surprising that some thrash fans worship at the altar of early Sepultura, though it's not really the kind of thing we should be telling our children about if the band couldn't flesh out an album to its full potential. For my part, I think this is a great deal of fun and maybe the quantitative best of Sepultura's career, though I wouldn't even put it in my top 10 or 20 thrash releases. Truth be told, it gets a little bit boring before it reaches its conclusion and that's certainly not a good thing.

A Neurotic Game of Life and Death - 97%

ThrashIsCertain92, January 5th, 2016
Written based on this version: 1997, CD, Roadrunner Records (Reissue, Remastered)

Sepultura is a band that have not only played in several metal genres, but had a great influence on them as well; namely black, thrash/death, groove, and nu metal respectively throughout their career. This particular release is the second in their trilogy of death-metal influenced thrash albums - Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains, and Arise, all great in their own right. Compared to previous releases, “Beneath the Remains” benefits from more sophisticated song writing and for the first time a cleaner, fuller production courtesy of famed Death Metal producer Scott Burns. The production is a little more sterile, less raw and less evil sounding than that of “Schizophrenia” or their black-metal tinged debut releases - “Beastial Devastation” and “Morbid Visions”, but is still wicked heavy and far more professional. Each instrument is now clear and discernible, and lacks the dirtiness and fuzz of previous releases. Paulo Jr.'s bass could be louder in the mix, but it is passable. Paulo for the most part holds down the fort by following the rhythm guitar, but sometimes throws in a few surprises, such as the concluding bass solo on “Stronger than Hate”. The drums are now massive sounding and prominent in the mix. Drummer Igor Cavalera around this time has been more or less a very no gimmicks “meat-and-potatoes” thrash drummer - pounding the skins like a madman with absolute precision, offering volatile blast beats and slower grooving sections that are never too simple, and never too showy. Max's vocals are gruff and deep as ever, retaining the borderline death-metal grunt of previous releases, but this time is more down-to-earth and less preoccupied with sounding “evil”. Although their English is still somewhat broken, the lyrics are still pretty decent, with imagery dealing with post-apocalyptic matters, war, and oppression.

“Beneath the Remains” picks up in similar fashion where “Schizophrenia” left off – unleashing a relentless maelstrom of frenetic thrash riffs upon the listener. Although “Schizophrenia” was sometimes a more straightforward blistering thrash-fest with downright evil guitar work, I feel B.T.R. is where the band truly hit their creative peak as the album houses the most memorable and complex songwriting of anything they, or really most band at the time, have released before or after.

“Beneath the Remains” is an album that binds sheer thrash brutality with a stunning display of top notch musicianship. Many points of the album reaches a level of complexity without ever diving into progressive metal territory; and despite the relatively heightened technicality of the guitar-work, at the end of the day they are still an unadulterated thrash band. At the time of this release, Sepultura were a band that were not afraid to show the world that they were just that. Unapologetically fast and vicious as it is virtuosic, “Beneath the Remains” make no mistake of this. Do not expect catchy choruses, simplistic sing-along lyrics, or sappy “emotional” ballads.

Do, however, expect a mega shit-ton of riffs. Every song is bursting with a complex battery of riffs, each unique, greatly varied, and technically crafted; patched together by occasional and brief flashes of epic, quasi-melodic passages. Most of the riffs anticipate and work with the next, building off one another - creating a chaotic, yet calculated ebb-and-flow of spastic and unpredictable tempo and rhythm changes that carry each song.

Don't get me wrong, although there are slower parts of relatively mid-paced chugging riffs and melodic sections strategically placed here and there, the tremolo-picked, hyper fast death-thrash mayhem is plenty. But even when the tempos are temporarily slowed down, it is still effective and heavy as hell, and they never lose track of the fact that they are indeed a thrash band. The best example of this would be the fan-favorite “Inner Self”, where the obsessive, mid-paced palm-muting in the introductory sections eventually build into a blisteringly fast and somewhat punkish chorus.

Technical as they are memorable, every solo is powerful and masterfully crafted. Lead guitarist Andreas Kisser often foils Max's relentless riffage and surging rhythms with layered harmonic backdrops. The opening parts of the title track, “Stronger than Hate” and “Sarcastic Existence”, as well as the rather beautiful bridge/solo section of “Mass Hypnosis” are possibly the best examples of this. Andreas even sometimes employs the occasional use of clean guitar parts – never overused. The only really prominent display of the clean guitar is in the opening of the title track, which sounds like a more elaborate version of Metallica's “Call of Ktulu”.

“Sarcastic Existence” switches things up, featuring many unusual sounding and dissonant riffs, meter changes, an extended bridge in the middle of the song, and somewhat of a swinging introductory drum section. “Slaves of Pain” is one of my favorite tracks; having distinct, shredding riffs and a rather upbeat chorus. The last three tracks “Lobotomy”, “Hungry”, and “Primitive Future” while not as memorable as the first six tracks, are still excellent.

Many consider this release to be one of the greatest the thrash genre has to offer – a culmination where velocity, brutality, heaviness, technical proficiency and maturity merge into one bonafide masterpiece. “Beneath the Remains” was released near the end of thrash's peak in 1989, shortly before the genre's relative downfall. Fortunately, the band managed to squeeze out one last thrash classic before succumbing to the alternative-metal trends of the 90's – their brutal masterwork “Arise”.

Wrath of the Sepultura - 93%

Brainded Binky, March 1st, 2015

The Sepultura unleashed yet another album, crushing any and all who dared cross its path. That album is the critically acclaimed "Beneath the Remains", which is more or less Sepultura's best effort. It's very easy to see why many would consider it to be their all-time favorite, it's cos it's got the anger and aggression that the earlier albums had, but the sound is more refined than ever. The only album that would ever compete with the might of this one would be "Arise", released sometime later. "Morbid Visions" would be where Sepultura began, "Schizophrenia" would be where they refined their sound, and "Beneath the Remains" would be where they would solidify it. Let's dive down "Beneath the Remains".

Yep, it's that aggressive sound from "Schizophrenia" again, except there's quite a few changes, the production quality being one of the most notable. Everything seems to be more crisp and clean as opposed to the first two releases. There's no more plastic bucket drumming, no grainy, old headphone-like vocals, and no buzzing guitars. With this clean production quality, Sepultura can finally convey their aggression and style, using songs like "Mass Hypnosis" that contain instances of a blindingly fast pace, without any difficulty. While we're on the subject of the band's style, we're totally used to Sepultura using stuttering e-note rhythms at this point. Even when every song on here uses it, the band makes up for it by using more unusual and unconventional chord patterns that create a frightening and abrasive sound. It's something that we've heard quite a bit on "Schizophrenia", but they're more prevalent on this album. Like I said, it's that sound that solidifies Sepultura as a perfectly legitimate thrash metal band and not just another Slayer wannabe.

Of course Sepultura is no stranger to using more than one tempo in each of their songs, it's practically a requirement for all thrash metal bands that at least want to sound good. In some instances, however, they can be kinda slow. One part of "Sarcastic Existence", for example, kinda has a slow, lurching pace, but it doesn't sound bad at all when paired up with a more sinister lick. This creates a very dark and disturbing atmosphere, and is also a break from all the breakneck speed that dominates the album. Although it's not all plodding like previously mentioned song, "Inner Self" is slightly slower than most of the other tracks when it's at its fastest, yet it still maintains the speed needed for most thrash metal songs. It, like "Sarcastic Existence" has also got its slow part, and that's mostly during the verses. If most other thrash metal band around at the time wrote that song, chances are that their songs would be nothing but an extremely fast tempo all the way through, maybe with or without with the occasional different tempo thrown in. Sepultura would use much more than just that one tempo for each song, thus giving us more of a progressive element in their music.

Sepultura is proof that a band from Brazil could have as much potential as one from Germany or the US. Their souped up Slayer-style metal made them a few of the catalysts for death metal's reign of the underground in the 90's. It's easy to see why, since "Beneath the Remains" contains not only the anger found in all of thrash metal, but also the spirit of more determined musicians. The band would release one more opus, "Arise", and after that, let's just say not much good came out of them. It's a shame, really, 'cos the band went the way of Metallica. At least they had no plans of joining forces with any classic rocker to produce a concept album, 'cos that would predictably bomb hard.

Essential thrash metal - 95%

SoundsofDecay, September 23rd, 2013

I think perhaps that, if this was suddenly the only thrash album on the face of the earth that I'd be fine with it. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it should go some way towards explaining how I feel about this one. Beneath The Remains is a strong contender for my favourite thrash album ever, and definitely in my top 10 metal albums period. To elaborate I need to take you back to when I first heard it. This was one of those "benchmark" albums that raised the bar quite early on what I considered to be the hardest, fastest, most extreme music during my quest through adolescence to see just how far it could really go. Before this must have been Reign In Blood, if memory serves. Of course, if we're speaking in those terms, Beneath The Remains has been trumped innumerable times since by various death and black metal albums, but those benchmark experiences have a tendency to stay with us. Context is indeed of great importance when it comes to experiencing a lot of music. At the time I heard this I was 14 years old. As I say the most extreme things I was aware of at the time were Slayer albums such as Hell Awaits and Reign In Blood. Suffice to say Beneath The Remains promptly demolished my ideas about metal at that time. Sure, those old Slayer albums are still evil as hell, fast and heavy, but this seemed to top even them. I had a best friend at that time who was largely into the same stuff as me, and we'd share music (specifically metal) as we came across it. He was the one who showed me Reign In Blood, and I'll never forget the way my jaw just dropped when I heard it. Some time later I showed him this, and he didn't like it. That was when I knew I was a fan of extreme music, and this album was the springboard.

Reality is always more disturbing than horror, and Beneath The Remains is definitely a take on reality as opposed to Slayer's largely fantastical satanic approach. The venomous lyrics, fueled by passion and righteous anger were one of the things that attracted me the most over time, spinning tales of dystopia and human corruption that you don't have to be from fucked up South America to understand or relate to in your own life. At first though, the main attraction was the music itself, the lyrics hard to distinguish through Max's thick accent to my virgin ears. What still impresses me as much as day one is just how FAST the riffs are. Today any fool (me, for example!) can put together lightning speed guitar tracks piece by piece in pro tools with enough time, in 1989 it took a little more and it is a remarkable achievement. The riffs are furious and unrelenting, the melodies dark and enthralling. The tightness of the playing might cause wrist pain in guitar playing listeners! The drums are constantly holding everything together with skill and there is some nice playing going on, but this is really a guitar album. Bass is practically non existent, though Scott Burns is still to be commended for the punchy and aggressive production. Of course, its not all just breakneck speed from beginning to end. There are some great slower and mid paced riffs to shake it up, and in the case of Mass Hypnosis is the prompt for a fantastic, melodic solo. The previous album Schizophrenia (also essential thrash in its own right) had showed the Seps moving towards this point out of their more primitive beginnings, and this album is where they arrived. Then began the slow descent into painful mediocrity, but let's not go there! And who can forget the amazing cover art? Brilliantly detailed and mysterious.

The best songs? All of them. Though there are some (Mass Hypnosis, Lobotomy for example) I like more than the rest, discussing the songs individually is irrelevant. More importantly I can't be bothered to dissect every little detail that I like, because you should be doing that for yourself. This album is PURE THRASH. It makes no apologies for being so, and doesn't care if you don't approve because plenty of others do and always will. Though its not a From This Day Forward or a Time Does Not Heal, albums that show how far the boundaries of the genre can be pushed in various ways, I would go as far as to say this album represents the "conventional" heads down, all out thrash approach taken to its logical conclusion. All further attempts by anyone are, for all intents and purposes (minus a few worthy exceptions), a waste of time. I'm looking at you, modern retro thrash scene. You just won't top this. Stop trying.

Me(n)tal Hypnosis - 90%

dismember_marcin, September 16th, 2013

“Beneath the Remains” for sure was like a new beginning for Sepultura; they entered the world! First of all, after being signed to small Brazilian label Cogumelo (a legendary label nowadays for sure) they’ve found a new record company – and this time it was a major label; one, which was about to have a huge influence on the thrash and especially death metal in years to come, with distribution worldwide: Roadrunner Records. With them Sepultura became one of the most recognized names in the metal world; together they conquered it! Secondly, the recording session for “Beneath the Remains” may have taken place in Brazil, but the mixing was done at the famous Morrisound Studio, with Scott Burns and Tom Morris doing the job. And obviously soundwise the album is a huge step forward when compared to the two previous LPs (“Morbid Visions” especially). It is enough to say that the sound of “Beneath the Remains” is powerful, aggressive and perfectly clean. Finally, the songwriting for the album is better than before, with some absolutely crushing songs and utterly memorable riffs and the performance of every band member is simply excellent (I especially like the drumming of Igor Cavalera, who’s such an awesome drummer). You can truly hear that Sepultura has evolved and progressed a lot and even if I really like “Schizophrenia” I just must admit that “Beneath the Remains” is slightly better than its predecessor and probably will always be the best thing, which those Brazilians have ever recorded (I am not even going to comment what they’re recording nowadays… I don’t care, the band doesn’t exist for me).

“Beneath the Remains” begins like a dream album. Side A has four tracks and all four of them are just absolute crushers. The title track is an instant killer, with such an awesome riffing and arrangements that for sure it is one of my favourite Sepultura songs ever! A calm acoustic theme is like a calm before the storm, as suddenly a furious death / thrashing riffing erupts and the powerful energy of this music fills my room. Oh, so fast, so furious… and one can call it death metal, most will probably call it thrash metal – but thrash metal in most aggressive and intense way possible… who cares what will it be called if the music is awesome? “Beneath the Remains” is a real highlight of the album for me (“Who has won? Who has died? Beneath the Remains!!!” – yeah man!), but it is followed by another killer “Inner Self”, so there’s no time to breath, but headbanging continues! Again the riffs are absolutely amazing, the drumming and vocals are perfect and so are also the whole arrangements. This song is slower than the one before, not so intense (although it fastens in the chorus part), there are some more melodic parts here and there, but it still kicks ass seriously. Andreas Kisser shows his great skills in guitar leads department, Igor’s drums are strong… And suddenly “Stronger than Hate” begins! For sure one of the fastest and most aggressive songs; really nice, I love how it begins, with those melodic leads and then when it speeds up. This song has a guest vocal participation in chorus part by some well known vocalists from bands like Obituary, Incubus and Atheist, but they only scream the song title in the chorus, so you cannot even guess that John Tardy is there, as you just couldn’t hear it, so if I didn’t read about it in the booklet then I would never know. OK, no time for bullshit, “Mass Hypnosis” starts… the vocals of Max Cavalera are sometimes a bit weird, more in the classic thrash metal vein I would say… also some of the ideas for this song are slightly weird, so not everything about this song is perfect in my opinion, but it is good anyway.

Side B starts with two songs, which not often are mentioned as Sepultura’s finest pieces, but I personally like them a lot: “Sarcastic Existence” and “Slaves of Pain” (this one was originally written by Kisser for his previous band Pestilence). They both are excellent and shred with some absolutely phenomenal riffs and that sheer aggression. I love the arrangements again, the drumming and just everything about these two songs. What is so great about “Beneath the Remains” album is that even those more mediocre songs like “Lobotomy” and “Hungry” sound great – the latter has some truly nice riffs and is a perfect headbanger in my opinion… I bet every band would love to have such “mediocre” songs on their album hehe! Finally the LP is finished with “Primitive Future” – and the tempo is once more fast and the song is truly aggressive and savage… Thrash attack! I have nothing more to add, really… If you don’t know this album then I have no idea what were you waiting for… it is a mandatory release for every metalhead, whatever style of metal is his favourite.
Standout tracks: “Beneath the Remains”, “Inner Self”, “Slaves of Pain”, “Primitive Future”
Final rate: 90/100

Sepultura - Beneath the Remains - 100%

Orbitball, July 29th, 2013

Absolute amazing thrash metal release here from Brazilian natives. The band capitalized on originality in songwriting, creativity, aggression, intensity and destruction of the senses. Out of their entire discography, none of their albums dominated as much as this one has. The production did them a great justice with everything properly mixed in the recording. Nothing was left out here and the guitar riffs simply dominated. Lyrical concepts were also a milestone here, reflecting the bands' struggle in to fit into society. They really belted out sheer intensity and aggression here, no words could describe such amazing work as this one.

The entire album is noteworthy, Max leading the way and Andreas simply dominating in the lead department. What's most reflective here is the band's simple desire to create such unimaginably creative riff structures. Tremolo picking galore alongside chunky and thick bar chord mania. The leads really augmented the rhythms, they were crazy fast and technical plus they did not drown out the rhythms. Max's vocal outputs were really aggressive and featured some backups from the band during some chorus parts. YouTube "Inner Self" and "Mass Hypnosis", they are I think the most noteworthy gems on this release.

I like it how they progressed from Morbid Visions (their debut), Schizophrenia (predecessor) and with this one I think is their strongest release entirely. Amazing how they got all of this work recorded in merely a couple of days time! Like I said, everything fit together in unison and Beneath the Remains is an example of how bands should be original in their outputs and the importance of having a good production to augment the talent in the songwriting. Every single song dominates and is original sounding, nothing here was left out and as a 4-piece band I think they were their strongest in my estimation.

Even bass bits were amazing, Paulo showing his talents in this department featuring a notable tapping outro riff and Igor definitely up to par on his drum bits. Sad about Sepultura's demise, here they worked so hard to get everything perfect and the band I no longer am interested in since Max is no longer with them. Sure they made some great efforts following this release including Arise and Chaos AD, but Beneath the Remains I think is their strongest ever because of their intensity and simple originality in songwriting style. The band as a whole did their absolute best work here, and that can't be stressed enough.

I loved the clean intro to this album and everything after. Every single song shows utmost talent and superiority with the band, simply unbelievable. A true masterpiece on every front. The guitars (including the bass), the drums and production quality. Max's vocals fit the music totally and his aggression alongside the guitar riffs turned out amazingly. Some vocal effects, but they didn't overuse technology as some bands have over the years. Thrash metal here as strong and amazing, get the remastered version, it does the album justice. Old Sepultura is dead, long live old Sepultura! Own this now!

Krieg thrash straight from the machine gun. - 89%

hells_unicorn, December 26th, 2012

Among the early pioneers of the death metal sound, Brazilian thrash maniacs Sepultura naturally shared a fairly close stylistic relationship with that of Possessed and Death, thus putting forth a sound that is often considered more of the thrash persuasion rather than that of death metal. Their stylistic evolution tended to resemble that of Possessed a bit more, as their progression from "Morbid Visions" onward brought them closer to the dominant sound of the general Bay Area scene, thus culminating in a famous collaboration with studio magician Scott Burns, another figure very important in the development the characteristic sound of death metal. The level of production clarity, punch and muscle behind their 3rd and heavily lauded LP "Beneath The Remains" is undeniably masterful, but manifests itself as something not quite as overtly nasty and menacing as what would be heard out of Burns on his work with Cancer and Cannibal Corpse.

As an album, this thing is heavily tilted towards the complex, fast-paced, machine-gun riffing approach typical to bands such as Vio-Lence and Dark Angel at around this juncture. In fact, apart from a deeper, slightly nastier vocal display out of Max Cavalera that somewhat resembles the earliest work of David Vincent at times (before he became a bellowing bullfrog), this listens dangerously close to a Bay Area thrash album. The riff work is possessed of a similar combination of deep, rapid chugs and little melodic motives that graced the rugged, bone-crunching work heard on "Eternal Nightmare" and "Leave Scars", throwing in a near equally heavy hint of Slayer's dissonant tremolo riffing and haunting harmonic contour. But even more indicative of the heavy tilt towards San Francisco brand thrashing is the lead guitar work, which is remarkably similar to the absolute mastery displayed out of Flynn and Demmel on the aforementioned Vio-Lence debut.

Arguably, this is the least death metal informed album on Sepultura's early catalog, though the same ear shattering guitar sound and crisp vitality that was typical of a Burns production job is easily heard from one song to the next. Right from the reverb drenched acoustic intro of "Beneath The Remains", an inescapable sense of inevitability paints the landscape, one loaded with battle dead corpses under a blackened, smoke-filled sky. But after the first electric guitar begins pounding away, this album proves to be a constant barrage of heavy fire, like an artillery division with an endless supply of munitions and tireless robotic soldiers. An occasional breakdown to half-tempo may commence from time to time, but they are fast fleeting. It becomes impossible to really pick an obvious standout track when looking to the most exaggerated display of unfettered rage as an example, though "Sarcastic Existence" and "Hungry" do distinguish themselves nicely in how they balance out catchy, melodic guitar motives with gut-wrenching power chord mayhem.

One could liken this album to a berserker leading the charge amid an entire legion of battle-hungry Vikings, and that is the one area where this album falls a tiny bit short of its predecessor "Schizophrenia". This album is basically a straight-shot of extreme violence, one that casts aside any notion of nuance or subtlety. By no means it fall short of deserving all the praise it has garnered, and it definitely is far more accessible to the average thrash maniac than the low-fidelity character of the band's mid-80s sound. It's out on the front lines and its incredible ferocity will assure it a very high body count, but it isn't quite the album that commands the brigade.

Thrash metal is dead…. Long live thrash - 83%

wallernotweller, December 23rd, 2012

Whilst Sepultura’s previous two albums (Morbid Visions from 1986 and Schizophrenia released in 1987) were popular amongst underground tape traders, the thrash world at large had ignored them. This was largely down to the fact that the distribution of these records had no clout but it has to be said that the quality of the song writing and the buzz saw production had put them in the third division of thrash metal and that’s being particularly generous. Enter legendary thrash producer Scott Burns, the man who had worked his magic on Obituary, Atheist and the outstanding Death albums. His clean production savvy combined with Sepultura’s ever confident and more mature song writing would have increased their standing for sure but it was singer and guitarist Max Cavelera who brokered the deal with Roadrunner Records which gave them the financial backing to break into metal’s elite and have the Brazilian noise merchants gain the popularity that Beneath The Remains deserved.

I bought this originally on cassette which just isn’t the greatest format to listen to it on. I always preferred to listen to tapes of my favourite albums on my Walkman that I would dub from vinyl. Beneath The Remains simply got side-lined for a good few months. Gradually though the hooks took hold. The opening line from Inner Self; “Walking down these dirty streets with hate in my mind” and its memorable chorus was the first inklings for me that this band could become something quite special. Walking home from a school I hated to a home I feared with these Brazilian nutcases pumping thrash metal in my ears eventually took its toll. I became a fan.

Mass Hypnosis was another stomper, the main guitar line cuts through with jagged stabs that simply entice you into the grooves. Where metal acts such as Suicidal Tendencies were going wrong, Sepultura seemed to be getting right. A prime example is the full pelt thrash of Slaves Of Pain, rather than ignoring their past and reinventing themselves as something adjacent to what they originally planned to be here Sepultura encompassed the pace of their previous output whilst improving their song writing and song structure, throwing in a great breakdown part and they even began playing with vocal textures. They made what was an otherwise middle of the road album track something special. Suicidal’s reinvention was simply too mainstream, what was a new outlook for them had already become an old pair of jeans for us local metalheads. Sepultura were leading the way forward.

Today I have a lot of respect for Sepultura. Along with Pantera they kept metal interesting during the grunge years. Of course many would argue that Machine Head should be name checked in the same breath but they didn’t have the same strengths or vision that the aforementioned bands had. Beneath The Remains for me was the curtain call of thrash metal. Thrash became over saturated and weak and died the same time as the hair bands did. Until it’s recent re-emergence I thought that thrash’s final page had been written with this record but as it turned out bands like SSS, Municipal Waste and Evile have rekindled the flame. Thrash metal is dead…. Long live thrash.

A perfect example of controlled aggression - 87%

DeathThrasher91, May 4th, 2011

Sepultura, while certainly not the best band from Brazil, was truly worthy of their mass attention following the release of their 1989 Magnus-opus Beneath the Remains. Unlike many thrash metal bands, proclaimed by the mainstream media to be among the best in the genre when they really weren’t (especially the mass hype surrounding heavily influencail Metallica), Sepultura actually lived up to the hype sporting genuine talent and technique, to create several masterpieces of extreme, yet controlled and somewhat sophisticated Death/Thrash metal.

Starting with the primitive, but enjoyable and thrilling Bestial Devastation ep, and their first album, Morbid Visions, Sepultura started to mature as a band, and the antics of pure speed alone started to cease, resulting in the more refined sophomore album. At this point, it was clear that the band wished to expand upon their sound, and incorporate more thrash influences into their mostly death metal sound. The fact that they were largely influenced by Metallica’s is most obvious when listening to the Metallica inspired instrumental Inquisition Symphony, as well as the more variation in their music, and more varied song structures compared to earlier efforts. Without a doubt Schizophrenia was transitional, and exposed Sepultura’s venturing into a more Bay-Area patterned format, while still preserving some of their death metal tendencies.

By the time their third album, Beneath The Remains saw the light of day, Sepultura had evolved even more since Schizophrenia, and became even more mature as a band, focusing on catchy and memorable riffs, and incorporating Metallica-like structure to their album layout (take for instance the clean instrumental preceding the first song, being much more straight forward than the other songs on the album. similar to Metallica circa 1984-88). Still the band showed no signs of slowing down, and although the somewhat undesirable (or at least in my opinion) Metallica influences became more obvious, they still managed to be surprisingly aggressive, and straight forward with their music, Exceeding the speed of both Slayer and Dark Angel.

The production of this album alone in a clear improvement over previous works, sounding sufficiently heavy and surprisingly clear, for a band that still had relatively little studio experience, largely due to a better producer. The clarity even matches that of more popular American bands, only aiding the intensity of the music even further. The main problem with Schizophrenia was the production was still very weak, and did not adequately support the stellar music on the album. BTR had a professional amount of clarity, that give little to complain about.

In terms of song structure, BTR continues, and in some aspects (but not all) expands upon what Schizophrenia started, continuing the more mature and controlled, yet fast and intense approach, only done in a more streamlined way than before. Whereas Schizophrenia was much more raw, wild and in many ways more ambitions, BTR seems to be more focused on Restrained riffs, less adventures than before, focusing more on heaviness. To me, this is the only shortcomings of the album, the simplicity of the riffs.

Schizophrenia was actually semi-technical in nature, with complexity stemming from a multitude of techniques, and constant tempo changes in each song. The riffs on BTR sound a bit tired, and more chord based, with some moments of tremolo picking, but not quite as much as on the Schizophrenia album. Take for instance the song Inner-Self, with chugging riffs similar to that of Metallica, as a pose to the rampant death thrashing number R.I.P. (Rest in Pain). The riffs just don't seem as wild as before, but still are satisfying in that they are controlled, and memorable. The true strength of BTR however, lies in the drumming.

Beneath the Remains boasts some of the fastest and most intense drumming since their '85-'86 period, easily exceeding, Slayer, and Dark Angel at the time. The Drums are also a huge improvement over Schizophrenia, being much faster, but much more clear and refined as well. While Sepultura were not the fastest of the time, with bands like Sadus, Necrodeath, and Merciless far exceeding them in the area of speed, they were sufficiently fast, and did not go overboard with speed. Just like Slayer on RIB, they were aiming for writing something that was not just mindless bashing, but controlled while still being intense and straight-forward, unlike Metallica’s overly restrained, semi-thrash, that actually had more traits of NWOBMH and traditional heavy metal than it did thrash. Sepultura basically took the formula of Slayer, and applied Metallica elements, with touches of death metal, and much more speed.

To me, BTR remains the best "popular" thrash metal album, but not the best in the genre. While being more mainstream in its production, and more controlled, it is still savage and extreme compared to other bands that crossed over into the mainstream. Additionally, the quality of the album is undeniable. While master of puppets hardly lived up to it supposed title of best thrash metal album (Just to clarify things I'm not saying it's a bad album, I just don't find it to be the best in the genre), BTR actually is a quality album that lives up to its hype. Sure, Sepultura is somewhat overrated, and this album certainly is, but this is one of the cases when the people are right. Sepultura is one of those few bands that actually deserve to be, as they have real talent and quality music (at least from 85-91). BTR is highly recommended for those who want fast, yet controlled thrash, that has a professional level of musicianship. The bands best without a doubt.

Punishing ! - 95%

lord_kexasthur, August 5th, 2008

Everything in this album is punishing! You know the kind of metal that tells you fucking do what I say! OBEY ME! That is what this metal is about.

Okay let’s start with the production, Sepultura released great albums before this, just somewhat bad production, well not bad after all, just bad when compared to this production. Come to think about it, Schizophrenia with this production would sound better than it does and I only thought so after listening to this album. The whole sound is just clear, yet aggressive, sharp and tight. The previous albums probably had a “nastier” production, but this is the sound of pure hostility, the sound of all what is stronger than hate.

The drumming by Igor is just very vigorous, and precise, and sounds volatile with the riffs being played. You know they sound thunderous just like those shells that put everything beneath the remains. Actually, the drums drew my attention as much as the drums on Darkness Descends did. This album needed an aggressive and tight performance on the drums, to add to the overall volatile feel of the album and thus, probably would have been flawed if Igor had not executed this perfect drumming on this album.

The vocals are to the death side of metal, and they’re punishing ; this is my favourite vocal style in thrash metal, to be honest. They are belligerent, retaining the speed of thrash metal vocals, yet adding a whole lot of hostility and coarseness in their delivery.

… and the solos, just like albums as “None so Vile”, they have this character that identifies them yet they never take over; the solos are just another aspect of the album that complements it.

BUT forget everything said (well not really, just consider this line as an emphasis on what I will say), what is most punishing ( said it alot already eh ?), and the ultimate highlight are the fucking riffs. Some of the best thrash riffs in the whole thrash metal genre (and metal as a whole) are Where? where? where? where? HERE ! Here’s quality and quantity, and with that sick, heavy, thrashy guitar tone it has, the riffs only sound more intriguing. Forget catchy, although Stronger than Hate’s main riff is all you’ll be humming in the next half of your life, yes forget that Beneath the Remains’ first riff will haunt your dreams, they just dominate. You want the riffs to be catchy? or headbanging ? or aggressive ? or what ? This is a real perfect combination of all. One also gets his share of spine-chills too, listen to that break when the solo of Mass Hypnosis kicks in, just amazing.

I usually tend to have problems going through an entire album, even if it has some classic songs and then a bad one, I kind of find that somewhat repellent, but nothing like that to find here. This is just one of those unrelenting albums; No silly melodic passages that make you pray that they end (probably just some exclusive ones to make you breathe every 10 minutes or so), just an onslaught of madness of a once great thrash band. Yes ONCE, which brings us to why this is one of the biggest misfortunes in metal. I rather like to look at it this way ; I don’t hate Sepultura because they are a mallcore band; I hate them because they don’t like this album anymore. They can't still like this album and release something as “Roots”. Their tastes seem to have changed (Sepultura lost track before the Cavaleras leaving), to the worst unfortunately.

If you liked Sepultura ‘s Schizophrenia, well, Sepultura didn’t really change in this album concerning their approach to thrash, just put out an even more perfected album.; different production, “clearer” and more violent, and some more awesome drumming without forgetting the riffs; all that in one punishing thrash metal album. You can actually hate this and like “Roots” and the likes, but you can’t hate this and like Thrash!

WHO (who - who - who) HAS WON? Sepultura! - 95%

intothevoid, June 25th, 2008

The 1980s were the years in which were born some of heavy metal's most important genres, such as black, death and thrash metal.

Sepultura, today's most famous Brazilian metal band created in 1984 by the Cavalera brothers Max and Igor, is one of those few bands that have managed to participate as a pioneering band in such musical genres, as well as bringing key characteristics into those rapidly evolving subgenres of metal.

Sepultura's influences are hard to discern at first, though the clear mark of hardcore punk's speed and attitude is easily recognizable.
This influence has been constant, from the band's earliest cult blackened thrash/death metal releases to the these recent years whence Derric Green was brought in to substitute Max Cavalera's departure.

This rebellious sentiment of distaste directed towards modern society reaches it's peak in total synchronization with the band's final acquiring of musical technique and an impressive inspiration on Sepultura's 1989 full length release “Beneath The Remains”.

The record's first apparent lyrical theme is surely apocalypse through warfare, but it is through further interest in the song titles and lyrics that we learn that this apocalypse Max Cavalera bravely barks about is happening right now as we know it, through the degeneration of society into a game of survival based only on self-trust.

The first song “Beneath The Remains” perfectly portrays what to expect from this album.
The sorrowful acoustic intro (surely in reference to a pre-apocalyptic life) provides a moment to breathe, but this is only the calm before the storm.
A brief moment of silence ensues in a sonic attack by a maddened and enraged riff, signalling the beginning of the end, the beginning of total degeneration.

The speed kicks in, speed that can be found everywhere on this album, and occasionally turns into a slower, groovier breakdown, that eventually leads to a frenetic bomb blast towards the end of each song.
This recipe works wonders on this album: used in addition to awesome, imaginative riffs and suffocating, brutal drumming, it creates a blueprint to thrash metal perfection.

The next song is “Inner Self”, a slower (in comparison to other tracks on the album) heavy metal anthem with a melodic passage that was bound to become one of Sepultura's most famous songs (a video was made for this song).

Then, the speed is quickly reinstaured with the following track “Stronger Hate”, which can equally be considered as an anthem, with a good balance of slow passages and fast passages, as well a memorable chorus (“stronger than hate!” an all star vocal performance comprised of Kelly Shaefer (of Atheist), John Tardy (of Obituary), Scott Latour and Francis Howard (of Death/Thrash band Incubus) lively shouts).

The guitars on “Mass Hypnosis” hypnotically swoop in, and once more a fantastically enjoyable rush of speed that lasts all through the song punches in.
The three next songs “Sarcasting Existence”, “Slaves of Pain” and “Lobotomy” are musical compositions that work perfectly with their lyrical themes and are enjoyably progressive.
They are followed (in my regards) by the weakest track of the album, “Hungry” which if left on it's own is still widely acceptable.

The album should finish with “Primitive Future”, a breathtakingly fun and fast track, but on the remastered version the Brazilian masters of speed choose to give extra bang for the buck with two instrumentals for the tracks “Mass Hypnosis” and “Inner Self” (get your karaoke machines!), and of course a hilariously good anglicized cover of Os Mutantes “A Hora E A Vez Do Cabelo Nascer (The Moment and the Turn of Hair's Birth).

This album showcased the impressive musical potential Sepultura acquired over the years (before they unfortunately downgraded themselves with Chaos A.D and beyond) mixed with truly wonderful song and lyrical writing.

The addition of lead guitarist Andreas Kisser proved to be a significant strategic move, as his leads and solos bring the cutting edge the vocaless sections of the songs need.

The drumming is fantastically delivered by Igor Cavalera, who uses brutal speed or more groove inspired drumming at times: all in all his perfomance provides a dynamic feeling to the music.
Paulo and Max do excellent jobs at what they do best, as Paulo's bass brings in the extra heaviness needed.

Max Cavalera's barking vocals convey an image of a desperate man in an apocalyptic world who sees a glint of hope in this blackened, futureless world.
His vocals take on a significant change from their earlier releases, being more of a shout than a growl.
The lyrics vary from political and medical condamnation to a more punkish charged themes such as individuality.

I consider this album as one of the highest peaks of thrash metal, as it perfects most of the genre's highlights, such as speed, technicality, great songwriting and quality riffing.
All in all, this album is nothing short of excellent and it is a must have album for a metalhead or anyone, really, regardless of genre preference.

Sadly, on later releases Sepultura sacrificed complex musical compositions for a more straightforward style of music( still maintaining a punkish attitude, but more dumbed down), which resulted in a good number of mediocre releases (such as “Roots”).
This is an album that will strike your heart with memorable tunes that will stick in your mind for weeks and will definetly make you want to headbang violently as well as turn you into a speed addict. A jaw-dropping release.

Glorious Album - 100%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, March 16th, 2008

With the great Schizophrenia, Sepultura really learnt how to play their instruments in a good way and they started a new period, less death metal but more thrash/death. This period has a peak, and it’s also the peak of their career in my opinion…of course we are talking about the fucking great Beneath The Remains. The brutality of this group is mixed perfectly with a good technique and an excellent songwriting. The sound by the instruments is sharper, thrasher and less Venom worshipper, showing a personality that has always been a bit hidden in their previous albums.

This time the production is far better than the previous albums, but very old fashioned, especially for the drums. Everything sounds so raw but clean and powerful without the pounding production of the following Arise album. Beneath The Remains contains some of the best songs ever recorded by those guys and it’s a classic in its genre.

Starting from the title track, after a small acoustic guitar intro, all that we have is a bunch of riffs, the sick Max's vocals and the restless Igor’s drumming. The following “Inner Self” is a great mid-paced song, that contrary to those in Arise, doesn’t show signs of modernism or something like this. This is pure thrash/death orgy with hundreds of palm muting riffs, stop and go and speed restarts.

Kisser is growing album after album in its way of playing the lead guitars and every song has some of the best solos ever by this group. For example check the magnificent, superb one in the awesome “Mass Hypnosis”: pure hellish madness. It's so sick and obscure. “Stronger Than Hate” is total death in the guitars with great obscure lead lines and the great work by Igor, especially at the double kicks.

The drums intro to “Sarcastic Existence” shows no mercy and begins a long series of great fucking songs…each and every one contains catchy riffs and some obscure lead sounds to create a truly hellish atmosphere. Max continues in vomiting all his hate towards the world while the tempo is getting faster and faster.

“Slaves Of Pain” is great with the refrain “…Life Ends…Feeling Death! Slaves Of Pain!” and the great thrash rhythmic guitar riffage. “Lobotomy” is lethal with the drums intro: Igor is faster than ever. The two final songs “Hungry” and “Slaves Of Pain” don’t slow down at all, continuing the up tempo parts ‘till reaching the end by an echoing stomp on the last drum beat. All that remains is satisfaction for such a brutal effort.

These ones are some of the best compositions ever by the Brazilian group and this masterpiece enters, rightly, in the Hall Of Fame of this genre.

A Masterpiece of Thrash - 99%

Thrasher53, February 17th, 2008

When I first heard this album I was speechless. The half-assed Pantera clone I had heard on Chaos A.D., had been a really talented thrash band at one point. Thats right, no grooves, no hardcore punk inspired riffs, just pure fucking thrash metal. It was this album that made me take a second look at Pantera, later Sepultura ,and realize it for what it was, pure crap. I had never heard something with such a concentrated use of aggression before in my life. It would be this album that would open the door's into the vast world of underground thrash for me, and ultimately make me ditch the glam pussies attempting to be tough act from texas. Sepultura was at the top of their game here, and it shows from beginning to end.

Well I suppose I have to review the songs. The album starts off with "Beneath the Remains" which is a nice opener that catches even the most polished thrash/death listeners unaware. Basically this song is the epitome of what Sepultura could do right, and it was done with style. "Inner Self' is more mid paced, but features a slew of catchy riffs. "Stronger Than Hate" is built to stomp your face into the ground with its vast array of heavy riffs, speed sections, and pounding drums. "Mass Hypnosis" has a retarded vocal track, but Sepultura never really was about the vocals. The song kicks it into true high gear for the first time on the album. "Sarcastic Existence", "Slaves of Pain" and "Lobotomy" all meld together really well. Slaves of Pain does it a little better with its use of a very sudden but important tempo change. "Hungry" is the worst track here, and its still worth listening too if I'm on a Sepultura run. "Primitive Future" contains an innovative song structure and a slew of riffs, it is guaranteed to destroy anyone in its path.

The best tracks here are "Beneath the Remains", "Slaves of Pain", and "Lobotomy". Yet every track here contributes in some way to the album. The production is basically flawless, heavy, yet not overproduced and a very interesting guitar tone. Yes this is Scott Burns crowning production achievement. The vocal tracks are audible, and not turned too high (Like in their groove years), and almost every riff seems to serve a purpose.

The album contains a slew of riffs, featuring 15-20 per song, as well as well constructed guitar lines, solo's, and even at times well written lyrics. Even more interesting is the way the vocal tracks are kind of used as another instrument to counter-act the flow of the currently playing riff. All in all, this album was hardly a new thing at the time. Good death/thrash had been around a while, but Sepultura re-wrote the entire rule book on how to make a death/thrash release. This album would pave the way for aggressive thrash bands, and even influences bands to this day (Warbringer).

Any fan of thrash should get this album. Anyone looking for something heavier then Slayer or any of the big four should get this album. I reccomend this to anyone who is interested in thrash, and wants to re-live the days when Sepultura was actually good and not a bunch of proto-mallcore based grooves on cd.

"Who has won?... Who has died?... BENEATH THE REMAINS!!!"

The last word on deadly thrash metal... - 97%

robotniq, October 9th, 2007

The unprecedented extremity of 'Reign in Blood' sounded the death knell for 80's thrash, but the pummelling perfection of 'Beneath the Remains' delivered the decisive blow. Sepultura accidentally broke a few extreme metal boundaries with 'Bestial Devastation', then showed that they could actually play their instruments with the promising yet ultimately transitional 'Schizophrenia'. Newly signed to Roadrunner and supporting Sodom on their European tour, Sepultura exploded out of Brazil with ruthless intent and showed the rest of the world just how good they were.

On the surface this is a tweak of their previous album, not an overhaul. Where 'Schizophrenia' was meandering and messy, 'Beneath the Remains' is tight, lean and relentless. The inexorable, driving thrash rhythms now twisted and turned with merciless precision and purpose. Igor Cavalera's powerful, dynamic, forceful performance established him as one of the best metal drummers. Andreas Kisser proves himself as one of the genre's greatest lead guitarists with relatively simple leads that emphasise harmony without resorting to mindless shredding. The last solo on 'Mass Hypnosis' is the best example; one of the best metal solos ever.

Scott Burns achieves his best production job here. This band's hunger and forcefulness slices through the murk, but creates an immense, brooding atmosphere of South American darkness in the process. It fully captures their brutal punk roots that were largely absent from their next album. Still, it is the songs that make this so essential. Side A is full of catchy, immediately recognisable 'hits' such as the immense 'Inner Self'. Side B has a stripped down, sharper thrash attack culminating in the flat-out speed of 'Primitive Future'. It is brilliant from start to finish. If Sepultura were to become one of the biggest metal bands in the world, then 'Beneath the Remains' is the reason why.

Stronger Than All - 86%

Human666, June 28th, 2007

Pretty brutal thrash to be found here, not brutal as the teutonic bands, but still quite brutal. Aside the first 50 seconds of this album,there is a never ending riff assault which will make you bang like a real bastard, but if you'll sit back and read the lyrics, you'll discover a different aspect of this album.

The main themes on 'Beneath The Remains' are about war, hate,and political issues. The lyrics fits pretty well the riffing and when you concentrate on them you'll see that 'Sepultura' have some more talent with lyrics than most of the "death, satan, hell" bands. The vocals are also pretty good. They are quite agressive but still remains clean, not melodic but has some great heat within.

The opening track has a bit negligible intro for me. It sounds a lot like 'Call Of Cthulhu' ('Metallica'), pretty calm and clean pluckings with some echos surrounds it. Then it just explsodes into heavy and yet catchy riffing which could be a great straightforward intro for this album, instead a dull and long quiet passage which doesn't really gets to anywhere. 'Inner Self' has a nice main riff and pretty good drums fills, the lead guitar also sounds well and the chorus is a bit faster and excellent for moshing. The C-Part is pretty intense and combines a distorted and clean guitars flawlessly. Pretty sweeping track, also my favorite of this album.

I must mention that this album is produced pretty well. The guitar has a solid feeling and it sounds pretty clear and heavy, the drums are also very dominant and the bass is pretty noticeable. All the instruments together sounds amazing and powerful and gives within the songs a pretty heavy vibe.

Each song has a great riffs and it's own mettle which makes it sound unique in this album. The riffing isn't very technical, it's pretty simple but remains heavy and agressive for the whole album, and has some catchy moments here and there. No bad moments at all, there are good tracks and even better tracks.

In conclusion: this is one of the highlights from Sepultura's discography. Very enjoyable album, flows great and doesn't becomes boring at any point. Pretty essential for thrashers and closes the 80's thrash scene greatly. Get it if you look for a powerful thrash piece.

Highlights: 'Inner Self', 'Stronger Than Hate', 'Mass Hypnosis', 'Slave of Pain' and 'Primitive Future'.

Hate through the arteries - 99%

morbert, May 29th, 2007

My first introduction to Sepultura was hearing 'Primitive Future' on the radio somewhere in 1989. Shortly after I saw the video to 'Inner Self' on Super Channel (remember that one?). I immediately went out to buy the album and at Dynamo Open air 1990 I stood in front waiting for these guys. I guess this says enough about how I feel concerning 'Beneath the Remains'. Not only is it by far the best Sepultura album ever made, it is also one of the best thrash metal albums ever made. The overall sound was vile, angry. The vocals were trully mean yet fortunately no real grunts. My god did this album thrash.

After a beautiful intro, the titletrack sets the mood for the album. Raging uptempo thrashing madness which is actually very catchy. 'Inner Self' proved to be the 'lightest' song on the album, mostly bringing some excellent mdtempo riffing verses, an uptempo chorus and my favorite solo from the album.

Other highlights include the already mentioned 'Primitive Future', 'Stronger than Hate', 'Slaves of Pain' and the mighty catchy thrasher 'Mass Hypnosis'. Objectively speaking Sepultura have never made a flawless album but the lesser interesting songs 'Sarcastic Existence', 'Lobotomy' and 'Hungry' are still of outstanding quality.

Compositionally and productionally their most aggressive album. The sound of 'Beneath the Remains' shattered that of 'Schizophrenia' and the aggression presented here overthrew the dark 'Morbid Visions' album with ease. That is saying something, knowing both 'Schizophrenia' and 'Morbid Visions' are classics in their own way as well.

The riffs on 'Beneath...' are mostly simple but they are pretty catchy and deadly effective. The finishing touch is the magnificent drumming of Igor Cavalera. He plays his parts with mindblowing surgical tightness and a never ceasing amount of energy. It was on this album that the brothers Cavalera excell together in tightness and both perfectly coincide with the creative leads presented by Andreas Kisser. A classic of the purest kind.

Technique required + Inspiration = Perfection - 98%

Wooh, March 14th, 2007

It's Sepultura's third full length but only the second if you consider the newfound direction starting with 1987 Schizophrenia.

Things are simple here. I could easily go into a moronic-mode and start barking that this album is a huge part of my life and emotionally driven shit like that etc etc. Instead I will comment objectively and state, in full awareness, my belief that this is the best album of music related to Speed Metal/Thrash. At least of what I've listened to.

Schizophrenia showed a great deal of potential but the technique needed to play this style of metal was quite out of reach for Sepultura. Andreas Kisser was an excellent guitarist at that time, adding new sense of melody to Sepultura but, probably, he and Max needed a bit more practice to explode from the Death Metal they played into the more Speed oriented stuff. This grey area between Speed Metal and Death Metal was explored by many bands in the mid and late 80's (Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Rigor Mortis etc) featuring the song structures and riffs of Speed Metal (although some times riffs could arguably enter the Death Metal division), the growls of early Death Metal and probably the tempo of Thrash cause Speed Metal never reached this speed before. In my opinion Sepultura explored this era with the most free and creative mind. Creating a language of their own by not being attached to any genre. Beneath the Remains is the gem of this exploration and quest and it is also the highest moment of Sepultura's career.

The album starts with Beneath the Remains, a magnificent masterpiece of controlled and directed energy. Kickass parts from the track's solo till the end. Inner Self follows up which is a Speed Metal hymn, one of the most famous songs of Sepultura, slower than the title track but good. Stronger than Hate is probably my favorite track. Pure energy and powerful lyrics. Magnificent riffcraft for the biggest parts of the song. Mass Hypnosis is another classic of Speed Metal structuring with excellent melodic parts in the middle of the song. Sarcastic Existance is a piece of delightful headbanging which (along with the last track of the album) are my favorites lyrically. This song deals about war probably and in an excellent manner. Slaves of Pain is possibly my least favorite of the album but still kicks ass (the first half of the song is fucking excellent). Lobotomy is the most progressive attempt in this album and upholds this quite good, containing many riffs and tempo changes. Hungry is a kind of melodic track dealing about social stuff and finally, Primitive Future is an epic, a prognosis of humanity and this world with supreme headbanging intent and top-class lyrics. The album leaves you wanting more...

What can I say? The only reason I give it an 98% is that I just hold the two last ratings (99 and 100) for ultra super fuckin special reasons. I sincerely state that this is the fuckin best thrash-related metal album of all time. I can say that this is my favorite album of metal music. It is perfect in almost every aspect, it literally never slows down, song structures are masterpieces, sometimes they put melodic touch but this whole thing is so fuckin anti-modern that I feel full of fuckin 80's energy every time I listen to this album, even in its melodic moments. It chops in half the dick of everyone claiming that The Haunted Made me Kill Myself and all this Gothentrend shit is thrash-style. Beneath the Remains will teach you (if you are a beginner) what the fuck is thrash. What the fuck thrash was supposed to be.

Riffcraft here is not as necrohellish as is on the previous records of this band but instead show zero intention to sound satanic or occult or metal or shit or whatever the fuck every band hailing from the underground is in fear of not sounding like. This is to their favor because when these kind of things emerge, probably the whole thing is controlled by such ideas and the bands that work like that are kinda immature and are being lead by a lot of underground trends so they lack originality. Believe me MANY bands are like that, especially in the South American Underground, Sepultura are maybe slightly aware that they are getting to be well-known so what they make is not so underground-elitism stuff but they show some mainstream metal influence too, not bad, sometimes this is needed too, blind rejection of the mainstream is ... blind. In a few words, in this time of their career, Sepultura don't give a FUCK about their image but they only care about the music, and this fuckin shows real good in Beneath the Remains. Plus that there's a huge improvement in rythm guitar technique and compelxity.

So... The 80's sadly wave goodbye and give their metal throne to the debatable 90's and Sepultura after conquering, through Cogumelo Records, South America, decide to conquer the world of metal. Scott Burns' production is excellent and if you ask me better in a lot of ways than Arise (my humble opinion). Every instrument is represented like it should be and guitar is not heavy as fuck like arise which kinda ruins the speedy feeling. Igor Cavallera also sounds a lot better here than in Arise. He is fuckin insane and absolutely fuckin precise, sometimes it drives me mad thinking he can burst into thrash rythms any time, EXPLOSIVE fuckin percussion here. Super highlight of the album.

Epilogue: 98%. If you want to show what the fuck metal means to one friend of you, lend him this album but if he accidentaly loses it or destroys it, rape his mother and sacrifice his whole neighborhood to Satan. If you don't have this album, go buy it NOW or die. No, seriously, I can't think of a possible reason why you wont like this album, it represents everything thrash ever stood for and there's nothing fuckin modern to be found here. EVEN if you aren't much into thrash or speed. If you are into these genres and you don't have this album simply you don't know what the fuck you are missing. EXTREMELY recommended to any self-respecting human being that wishes to be called a metalhead (or if he doesn't give a fuck about how will he be called).

An onslaught of riffs - 97%

worcmai, April 1st, 2006

Indeed, this is Sepulturas best album hands down. The riff assault of beneath the remains is absolutely crushing. This album is the best thrash fest anyone has attempted, with the most quality riffs being written and thrown down your neck like a cracked out whore being forced to inhale bleach till her death. This album as a whole is a complete riff monster with the speed and technicality that is unmatched by bands that even used “tweak” to aid their writing process and you know who I’m talking about :). And that drumming.. oh my.. Igor’s style, speed, brutality and fierceness really are an act of blitzkrieg pummeling all standing in the way. The bass definitely has its role in this album, bringing a slight side of punkishness along with the fueling of the freight train to its final destination = destruction of your mind. Max’s growls are at their peak of his career with lyrical themes that are generally pretty average. Then again, who needs lyrics of vast importance when all your head hears is the whiplash of your neck as your skull takes out a wall. I could go on about how wet my panties are, but onto the songs.

Nothing is to be thrown away here. From the opener to the end you get a sheer quality amount of riffs that will keep your head banging for a timelessness eon. The opening riff to the title track definitely lets you know this album is out to annihilate you and your babies alike. So many riffs are thrown into the mix it’s absolutely mind boggling how they could fit all of this onto a single album. The solos are a speedy electrocution of all nerve endings amongst your soul; they remain at a furious rate along side of the riffs assuring the consistency of the pace of chaos. The guitar work is all around very nice and full of relevancy; this is DEFINITELY Andreas’s highlight of his career.

The second song really shows Igor’s skills and really shows he deserved his old nickname “Skullcrusher”. The change ups in this song reign abundant with solos of beautiful fast composure showing off the song writing talent of these Brazilian maniacs. A good example of this is in Mass Hypnosis at the 2:43 break you come to the realization you’re nothing but a peon in the midst of the metal gods forcing you to raise your horns to the sky before quickly returning to the overdosed status of rushing adrenaline. Slaves of Pains intro fastens your seatbelt to commence on this rollercoaster that would be one the best thrash songs ever written. The dual riffs of this song make for a lethal combo of “pain” and yes all of you are the slave to it.

Definitely can’t go wrong with the intro to Lobotomy with Igor almost taking over spotlight of riffs overwhelming your eardrums. Ending the album is Primitive Future which gallops along like a headless horseman caused by a riff induced decapitation. This song is one last attempt to paralyze you and succeeds amazingly. It’s very odd that this is the last song with a name that quite possibly is a prediction of what thrash would become after this; even for the authors themselves.

Overall this album provides the heaviest, highest quantity of riffs and greatest technicality to the thrash scene. With a definite unique Brazilian aura and production quality that leaves nothing to be hindered; you can’t go wrong with this album. This is probably my most played thrash album that is nearly impossible to get tired of listening to.

who, who, who... has BEEN FUCKED BY RIFFS - 95%

UltraBoris, October 12th, 2005

Beneath the MOTHERFUCKING Remains... the highlight of Sepultura's career, and - with the possible exception of a Torture Squad LP - the best thing Brasil has ever put out.

this is a riff-derived album... I say that to mean that this is not a song-based album, where you remember each individual song distinctly - nor is it a concept album where there are a few themes that come up, and those end up being the most memorable. This runs together, unashamedly so... you will remember lots of riffs, each of them pretty fucking distinct... at the very beginning a few assorted noises, and then you are grabbed by the penile vagina, or whatever other genitalia you may choose to have this particular day, thrown into a blender the size of Olympus Mons, and mercilessly beaten about the head and neck for 38 minutes.

But hey, if you want me to name highlights, I would go with the title track, and Slaves of Pain... but also Inner Self, and what a fuckbeast way of ending things with Primitive Future... or maybe Hungry (for pleasure... you act like a robot). Yeah the lyrics aren't really amazing, but I mean they're grunted out as a rhythm instrument to provide a perfect counterpoint to the riffs... check out that staccato in "blame and lies... contradictions arise", and then riff, riff, riff, riff, riff. Hell, even when Max is unintentionally hilarious (mass hippie-nosis!) he's pretty damn good. Such a contrast with when he would blow cocks later (Chaos AD... suck on the street!)

This is pretty much Schizophrenia Part II, except this time with better production... this album literally never slows down, it just thrashes fuck from chimpan A to chimpan Z. I've listened to this album about 8 and a half trillion times, and sometimes I still can't individually discern the songs, but play me ten seconds of this album and I will recognise it correctly: "oh, this is Sepultura's finest moment, am I right?"

Yeah, they really got this one right... there is not a single moment on this album when you are not getting skullfucked with a spike, and that's how brutal thrash is supposed to operate. Fuck, I mean they even threw in the Under the Blade riff (2:11, title track) - I mean any LP that rips off that riff (see also: Feel the Fire and Breaking the Silence) can't be bad, right? No, of course not. This isn't bad. This is electric fuck - the pinnacle of a band's creative accomplishment, before they sorta slipped (Arise) and then utterly fell off a fucking cliff (everything after that).

In short... the universe is a midget, and this album rapes it so hard that Stephen Hawking learns how to walk again. And that's all I have to say about that.

HOLY SHIT, TWO IN A ROW! - 94%

cyclone, April 30th, 2005

What the fuck was I doing these past years? Something surely went wrong, since I somehow missed the brilliance of Sepultura and have only discovered it lately. Beneath The Remains is one of those albums that you buy/download/whatever and then it doesn't leave your CD player for days or even weeks. I usually don't practice that, but it seems I can't get tired of this one.

After the great Schizophrenia, I was a bit sceptic about it's successor. I was thinking: ''Ah fuck, it can't get better than Schizo. I will just have to settle with something worse...''. But NO, Sepultura actually released a record which was equally good to Schizophrenia, if not even better. And not only that the quality was still here, the basic ideas were actually really close to the ones one it's predecessor, they were just upgraded to a higher level.

The riff ideas actually stayed the same, they just got a bit more developed. There are still a lot of mosh riffs and one not riffs, along with tons of triplets and other stuff like that. I wouldn't really say that there are more riffs here than on Schizophrenia, but something is certain: only the best ones were picked out for the songs, since there aren't any bad riffs on this record. Kisser's leads and solos are still frenetic and just a bit chaotic, staying mostly at simple scales. BUT, simple as they are, his solos are absolutely amazing. Once again, I was totally blown away by one of his solos. As it's the case in To The Wall from Schizo, Andreas' solo on Mass Hypnosis is easily one of the 10 best solos in metal ever played.

The vocals are still raspy, a little bit growly and aggressive, if maybe a bit more controlled than on previous records. Bass really isn't that audible but one really doesn't miss it with so much other stuff going on at the same time. Drums are quite diverse and there's not much more endles THUNK THUNK THUNKING to be heard. The lyrics have changed from still a bit adolescent ''evil'' lyrics on first two full lenghts, to fairly good texts mostly about politics and society.

The highlights: all of them, but if I would have to pick I would say: Inner Self, Mass Hypnosis (check out that riff and the solo - probably the best Sepultura song ever) and Slaves Of Pain, for it's great pre-chorus and actually for the whole song.

You should realy get th... Shit, I promised I would change my closing sentenses :/ Hum, what to say. Oh, yes, the skull on the cover advises you to get this or you will forevermore have to listen to Soulfly albums.

A very under-rated thrash landmark. - 98%

obscuredbythesun, August 7th, 2004

Beneath the Remains is a very under-rated album by a very under-rated band. Sepultura is a Brazilian thrash band in the vein of Slayer and Testament(Both bands I whom I highly recommend.).Alot of people see Sepultura as a band with very little talent, that doesn't compare to bands like Slayer and Metallica, but I beg to differ. And that's what makes the U.S. great, freedom of speech. Anyway I think that as musicians they lack musicianship compared to bands like Slayer and Morbid Angel. That's just not where Sepultura's abilities lie. Sepultura's talents are their abilities as composers. Take for example Andreas Kisser, his guitar solos always seem to fit almost perfectly in every song. They are melodic, written in classical scales, and fast just like the rest of Sepultura's music. Andreas's riffs are real head movers to. They are just so catchy yet brutal, they are Slayerish but more sludgy/groovy. If these riffs don't get your head banging you must be paralyzed. The most moshable tracks are probably "Inner Self", and "Primitive Future" witch is probably the most energetic song on the album.

Next we have Igor Cavalera who just pulverizes his drum kit. He pounds those things with all his might, and creates thunderous sounds that Zeus would be jealous of. He is also pretty tight. Most drummers don't catch my attention because I usually focus on the guitars. But Igor is just so loud, and and his technique is so catchy my attention is just swayed over to him alot of the time. If I was a drummer this is what I would sound like.

There's really not much to the lyrics they are the same old tongue in cheek anti-war lyrics you get from many a metal band. But Max Cavalera(Brother of Igor.) the vocalist/rythm guitarist has a very strong, and masculine voice, and you know he means buisness.

This album is near perfect it's heavy as all hell(This must sink in.), there is no filler, and almost no throw away riffs/lyrics. Despite all that, it lacks originality so I can't give it a 100% rating. But I can say this, if you're a fan of brutal thrash at all, you must give this a trial listen.

Highlight tracks include: "Beneath the Remains ", "Inner Self", "Lobotomy", and "Primitive Future".

Wow, that was dissapointing. - 64%

Egregius, April 11th, 2004

You have to wonder what happened between Schizophrenia, a thrash masterpiece, and this album, which is as mediocre as they get.

Schizophrenia had riffs that slew. Beneath the Remains is full of riffs that I've heard a zillion times on other thrash albums. And for an album released in 1989, that's not a good thing. This album is full of the oh-so-typical dundundundun-du-da-du riffs, with the various songs having various variations thereof. The guitars are accompanied by the same sort of drumming that typified the drumming on Schizophrenia, only this time because of the lack of intense and interesting guitar-riffs, it's a mis on the hit-or-mis scale. The vocals still carry part of the intensity that the vocals on the previous album had, the intensity of a group of people in a desolate place desperately seeking a way out, but apparently the possible real-life breakthrough abroad at that time adversely affected this. I miss the madness in the music, the raw emotion, I miss something as epic as the Inquisition Symphony. I miss the attitude the liner notes on this re-release speak of.

It's not all bad, and in all honesty this Sepultura album is moderately better than the 'average' thrash album, but only marginally so. The album just goes right past me after I put it on. It doesn't seperate itself from other thrash. The album, like each song seperately, lacks it's own atmosphere. It's such a huge dissapointment for a band that released both Arise and Schizophrenia. I can't blame the crispier production, as they thankfully found themselves again on the next release.

Best thrash album of all times - 97%

arhar, March 9th, 2003

Welcome to SEPULTURA 101. This is THE quintessential thrash metal album of the 1980’s. By 1989, the thrash metal movement was at the peak of its power. And Sepultura were right on top of the whole scene, four young, hungry guys from Brazil for whom being the undisputed kings of metal in their own country wasn’t enough – they were out to conquer the whole world!

The band consisted of Max Cavalera on rhythm guitar and vocals, Andreas Kisser on lead guitar, Paulo Jr. on bass, and Igor Cavalera on drums. What amazes me the most while listening to brutal yet technically perfect riffs on this album, is that the oldest member of the band, Andreas, was only 21 at the time it was released!

Anyway, onto the album… In a nutshell, it’s perfect. The gentle yet haunting intro to the title track soon gives way to vicious thrash riffing by the guitar duo of Max and Andreas, and those two don’t stop until the very end!!! The songs are cruel, fast – but at the same time they don’t show that primordial ugliness that was loved by some and hated by others on their previous efforts (“Bestial Devastation” in ‘85, “Morbid Visions” in ’86 and “Schizophrenia” in ’87). To some extent, this can be contributed to the fact that this was the band’s first album with Roadrunner and they were able to get a producer that knew what he was doing – Scott Burns. Some even go as far as saying that this was their “sellout” album, as Sepultura abandoned death metal – a genre they helped discover – and dived head-first into thrash. But the reader is free to make his/her own judgment – I’ll just say that Sepultura were never about staying in one place. When they felt they exhausted their artistic creativity in one genre, they went into uncharted territories.

But let the music speak for itself – and trust me, it can! If you’re not head-banging violently by the middle of the first song, there is a strong possibility you’re wearing a neck-brace. One of the most appealing things about Sepultura for me was the feeling of “completeness” I got from their songs. Unlike many other thrash bands at the time, they never abandoned a riff after three seconds to move onto the next riff, just to dump it for the next one. They let the listener fully enjoy the juiciness of the riff in all its glory, never losing any of the power and speed. Many a time, just as you’d think the song has nowhere to go anymore and your neck is about to break if he keeps it up, the band changes tempo completely and Andreas bursts into a beautiful yet crushing solo, or builds momentum until the next sonic attack.

The lyrics are nothing to write home about, though – which can be forgiven, since the band didn’t really know English that well, and so wrote some pretty standard cliché apocalyptic anthems. It would change pretty soon, though, as Sepultura would later delve into the world of social injustices and inner struggle. In that sense, “Inner Self” is a sign of things to come.

Highlights: Well, all of them! But if I was forced to choose, I’d say “Inner Self” – which is my 2nd favorite Sepultura track ever, and “Mass Hypnosis”, thanks to the godly guitar solo from Andreas.

Lows: NONE!!!

Final verdict: If you like thrash, this album should already be in your collection. If you’re curious, THIS is the place to start. If you don’t care about thrash at all, you should still buy it, because it’s that damn good!