Music Review: "Beneath The Remains" Album (1989) by Sepultura

I know, I seldom write blog recently. It doesn't mean I'm lazy or experienced "writing block" during these days. No, I was just busy doing something else. Besides, being online all the time is not good, in my opinion. You may disagree with me on this. It's OK. People are different, right? Each one of us has different job requiring different time in using internet. So, no job nor person is perfect. Just enjoy life the way we'd like to... as long as it's not against law, of course. OK, here's my music review below.

Beneath The Remains (1989) is the third studio album by Brazilian metal band named Sepultura. The name of this band is from Portuguese word means 'grave'. Sepultura was formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera in Brazil. The band has gone through several membership changes through out its 40-year existence. 

When doing Beneath The Remains album, they still had their original members: Max Cavalera (lead vocal, rhytm guitar), Igor Cavalera (drums), Paulo Jr (bass), and Andreas Kisser (lead guitar). Their early two studio albums were Morbid Visions (1986) and Schizophrenia (1987). 

Beneath The Remains was released on April 7th, 1989. It was their first release by Roadrunner Records, an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. There are 9 tracks in it: Beneath The Remains (05:11), Inner Self (05:07), Stronger Than Hate (05:50), Mass Hypnosis (04:22), Sarcastic Existence (04:33), Slaves Of Pain (04:00), Lobotomy (04:55), Hungry (04:28), and Primitive Future (03:08). They used Michael Whelan's work called Nightmare In Red as the cover art of the album. Michael Whelan is an artist of imaginative realism style. This album received many positive responses. AllMusic (an American online music database) gave 4,5 stars (out of 5) to this album and called it "the most essential death/thrash metal album of all time" (wikipedia). 

This album was recorded on 15th - 28th of December, 1988. Produced by Scott Burns and Sepultura. It was recorded at Nas Nuvens Studio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and mixed in Morrisound Recording (Tampa, Florida, US) . There were many other musicians involved in recording this album: Kelly Shaefer (from Atheist, an American death metal band), John Tardy (from Obituary, an American death metal band), Scott Latour (from Incubus, an American death metal band), and Francis Howard (from Incubus, an American death metal band). They contributed as backing vocals on Stronger Than Hate track. 

For me, this album is one of my favorite metal albums. This album also gives me "nostalgic" memories back then in late of 1980's, when I was still in high school/first year in college. I remembered buying this album on cassettes (3 or 4 times) just for supply... haha. Later, I also bought it in CD when I had enough money. Thanks to internet. Now I can download this album and listen to it from my cellphone. Songs like Inner Self, Stronger Than Hate, Sarcastic Existence, and Slaves Of Pain are my favorite tracks from this album. Why? If you're a metal fan, you won't ask this question... haha.