I was originally introduced to the “Morbid Visions” album back in 1987 by Trey Azagthoth, who had recorded it for me on the flipside of a MORBID ANGEL rehearsal. It was not only the first music that I ever heard from SEPULTURA ever, but also the first South American band for me in general. As far as I can recall, Trey also added something by their country mates MUTILATOR (probably a demo or something) and I immediately liked both bands a lot. Fast forward to 2023: brothers Max and Iggor Cavalera, the core members of SEPULTURA, re-recorded the entire “Morbid Visions” album (as well as “Bestial Devastation”, the five tracks of their previously released split album with OVERDOSE), in order to present the songs with a better production after all. A lot of die hard SEPULTURA fans will probably dislike this decision, since re-recordings of old material, that gained a certain cult status over the years, is always a subject matter that vividly gets discussed among Metal fans, no matter which band we’re talking about. Well, I personally don’t really have a problem with it, since new recordings will never replace the originals and nobody gets forced to listen or to buy them. You can always stick to the originals. But in this case, I think the Cavalera brothers did a really good job in still capturing the old vibes, since everything luckily still sounds very old school. Yes, they are better players now, but they obviously tried to stay true to the originals as much as possible and luckily didn’t go for re-written, re-arranged modernized versions. And as far as I know, they didn’t even touch the rather primitive original lyrics either. Next to Max (rhythm guitars and vocals) and Iggor (drums), the core of the recording line-up consisted of Daniel Gonzalez (POSSESSED / GRUESOME) on lead guitars and Max’ son Igor Amadeus Cavalera on bass (GO AHEAD AND DIE), who worked together very well. But they all must have similar musical roots anyway, considering the bands they play in. The running order of the original album has stayed the same, only the original intro (the first movement of Carl Orff’s classical piece “Carmina Burana”) was left off. But that wasn’t already featured on later editions of the original “Morbid Visions” album anymore either. Instead of that you’ll get an additional 2:15min long, pretty cool new track entitled ‘Burn The Dead’ at the end of the album, which fits in very well with the rest of the material and features Tony “Bones” Roberts (DISCHARGE / BROKEN BONES) on lead guitars. Visually both re-releases have a lot to offer as well, since the great old SEPULTURA logo was used as the blueprint for the CAVALERA logo (I’m really glad they didn’t release them as CAVALERA CONSPIRACY) and the incredible artwork from Eliran Kantor (INCANTATION, IMMOLATION, KREATOR, KRISIUN, SODOM, TESTAMENT) is based on the old covers as well. They look like more professional versions of the original ideas now and fit the re-recordings just perfectly. But there’s also two negative aspects about these releases that I don’t want to hide here. First of all, to sell each CD edition seperately for a full price is pretty outrageous since the playing time of “Bestial Davastion” is only 20 minutes (and that already includes ‘Sexta Feira 13’, the other new song they recorded). The whole material would easily have fitted on “Morbid Visions” as well or should at least have been sold for the price of a mini CD. The other negative aspect seems to be a manufacturing error. Songs, that were obviously meant to flow into the next one, accidentely get interrupted by a short break, which is too bad really, since it reduces the listening pleasure quite a bit… Anyway, if you already enjoyed THE TROOPS OF DOOM, the new band of original SEPULTURA guitarist / bass player Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, you should definitely give these re-recordings a chance as well. And at the end of the day it’s up to you then to decide who came up with better new versions of ‘Bestial Devastation’, ‘Troops Of Doom’, ‘Antichrist’ and ‘Necromancer’. More CAVALERA information you will find at www.facebook.com/cavaleraconspiracy or www.facebook.com/nuclearblastrecords