The last I saw of Sepultura was during their support slot on the Autumn 2004 Motorhead tour and I must say I rather enjoyed their primeval set. The fact that the band are still going at all in these modern climes is miracle enough. But to still be bringing out new material against the flood of tide known as EMO is heartening to all lovers of hardcore metal. 

Dante XXI is a concept album, based on Italian author Dante Alighieri’s 14^th century poetry. Specifically ‘The Devine Comedy’; the three components of which are Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Clearly then you will either find this inspirational, or a pretentious load of old bollocks.  

For me it almost works and whilst many of the Sepultura ingredients are here, including some truly bloodcurdling screams and ridiculously detuned guitars, musically it’s nothing to get too excited about. To my mind the band have missed a trick here: The strings on ‘Buried Words’ are truly creepy and very effective and Sepultura should have gone the whole way with these to make a genuinely disturbing, original album. Final track ‘Still Flame’ is also different and worthy of note.  

You see the problem here is it’s just too generic sounding. Sepultura are an interesting band, with plenty to say, but musically I was hoping for something a little fresher. Korn hired a dance producer to liven up their last album to brilliant effect. Pity Sepultura couldn’t have done something similar and hired someone to create string arrangement’s along the lines of ‘Buried Words’ or followed up the atmospheric ‘Still Flame’.

This is a decent enough album but ultimately is nothing out of the ordinary when it could have been so much more interesting.

Let us know your views on 'Dante XXI'

Track List

Intro #4
Dark Wood Of Error
Convisted In Life
City Of Dis
False
Fighting On
Intro #2
Ostia
Buried Words
Nuclear Seven
Repeating The Horror
Intro #1
Crown And Miter
Intro #3
Still Flame

Line Up

Derrick Green - Vocals
Andreas Kisser - Guitar
Paulo Xisto - Bass
Igor Cavalera - Drums