Another Sepultura fanboy here. The first album that I got my hands on was Beneath The Remains too. It was the first thrash/death outfit I ever listened too, and loved every second of it.
Arise, their next album, I consider it one of the best thrash albums of all time, right up there with Slayer's Reign in Blood. It is fast, technical and the production was excellent.
Then Chaos A.D. after that, and they came out with a different sound. From them on, Sepultura concentrated a little more in the heaviness of their sound than on the speed, mixing a lot more hardcore and punk influences. And this album became a landmark for the 90's more heavy approach on metal. I will say it has become Sepultura's most influential album, music scene wise.
Roots to me became a statement album. They exposed totally their latin american heritage, and mixed it up with their new heavier than life sound, which makes it a very special work. Later during the 90's, bands like Il Nino and Puya, did their own thing, experimenting with latin sounds, too each their own (Puya was more latin jazz oriented).
After Max's departure, all other albums maintained some of the Roots sound, getting even darker (if that's possible). but more hardcore/punk oriented in my opinion. Derrick Green's vocals gave them a little more room to work melody wise, and still mantain their agrressiveness.
Their last effort, Dante XXI, is a great album. They went back to the thrash years a bit, and got themeselves a mix of everything Sepultura has experimented with, and got out a very good record. In my opinion, they have been pioneers (specially during Max's years) to some sounds and they still have a lot in them. So to this day, they are still one of my favorite bands of all time
