So I would think it is safe to assume that you enjoyed it?
HA!!! and BAH!!!
Speaking of trying to convince people of things...this is even more unlikely.
Roorback was a great album and
Dante XXI is an excellent follow-up (I've even come around and hold
Against and
Nation in high regard). If you (universal usage not you in particular Jay) have not sat down and given these albums a fair listen, I would suggest giving them a chance. Sepultura has stripped everything down to the primer paint and they are now a sparse, dry blend of dense hardcore which can even be crusty at times and barren thrash. I really think that they are more of a crossover band now in the classic sense of the term with a modern twist that makes them one of the most interesting and intriguing bands out there.
Dante XXI may very well be the best album Sepultura has ever made.
Arise does suffer a severe handicap from being played over, over, over and over again in these parts over the years, but
Dante combines the best of the past and present directions within a particular banda feat that few long-in-the-tooth bands can accomplish. Also, Dante turned the old bromide makes me feel like a teenager again into a concrete reality. When it came out, I listened to the album again and again with no fatigue setting in for a long time after I got it--just like the days of my youth without any worries of being well-versed about what else I needed to take time to listen to that was piling up due to the all-encompassing enjoyment metal done right can produce.
If you can listen to
Dante XII and say that
Chaos A.D. or
Roots blows it away and make the last two Green-era albums look horrible...I really don't know what you are listening to.
The
Dante artwork and packaging is also sharp and some of the best Ive ever seen. The cartoon illustrations that look like what an art-deco devotee filtering his sensibilities through a Día de Los Muertos palate are just creepy and far more disturbing than some idiots putting a hacked-up woman on an album cover for the 500th fucking time or some sad-panda, make-up clown's cheap, charcoal vision of hell.
It is tragic really, Sepultura has produced an album that should force all the hardliners declaring that the band has been dead since the mid-90s to pause and reconsider their words, but they keep on saying the same things. Anyone who dismisses this album without engaging it (this means more than listening a few Mp3s or some streaming audio) should be pelted with rotten vegetables in the town square at high noon and run out of town with a shaved head.
Dante is a masterpiece and Derrick Green is one of the most independent spirits inhabiting the realm of metal--it is a shame that many people do not stop to listen more closely.
Also went and saw them in Chicago a few months back and it was just a mind-blowing show and one of the better ones Ive been to in the past few years. Doors opened at 5:30 to reel in a young crowd, so I had the benefit of getting home early and missing all of the opening bands
Chicago crowds are always a bit wild and there is often a kind of random-people-on-the-street-waiting-for-the-bus-at-a-stop dynamic at work, but it was one of the most diverse crowds Ive ever seen.
There were a lot of hardcore kids there in hoodies and a smattering of people with shirts off to bare their tattoos.
Some deathheads wearing Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse shirts.
A few old-schoolers roaming about in thrash shirts, denim and leather.
Saw a couple of guys that must have been pushing forty-five/fifty and wearing clothes that were not metal or hardcore by any stretch of the imaginationbut one of them was stuffing a Sepultura shirt in his coat pocket as he was heading for the hills at the end of the night.
There was the mother (couple of other possible moms as well) chaperoning her son and some friends who was all gussied up like a glittery and punk rock Pat Benatar in some tight-fitting clothes who looked like she was seeking to bask in a bit of attention from the roving eyes of some younger males for a night.
There actually was a sizable number of women present (compared to most shows, Ive attended in the past year--it was like returning from a deserted island) Some done up in the goth/suicide girls fashion with cleavage hanging out there in the open, others just clad a black band t-shirt and jeans, and some just in normal all-purpose street clothes.
A lot of Latinos. There was Spanish being spoken all of the place, and I thought I even heard some Portuguese--but cant be sure.
There was really a good vibe running throughout this wildly divergent crowd making it into one collective entity and the one moment that really summed it up for me was the reaction of some of the shirtless tattooed tough-guys slamming into each other in the pit to one of Greens asides. When he was talking about the abrupt shift in the weather (was around 60/50 and dropped by about 30 degrees and it started sleeting right as the show let out and then snowing and the snow was still falling 12 hours later), he mentioned that they were walking around outside in shirts just a little bit ago and one of the shirtless guys yelled out Shirt? Who needs a shirt? and everyone chuckled a little.
I cant count how many times Ive seen one of these guys go meathead and be a dick--but tonight there was a happy smile on everyones faces and when they bumped into someone watching and not slamming there was a little irritation at some points but it was quickly cleared up with a hand clasp, a smile and a thumbs up or a fist in the air--the same way which me and another guy told each other everything was cool over the music blaring when we cracked craniums hard as we were both thrashing like mad.
A band that hold a very high and special place in my pantheon that some out there probably would not expect.
