Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA will release their new studio album, "Machine Messiah", on January 13 through Nuclear Blast. The band has just made available the CD's first digital single, "I Am The Enemy". Fans who pre-order the album digitally now will receive track immediately. SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser states: "The song 'I Am The Enemy' was one of the last songs we worked on before going to Sweden to record the album. It's really simple and straightforward, with a strong influence of the hardcore scene of the '90s. The lyrics talk about ourselves as human beings, with concepts and pre-concepts implanted in our heads through education, religion, the environment and all of our own experiences. We are the problem and the solution. Do not blame anything or anyone else but yourself; you are your own enemy. Face yourself, rethink your life and then you'll have a chance to make a better world for yourself." He adds: "We are playing the song live already and the reaction is being amazing. Now you all have the chance to listen to the album version. Play it loud!" Professionally filmed video footage of SEPULTURA performing "I Am The Enemy" on October 29 at the Rock Concha festival in Salvador, the capital of Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia, can be seen below. Inspired by the robotization of our society, "Machine Messiah" was produced by the band and Jens Bogren (SOILWORK, OPETH, KATATONIA, AMON AMARTH) of Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden. The CD's stunning cover artwork was created by Filipino artist Camille Della Rosa. Kisser stated: "I found the work of Camille Della Rosa during some research I was doing to look for alternative artists to work on the cover of our new album. I had the concept in my mind and the name of the album, 'Machine Messiah', but that didn't matter much since I was looking for different styles and ideas, different artists. When I saw her paintings, I was really impressed by her style, full of colours and meaning, very unique and alive! She comes from the Philippines, a place where we performed some years ago and we could feel the intensity of their culture, very powerful! She has that power in her paintings and drawings!" He continued: "The main inspiration around 'Machine Messiah' is the robotisation of our society nowadays. The concept of a God Machine who created humanity and now it seems that this cycle is closing itself, returning to the starting point. We came from machines and we are going back to where we came from. The messiah, when he returns, will be a robot, or an humanoid, our bio-mechanical savior. "The painting 'Deus Ex-Machina' is a masterpiece! I was really shocked to see how her concept of the painting was a perfect fit to our concept! The cover was done six years ago for our new album and she didn't know it! Neither did I, but I'm glad we crossed each others paths. "Camille's work is intense and in your face. We are lucky to have such a great artist working with us; she's kind and very talented. She brings something new and exciting to a career of 32 years during which amazing artists have created memorable and iconic album covers." Kisser added: ""I'm very happy with everything about 'Machine Messiah'. It is a SEPULTURA album but with a new direction and intensity, a new musical challenge, a step forward! Can't wait to show the world our music for the new Messiah coming." "Machine Messiah" track listing: 01. Machine Messiah 02. I Am The Enemy 03. Phantom Self 04. Alethea 05. Iceberg Dances 06. Sworn Oath 07. Resistant Parasites 08. Silent Violence 09. Vandals Nest 10. Cyber God Regarding how SEPULTURA ended up working with Jens Bogren on the new CD, Kisser told SVT.se: "We did like a small research on different producers that we didn't work [with] before; we wanted to work with somebody new. And the Swedish music and scene and the bands like MESHUGGAH, OPETH and many others inspired us to come here and to work with him. He also worked with KREATOR, a band from Germany, and ANGRA, another band from Brazil, friends of ours, and I was really impressed with the way he worked [with] both bands." According to SEPULTURA singer Derrick Green, "Machine Messiah" sees him and his bandmates continuing to take their sound in new, previously unexplored directions, something that has become somewhat of a SEPULTURA trademark. "This album, it's exciting, because I think a lot of fans don't have any idea what to expect, but they know that a SEPULTURA album is always different from the last," Derrick said. "I think that makes us better musicians, and I think that's what our fans expect." Photo credit: D.O. Blackley
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