Cavalera Conspiracy - Psychosis

The founding brothers of Brazil’s biggest thrash/groove/death metal-playing band Sepultura, Max and Igor, have come together again under the project sporting their last name that finds them trying more than they do on their other projects to pick up where their old band left off at Chaos A.D. in the context of 21st century. Often more appreciated and more demanded than Max’s more Roots-esque work in Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy still often finds Max falling into his stretched-thin writing habits. Being that he’s written so many albums’ worth for numerous projects (all rather similar in style) it’s not surprising that decades down the road he’s found writing unique songs more challenging, and on Psychosis, it seems to have been a weakness approached consciously. Where Psychosis lacks originality, it seeks to compensate with what’s left of Max’s and Igor’s youthful attitude in the form of ceaselessly thrashing riffs, thick guitar tone, and a sense of taking on the iniquities they started writing music about during their teenage years in Brazil. When they come through, they deliver sufficiently loud and gym-worthy thrash/death metal, but much of the album sounds like Max on autopilot in the more death-metal-high of his few main operational modes. His vocal lines on “Spectral War” I can swear I heard coming straight from one or more of his songs with Soulfly, and with his huge writing catalog, I’m not sure if he’s aware of it. The album has some highs though, like the fast guitar/drum pairings on the song “Crom” and the crazed echoed shouts on “Hellfire”  traded off with pounding drum beats that fits the album’s title, but unfortunately Psychosis mostly washes over in kind of an expected Cavalera-ish pass with not much sticking out to grab hold on for attention and not much more than baseline death-chugging and thrashing interlaced through uncertain and aimless songwriting to find on deeper dives that sounds like what Max and/or Igor have already done. It’s not a painful listen by any means, not even entirely boring, but what Max and Igor tried to create on Psychosis can be heard come to more full fruition on Arise, Chaos A.D., or even Beneath the Remains.