When I found out Max and Igor Cavalera had worked through their past issues and agreed to work together once again I was optimistic about their future plans. The last time the brothers worked together was on Sepultura’s Roots, an album I admittedly enjoy a lot despite it’s "tribal nu metal" flavoring.

The new band they formed is called Cavalera Conspiracy, a sure sign that sucktitude is on the horizon. To make things worse they named their debut full length effort Inflikted. Inflicted with a "K". Oh sweet fucking Christ… on top of this they included Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo and Gojira bassist Joe Duplantier.

Before listening to the debut for the first time I made sure to have a few drinks to loosen myself up and not allow the impact of shitness affect me too greatly. I pressed play, closed my eyes and waited for the horrors within.

Surprisingly, despite the stupid band name, awful album title and even worse artwork the music contained within is actually… metal!?!?! No, seriously, it’s metal! Contained within the album’s 11 tracks are throwbacks to the early death/thrash-era Sepultura sound, complete with surprisingly solid solos and catchy riffs, as well as a heavy early hardcore and punk vibe. When I say death/thrash I mean DEATH AND FUCKING THRASH! What the fuck?!?! Even the track that contains bass lines by Pantera’s Rex Brown, Ultra-Violent, is fucking heavy, simplistic, but heavy and contains segments of music I haven’t heard since Morbid Visions, Schizophrenia and Beneath The Remains with soloing that sounds like it’s straight off of a Nile album.

Predictably not everything on this album is quality, there are a lot of tracks that don’t really seem to go anywhere and lack the catchiness to really move the material along, pretty much your basic filler material. Overall, I’m shocked to admit the album has surprised me and there are actually a few worthwhile tracks for fans of early Sepultura and Nailbomb. I don’t just mean "Ehh… they’re okay, but unnecessary." I mean actually good songs that are worth checking out.

Considering my expectations were so low I’d have to call this album a success, I’m not convinced this is an album people "must own" because there is a lot of filler crap that just makes the album as a whole difficult to listen to, but I’m impressed enough that I’ll be giving a few of these songs more listens. This is definitely a step in the right direction, hopefully they’ll continue this project and write more material along these lines. Who knew Max and Igor still had balls? Written By: Teufel