Coming off of their awesome 2013 release, "The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart", Brazilian metal legends Sepultura return once again in 2017 with their anticipated new release, "Machine Messiah", the fourteenth studio album overall and the eighth album with vocalist Derrick Green at the helm long since replacing the legendary Max Cavalera. Being a huge, longtime fan of Sepultura's earlier albums with Max of course, but I've also been digging into their more recent material a lot too as of late, and I really have to say that "Machine Messiah" holds up extremely well, and it's already one of Sepultura's best albums as far as I'm concerned as well. This album here has clearly aimed for a much more progressive sound and direction with longer songs and more diverse and creative instrumentation to boot, and features an epic conceptual theme centering around the robotization of our society on top of that. The production (courtesy of Jens Bogren) is clean, beefy and very top notch, the songwriting is very eclectic, inspiring and innovative, and the instrumental parts are nothing short of memorable in all aspects, plus there's also many additional elements included such as classical orchestrations, keyboards, tribal percussions, different vocal variations, etc. Overall, I thought Sepultura couldn't have picked a better person than Jens Bogren to produce an album. He just does such an all around brilliant job with the production on this album here. You can hear absolutely everything here, just clean and crystal clear throughout. Not to also mention, the album's cover art is just absolutely mind-blowing as well too. As I mentioned earlier, the band's musicianship/instrumental work is just memorable and right on target throughout "Machine Messiah". Vocalist Derrick Green is on fire throughout this album delivering his best performance thus far, spitting out his fiery growls and screams and he also delivers some great clean singing in spots as well. Guitarist Andreas Kisser delivers some of his finest work in years here, unleashing a wonderful variety of amazing riffs that vary and range from classical thrash metal style chugging to more complex progressive patterns and what about those solos of his. The solos that Andreas cranks out here on this album are just beyond impressive and mind-blowing. Overall, Andreas is completely at the top of his game here, and this is no question that best that I've heard from him in years. Elsewhere, drummer Eloy Casagrande is right on target, doing an all around incredible job displaying incredible speed and techniques throughout these amazing ten tracks with his uniquely technical and destructive, energetic drumming, while Paulo Jr. does an excellent job holding up the rest of the music with his killer, barbaric, driving, grooving bass lines throughout.The album's opening title track, "Machine Messiah" is a powerful, slow building and brooding number which sees Derrick singing softly over a bed of slow, steady, melodic chugging and epic, soaring leads and melodies and steady, non-threatening drumming before exploding later on with his harsh screams and yells over more heavier, yet slow, grinding power chords, and the song is also further highlighted by an awesome chorus, plus an awesomely winding, ripping, melodic solo is also tacked on as well. Track two, "I Am the Enemy" meanwhile is a vicious and punishing headbanger which clocks in at a little under two and a half minutes as it assaults the listener's eardrums with it's hard-hitting, blistering drums, ferocious, teeth-grinding, pile-driving riffs, plus a pair of killer, blazing solos (the first one is tacked on at the 41 second mark) and angry, throat-tearing vocals, and a pounding, earth-shaking breakdown (filled with pummeling guitars and killer double bass fills) makes it's way at 1:23 and is followed by a fast, insane, ripping second solo at 1:42 as well. Definitely one of my favorites, but the best just keeps on coming here. Next up, track three and my absolute favorite track, "Phantom Self" is an absolute powerhouse of a track that starts with an awesome percussion and symphonic sounding intro before thrusting into a crushing and pummeling beatdown drenched with crunching, pummeling, chugging riffs and soaring solo flights, thunderous double-timed drum work, booming bass lines and intense vocals throughout, and not to mention, the epic symphonic elements and sounds throughout really make "Phantom Self" such an epic, powerhouse song, and I definitely consider it to be one of Sepultura's best songs in their catalogue as well. Such an amazing song, I love it. Track four, "Alethea" is another favorite on here that also starts off with an interestingly catchy drum pattern intro from Eloy Casagrande before the heavy, grinding and bruising guitar attack of Andreas Kisser comes into play. This song is amped with lots of grinding, crunching, and pummeling riff work, heavy, powerhouse drumming and beastly, soaring growls throughout, and another awesome, ripping solo is also tacked on for good measure too. Next, is "Iceberg Dances" which is an amazingly brilliant instrumental piece (and also another one of my favorites) as it explodes with a superbly brilliant opening riff that sounds almost similar to "True American Hate" by Testament, but done totally different. The guitars, the bass and the drums are just all so immense and well executed throughout this track, most particularly Casagrande's drumming which really shines here, and there's also some great acoustic work, as well as an awesome, soaring, melodic solo by Andreas at the 3:40 mark being tacked on.Moving forward, we have track six, "Sworn Oath" which begins with a hauntingly epic guitar intro before kicking into a killer groove with some great, heavy, chugging riffing from Andreas. Derrick's vocals are also top notch with lots of soaring, heavy roars and yells galore, and there's also an amazingly memorable chorus which also includes some great double bass drumming by Eloy and some awesome keyboards, and Andreas also uncorks an excellent, sweeping, tasty, shred-worthy, yet melodic solo at the 4:30 mark as well. This is definitely an epic track, and another one of my favorites songs on here as well. Track seven is "Resistant Parasites" which is an awesome death/doom crusher that features some great bass work throughout by Paulo Jr., and also features powerful, heavy, bone-crushing riffing, great drums and massive, howling roars, as well as some more great orchestration. The track later builds it's way into a ferociously chaotic and fast instrumental passage loaded with, including some more awesome solos by Andreas as well. The eighth cut, "Silent Violence" meanwhile is a more faster song that blasts it's way from the get-go with an assault of pounding, blasting beats, grinding, fast, blazing, chugging riffing, and Derrick is in top form with his always ferocious, melodic roars, plus Andreas' leads and solos are just downright excellent here as well. Then next, we have track nine, "Vandals Nest" which is another monster thrasher that is anchored by more lightning fast, careening riffing, fast, hammering double bass drumming that are like a massive uppercut to your face, and Derrick's roars are blistering as usual, and he also throws in some clean vocals too. Then finally, we have the album's closing song, track ten, "Cyber God" which in a similar way to the album's opening title song, is a more slower and brooding number that is just supremely heavy from start to finish and it's highlighted by again more of Derrick's amazing, heavy, melodic roars with some low whispers and soft, clean singing also being added as well. Eloy's drumming in this track is very top notch with plenty of awesome double bass foot work, Paulo's bass is super thick and good, and Andreas' guitar work is just brilliant with great, heavy, lumbering riffs and awesome leads, and let's not forget that amazing solo of his before the music fades out in the end. Such a brilliant and amazing ending to an amazing album.Overall, from front to back, "Machine Messiah" is an all around excellent heavy metal album from Sepultura, and it really shows that these legends still have plenty of heart and passion for metal left in them. This album truly has got everything, from great, clean production, to amazing, creative songwriting and top notch musicianship, to awesome vocals and lyrics, I mean absolutely everything, and it's also definitely very safe to say that "Machine Messiah" is easily one of Sepultura's best albums in their long, storied discography, and dare I say it may also even rival some of their early classics such as "Beneath the Remains", "Arise", and "Chaos A.D." as well. Bottom line, if you're a fan of Sepultura through and through, then by all means, you must buy this amazing gem of an album ASAP!!! SEPULNATION FOR LIFE!!! \m/ \m/Jeremy