Review CAVALERA ‘Bestial Devastation’ – EP (re-recording)

It was back in 1985 when a Brazilian metal band appeared on the scene with an EP called ‘Bestial Devastation’. The band we talk about is Sepultura who released with split album with another band called Overdose.

It was the primitive aggressiveness of these Sepultura songs that created some first attention which found a continuation on the debut album. ‘Morbid Visions’ was the first full-length album of this Brazilian four-piece and both releases belong to the starting points of an impressive career.

Although the breakthrough was the ‘Beneath the Remains’ while the first records paved the way. To bring new light to the first songs from the thrash metal powerhouse, the Cavalera brothers, Max and Igor, re-recorded the early Sepultura releases which will be released these days.

‘The Curse’, that’s the intro on the original EP and on the recording, leading to the title track. It becomes immediately apparent, that Cavalera could maintain the ruthless power of the original releases while using the possibilities of modern recording options. Songs like ‘Antichrist’ are a blast and the density in this new setup even increased. The same goes for the raging ‘Warriors of Death’ and ‘Necromancer’.

With ‘Sexta Feira 13’ an new song provides the special extra on this EP and fits perfectly into the context of the first songs. Cavalera fires on all cylinders which makes this re-release to more than just a new recording.

What gives this release a bad taste though is, that the vinyl version is sold for the price of a full-length album while ‘Bestial Devastation’ only contains 20 minutes of thrash metal. More than 30 EUR for less than an hour of music is definitely out of balance and the remaining question is, why this release wasn’t packaged with ‘Morbid Visions’ as 2-vinyl gatefold set.