Though Sepultura were already metal legends by the time they released Roots in February 1996, it’s fair to say that the band’s sixth album was also the one that changed everything.
Roots furthered the groove-based mission plan the Brazilian band set forth on 1993’s Chaos A.D., almost entirely eschewing the thrash-and-death-metal-driven feel of their earliest output in favor of brutally head-bobbing beats. Leveling up with tribal rhythms, traditional instrumentation and guest vocals from Xavante locals spoke to the band’s love for their native land, while prescient guest spots from members of Korn and Limp Bizkit would ultimately lead many to consider Roots an early nu-metal classic — despite vocalist-guitarist Max Cavalera long-held stance that it is nothing of the sort.
The record is likewise the last-ever from Sepultura to feature their founding vocalist-guitarist — a brilliant but bittersweet mile marker as he splintered from the act to form Soulfly, while his old bandmates kept the flame going for decades to come.
With all that in mind, and upon the classic album’s recent 30th anniversary, we asked our readers to pick their favorite parts of Roots, and they laid it bare accordingly.
“Lookaway”
“Lookaway” is a guest-heavy centerpiece that our readers are fixated on.
What makes it so good, you ask? The defiantly-lean, creepily-swerved pace of the near six-minute headtrip is a great start.
It might also be how the song manages to weave quasi-operatic vocal ambiance from Faith No More’s Mike Patton, scritch-scratching turntabling from House of Pain’s DJ Lethal (the appearance pre-dating his studio appearances with Limp Bizkit) and some weirdo whispering from Korn’s Jonathan Davis into this overall ominous standout.
“Born Stubborn”
While “Roots Bloody Roots” could quite rightly be considered the de facto title track to Sepultura’s sixth full-length statement, a good argument could be made that late-album mosh-jam “Born Stubborn” serves the same purpose.
It is, after all, the song where Max Cavalera excitedly shouts of finding his tribe, and that “these roots will always remain.” He also screams about how Sepultura lives “in our hearts” — a somewhat complicated notion, considering his exit from the band a year later, but also his continued relationship with the group’s material through various live and studio projects.
The beeping guitar feedback at the top of “Born Stubborn” kind of sounds like a Mac truck backing up. The rest of the band are primed to bowl you over through the rest of the wah-wah-coursing, drum-crushing cut.
“Cut-Throat”
Sepultura rage against the machine on this early album outing, with Max Cavalera roaring over “pathetic ignorant corporations” gassing up and glad-handing artists with their phony business bullshit. Sepultura, it would seem, are done with the “farce” and are walking the path to heavy-metal infamy on their own damn terms (“Money isn’t our god/Integrity will free our soul”).
A seriously groovy “fuck you” song that asserts that Sepultura won’t do what you tell them.
“Attitude”
You better show some respect to “Attitude,” because the track is a fan favorite among our Roots-loving readers. T’aint hard to figure out why.
While the record is often infused with a more traditional tribal rumble, and “Attitude” begins with Max Cavalera elastic-snapping a one-stringed berimbau, this third single also hits big with an industrialized rhythm that’ll kickbox your block off — notably, the video finds Sepultura live-scoring a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu battle.
The song’s lyrics were conceptualized by Cavalera’s stepson, Dana Wells, who tragically passed away a few months after the album was released.
“Ratamahatta”
“Vamos detonar essa porra.”
At its heart, Roots is a monstrously heavy yet cultured love letter to Sepultura’s home country. And with it’s memorably groove-battered second single, “Ratamahatta,” they delivered a song both for and from the streets.
The spine-contorting arrangement sports elementally low-dangled riffage and unshakably rhythmic percussiveness. The back-and-forth vocal dynamics between Max Cavalera and future Latin Grammy winner Carlinhos Brown detail the beguilingly brutal sound exploding out of their neighborhoods. And, boy, do they set it off.
From uptown, to downtown, to midtown, to Trenchtown — and around the world — you’re bound to find some Roots fans blasting “Ratamahatta” at Max volume.