For me the Brazilian, today not so Brazilian, SEPULTURA will always be in the image of "Beneath The Remains" or the albums prior to it. I felt like the band was going down slowly as "Arise" was released and then came the crappy "Roots Bloody Roots" that sent the band to the Nu Metal style that just didn't fit them. After Max Cavalera's departure from the band and the coming of Derrick Green, SEPLUTURA slightly returned to their true selves but not in the 80s image. They became groovier and more into the New American Metal approach. With the release of the band's new "Kairos", via their new giant label, Nuclear Blast Records, I still think that SEPULTURA are far away from their true potential as an experienced group.

I presume that to enhance a band's musical profile some experiments should be in order. For that intention I admire the band's effort for trying to do something different. Nevertheless, in my view, the last album, "A-Lex", was also a sort of an research that was a show of intent to start something weird but new. Well, call me traditional, although I do like innovations, but what SEPULTURA did here was too risky and it resulted in a pretty much a downfall for the band's high standards and I do believe that they have. Maybe one of the few things that I did like on "Kairos" was the fact that after all these years, there are still orientations to the mid 80s SLAYER, whether it's some of the sounds and the overall feeling of the music. Andreas Kisser, the band's long time lead guitar hero, wrote solos that were almost equal, notes and style of playing, to what Hanneman / King were doing back in their days of glory. Although many other guitarists share the same orientation, I salute him for doing so.

Furthermore, the album itself had a few nice tracks to offer, and also a good cover for the industrial MINISTRY. "Relentless" was quite nice and it had a few Thrash Metal elements in it but more to the modern style of the subgenre. "Dialog" was interesting and pretty mysterious, "Kairos" was an ok track but it was too repetitive. "Just One Fix" was the best that SEPULTURA could muster on this release but it was not an original as all the credit should be for MINISTRY as it is their written track. However, the performance of the band on it was good.

From these tracks, including the cover, it seemed that SEPULTURA are still lurking in the dark without a sure decision to which direction to place themselves in. In a way it is quite provocative and rather brave, but I asked myself why taking so many risks just in order to crumble down after the same past experiences? I can't answer that, only SEPULTURA can. The band's musical approach presents one of the negativities of being too progressive or better said, over complicating things without meaning it. It is not that they chose to write complex riffs or something like that, yet it was just hard to comprehend what they did here. Sometimes I felt as if something started well and then it fell down the stairs with a big bang.

"Kairos"has its potentials, but it is not enough for a band like SEPULTURA. Maybe on the next endeavors, this band will understand that going back to the roots, and not to "Roots Bloody Roots", is the sure thing for them.