I was talking with a friend of mine the day I learned that the new SEPULTURA album, A-Lex was going to be released early in 2009. Our dialogue was something like that :-  Did you hear the news? The new album from SEPULTURA is coming out in January! - The new album from whom?. And he was quite right. Can you imagine this band without the name Cavalera written in the lineup? It's like AC/DC without the Young brothers, like MEGADETH without Mustaine, like JUDAS PRIEST without Tipton and Downing!

So I'll try to listen and review this album without having in mind the absence of both brothers, in order to have as much clinical detachment as I can have. So, the full story behind the band is well known even from my mother! I won't bother to make history lessons right now. I prefer to write about the concept behind the album. A-Lex, meaning no law in Russian, is inspired by the novel A Clockwork Orange written in 1962 by Anthony Burgess. The album is separated in four chapters, as those in the book (in the 1971 film by Stanley Kubrick the fourth chapter is missing). The last chapter is about ...free will, your own free choice, in which environment you choose to move…, as Andreas Kisser said.

As for the album, from the musical part of view? Well, first of all let me point out some details. It was recorded in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in Trama Studios, the fist one with Jean Dolabella (ex - UDORA) behind the drum kit. If you would like to compare A-Lex with some previous albums from the band, I think its closer to Against and Dante XXI. Most of the songs are short and energetic, combining Thrash and hardcore as they did during the last years. The tribal points are not gone, since there are some parts; just listen to Filthy Rot. Jean's drumming cannot be compared to Igor's but I believe he is making a good job under those circumstances. As for the two ones from the old crew and Derrick I don't have to say much, since they are giving their best as most of the times. A huge bet for the band is also Ludwig Van, where they play a cover from Beethoven's 9th Symphony! A bet that for me personally, they didn't win.

If you listen to A-Lex only as a Thrash/hardcore album, you will agree with me that it is a quite good album. But I don't believe that this is a SEPULTURA album. I strongly believe, and without having anything against Jean and Derrick, that the two brothers must come back and have SEPULTURA back. So, as a Thrash/hardcore album, I should give A-Lex a...