Sepultura "Arise (1997 Reissue, Remastered, Roadrunner Records)"

Arise is the fourth studio album by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released in 1991 by Roadrunner Records. Upon its release, the album received top reviews from heavy metal magazines such as Rock Hard, Kerrang! and Metal Forces. Arise is considered Sepultura's finest hour among longtime fans. While the music on Arise was mostly in the same death/thrash style as their previous album, Beneath the Remains, it was clear that the Sepultura sound was acquiring an experimental edge.

The album presented their first incursions with industrial music, hardcore punk and Latin percussion. The tour (1991–1992) that supported the album was the group's longest at that time, totalling 220 shows in 39 different countries. During this trek, the album went gold in Indonesia—the band's first music industry certification. By the tour's end, Arise had achieved platinum sales worldwide.

In August 1990, the band travelled to Florida to work on the album. Scott Burns reprised his role as producer and audio engineer, and now with a major advantage: Sepultura were at his home studio, Morrisound, a studio properly equipped to record their music style. Their label Roadrunner granted a $40,000 budget, which helped explain the album's improved production values. That allowed Igor and Burns, for example, to spend a whole week just testing the drum kit's tunings and experimenting with microphone practice.

Although lead guitarist Andreas Kisser stated that Arise "took a lot of the same direction" as their previous LP, Beneath the Remains, it was clear that their music had somehow changed. Sepultura's usual breakneck pace became toned down a bit; drummer Igor Cavalera started using groove-laden rhythms. According to metal specialist Don Kaye, the album "represented the band taking their initial death/thrash sound to its logical conclusion."

Arise also found the band opening up to non-metal influences. Bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten, The Young Gods and Ministry were already part of Sepultura's listening habits, and slight touches of industrial music can be traced through the use of samples and sound effects. A trademark of a later phase—Latin percussion and "tribal" drumming—made its first appearance on the song "Altered State". The band's old love for hardcore punk is evident on "Subtraction" and "Desperate Cry".

Just one day after finishing the recording of Arise, the band embarked on a small headlining tour with extreme metallers Obituary and Sadus. That was the start of the longest promotional tour of Sepultura's career, a worldwide affair that would span two full years. In January 1991 they were invited to play for at the Brazilian music festival Rock in Rio 2 where their performance was watched by a 70,000-strong crowd.

Before heading out of Brazil on a mid-1991 European tour, Sepultura performed one more concert in São Paulo, the country's largest city. It took place at Praça Charles Miller (in front of Estádio do Pacaembu), on May 11. Local military police expected 10,000 to attend. 30,000 showed up instead, making crowd management nearly impossible. Six people were hurt, 18 were arrested and one was murdered with an axe. A week before, a young man was stabbed to death at a Ramones concert in São Paulo, during a brawl between headbangers and skinheads. These events were followed by a huge mainstream media backlash throughout the country against rock music.

Sepultura's three-month tour with thrash metal groups Sacred Reich and Heathen was a critical success. For the first time they appeared on the cover of best-selling British heavy metal magazine Kerrang! and major pop weeklies such as Melody Maker and NME published long feature articles on the group. While in Spain Sepultura recorded their Under Siege video, which included their Barcelona concert and interview footage with all four members of the band. After Europe, they toured North America with grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, New York City hardcore punk group Sick of It All and Sacred Reich. Sepultura wrapped up the year doing a brief German tour with NWOBHM legends Mötorhead and Florida death metal group Morbid Angel in December.

Sepultura then managed to secure a slot in two of the most sought after rock tours of 1992. One was done with ex-Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne, who was promoting his multi-platinum solo album No More Tears while the second tour was with industrial metal stalwarts Ministry and influential Alternative Metal/noise rock unit Helmet. Both of these American acts had just released the most successful records of their careers - namely Psalm 69 and Meantime.

A remastered version of Arise was released by Roadrunner in 1997, with added notes by music critic Don Kaye and four bonus tracks, previously released on the compilation The Roots Of Sepultura: a cover version of Motörhead's "Orgasmatron", a rough mix of "Desperate Cry" and two previously unreleased songs. A previously unavailable photo shoot from the Arise period was also included in the expanded CD booklet.

Track listing

All music is composed by Sepultura, except where noted.

1. "Arise" Max Cavalera 3:18
2. "Dead Embryonic Cells" Cavalera 4:52
3. "Desperate Cry" Andreas Kisser 6:40
4. "Murder" Cavalera 3:26
5. "Subtraction" Kisser 4:46
6. "Altered State" Kisser 6:34
7. "Under Siege (Regnum Irae)" Cavalera 4:52
8. "Meaningless Movements" Kisser 4:40
9. "Infected Voice" Kisser 3:18

Total length: 42:26

Bonus track (Japanese and Brazilian edition)

1. "Orgasmatron" (Motörhead cover) Kilmister/Burston/Gill/Campbell  4:15

1997 remaster

1. "Intro" (instrumental) 1:32
2. "C.I.U. (Criminals in Uniform)" Katherine Ludwig Moses 4:17
3. "Desperate Cry (Scott Burns mix)" Kisser 6:43

Trivia:

- The album peaked at #119 on the Billboard 200.

- The image on the cover is H. P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth drawn by Michael Whelan.

- The song Dead Embryonic Cells appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City. On the radio station L.C.H.C. Max Cavalera is the DJ.

Music videos:

- Arise

- Dead Embryonic Cells

Recording information:

Co -Produced Sepultura.

Recorded at Morrisound Recording, Tampa, FL. 

Mixed at Quantum Sound Studios, Jersey City, NJ. 

Mastered at Masterdisk, New York, NY.