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Beneath the Remains

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Beneath the Remains
A skull on a background of black. On the cranium are a variety of things: a bright red circular area above the frontal eminence that gives the impression of a heat source, three roses in full bloom surround this red area on the skull's left-hand side, a tile with the number "3" (with a spider in its web below), and some coins (one with a triangle and one with what appears to be the numbers 981 below it). Above the eye sockets and beneath the largest rose is a bat with its toothed mouth open as if screeching. The skull's left side has features that appear as types of coral. The left eye socket of the skull has a dim blue glow as if something is still living. The skull's left parietal bone has a large piece missing and smoke emanates from the hole. On the skull's right-hand side there appears to be another smaller skull attached. The band name "SEPULTURA" appears at the top left in a red uppercase font while on the middle far right the words of the album title are printed uppercase vertically but with the words placed in a staggered pattern to the right, finishing with a red vertical bar "underlining" (sidelining?) the last word.
Studio album by
Sepultura
ReleasedApril 7, 1989
RecordedDecember 15–28, 1988
StudioNas Nuvens Studio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Genre
Length41:48
LabelRoadrunner
Producer
Sepultura chronology
Schizophrenia
(1987) 		Beneath the Remains
(1989) 		Arise
(1991)

Beneath the Remains is the third studio album by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, released on April 7, 1989. It was their first release by Roadrunner Records.

Continuing in the death/thrash metal vein of its predecessor Schizophrenia (1987), the album had improved production and songwriting compared to the band's previous works.[3] In time it would be acclaimed as a classic in the thrash metal genre.[4][5] According to vocalist Max Cavalera, Sepultura had "really found [their] style" on this album.[3] In January 2013, Beneath the Remains was inducted into Decibel magazine's Hall of Fame, becoming the second Sepultura album to do so, the first being Roots. This induction would make Sepultura the first band to have more than one of their albums being featured in the Decibel Hall of Fame.[6]

Cover art

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This was their first album to feature a Michael Whelan cover art. Sepultura had initially planned on using another Michael Whelan cover art, Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre; Igor Cavalera had even gone so far as to get part of the painting tattooed on his arm. Roadrunner Records convinced Sepultura to use Nightmare in Red[7] as they felt it was better suited for Beneath the Remains. Monte Conner of Roadrunner later sent the original artwork to Obituary, who used it on their album, Cause of Death, which was released a year after Beneath the Remains.[8] For years after the incident, Igor Cavalera was upset with Monte Conner for giving away their album cover.

The cover art is acrylics over pastels.[9]

Background and recording

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Max Cavalera travelled to New York in February 1988 and spent a whole week negotiating with the Roadrunner label.[10] Although they offered a seven-record deal to Sepultura, the label was unsure of the band's sale potential.[10] The album's budget was a small amount by the label's standards ($8,000), but in the end the cost was almost twice its original budget.[11]

Scott Burns, who had previously engineered records by death metal acts Obituary, Death and Morbid Angel, was the chosen producer. Burns agreed to work for a low fee ($2,000) because he was curious about Brazil.[12] Sepultura spent the last half of December 1988 recording the album at Nas Nuvens Studio in Rio de Janeiro, from 8 pm to 5 am.[13] The studio was specifically chosen because it was the one where some years before Brazilian rock band Titãs had recorded their classic album Cabeça Dinossauro, which impressed Sepultura.[14] Burns had brought some drum equipment and Mesa Boogie amps to Brazil (a rare item for production standards at the time) which helped to improve the sound quality.[15]

The album's sound incorporates elements of death metal and thrash metal,[1][4] as well as influences from Black Sabbath and the early U2 and Corrosion of Conformity albums.[16]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Q[17]

Beneath the Remains has received critical acclaim. AllMusic writer Eduardo Rivadavia noted that the album "marked the band's transition from third-world obscurity to major contenders in the international extreme metal arena", and called it "one of the most essential death/thrash metal albums of all time."[4] Adam McCann of Metal Digest called Beneath the Remains a "real heavy metal classic", and wrote "With Beneath the Remains, Sepultura almost drew a line in the sand, they tightened up the sound placed down on their previous album Schizophrenia, amped up the power and created a real beast of an album where not only Sepultura fans hail it to the best Sepultura album ever released, but an album which frequently rides very, very high in the best heavy metal albums ever released. Rightly so too, for Beneath the Remains, all the stars aligned for Sepultura and it lit the blue touch paper that would soon catapult the Brazilians in the heavy metal stratosphere."[18]

Track listing

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All lyrics are written by Max Cavalera and Andreas Kisser, except where noted; all music is composed by Sepultura, except where noted

No.TitleLength
1."Beneath the Remains"5:11
2."Inner Self"5:07
3."Stronger Than Hate" (lyrics by Kelly Shaefer)5:50
4."Mass Hypnosis"4:22
5."Sarcastic Existence"4:43
6."Slaves of Pain"4:00
7."Lobotomy"4:55
8."Hungry"4:28
9."Primitive Future"3:08
Total length:41:48
1997 remaster
No.TitleLength
10."A Hora e a Vez do Cabelo Nascer" (Os Mutantes cover for the 1989 tribute album Sanguinho Novo... Arnaldo Baptista Revisitado; lyrics by Arnolpho Lima Filho)2:23
11."Inner Self (drum tracks)"5:11
12."Mass Hypnosis (drum tracks)"4:22

Personnel

[edit]

Charts

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Chart (1989) Peak
position
UK Indie Chart[19] 9
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Croatian Foreign Albums (TOTS)[20] 3
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[21] 96
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[22] 22

References

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  1. ^ a b GATECREEPER'S CHASE MASON: SEPULTURA'S 'BENEATH THE REMAINS' IS "A GATEWAY" "Since its release in April of 1989, Sepultura's Beneath the Remains has risen in stature from a cult favorite to a bona fide thrash-metal classic. The Brazilian band's third album, and first for Roadrunner Records, regularly ranks in metalheads' and critics' best-of-the-Eighties lists, alongside genre-definers like Slayer's Reign in Blood and Metallica's Kill 'Em All."
  2. ^ [https://www.allmusic.com/album/beneath-the-remains-mw0000653932 "The complete absence of filler here makes this one of the most essential death/thrash metal albums of all time"
  3. ^ a b Kay (1997), from the liner notes of Beneath the Remains.
  4. ^ a b c d Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Beneath the Remains – Sepultura". AllMusic. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
  5. ^ Terrorizer #109 (2003), page 35 (author unknown).
  6. ^ Dick, Chris (January 3, 2013). "Sepultura – "Beneath the Remains"". Decibel. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
  7. ^ Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 69,
  8. ^ Mudrian 2009, page 104.
  9. ^ Angle, Brad (April 7, 2020). "Sepultura's 'Beneath the Remains': The Story Behind the Cover Art".
  10. ^ a b Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 60.
  11. ^ Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 67.
  12. ^ Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 64.
  13. ^ Barcinski & Gomes 1999, pages 64 & 66.
  14. ^ Mazetto, Luiz. ""Beneath the Remains": 30 anos do grande salto do Sepultura e do metal brasileiro". Vice (in Portuguese). Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Andreas Kisser e Lobão em Kaza! (Projeto "A Chamada"). "Andreas Kisser talks about production of Beneath the Remains". YouTube.
  16. ^ Angle, Brad (April 3, 2020). "Sepultura's 'Beneath the Remains': Max Cavalera on "Make-It-or-Break-It Album"". Revolver. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  17. ^ "Sepultura – Beneath the Remains CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  18. ^ "Sepultura – 'Beneath the Remains' – Metal Digest – The Normless Magazine". metal-digest.com. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  19. ^ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980–1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  20. ^ "Lista prodaje 17. tjedan 2020. (20 April 2020. - 26 April 2020.)". top-lista (in Croatian). Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  21. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Sepultura – Beneath the Remains" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  22. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2020. 19. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved May 25, 2024.

Works cited

  • Anonymous (2003). A Megaton Hit Parade: The All-Time Thrash Top 20. Terrorizer, 109: 34–55.
  • Barcinski, André & Gomes, Silvio (1999). Sepultura: Toda a História. São Paulo: Ed. 34. ISBN 85-7326-156-0
  • Mudrian, Albert (2009). Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, 104.
  • Harris, Keith (2000). Roots?: the relationship between the global and the local within the Extreme Metal scene. Popular Music, 19: 13–30.
  • Sepultura (1989). Beneath the Remains. [CD]. New York, NY: Roadrunner Records. The Sepultura Remasters (1997).
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