Lost (intro)                          

Dark Wood Of Error            

Convicted In Life               

City Of Dis                         

False

Fighting On

Limbo (intro)

Ostia

Buried Words

Nuclear Seven

Repeating The Horror

Eunoé (intro)

Crown And Miter

Primium Mobile (intro)

Still Flame

Vocals: Derrick Green

Bass: Paulo Xisto

Guitar: Andreas Kisser

Drums: Iggor Cavalera

I will be incredibly forefront about this album, I am biased because I am a huge Sepultura fan. But mistake me not when I say that I am a critic as well and I didn’t think that Roorback was that great of a CD. I liked it but I wouldn’t have given it a high rating by any means. Dante XXI is completely different! Andreas Kisser’s guitar is mixed correctly and it regained the harshness and heaviness it had on the Against and Nation albums.

            Dante XXI is a concept album based on one of the greatest pieces of literature ever to come out of Italy. The album takes Dante through the same situations, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise in modern times. It turns out great.

            Just starting out with the intro puts the listener into a state of mind that they are about be taken to this place called hell. Lost starts out very eerily with just a keyboard sound and a voice in the background talking in tongues and at the end, Derrick screams in what sounds like agony. Before the listener knows it, Dark wood Of Error sets in and the drums, bass and guitar come in, with fury, to take the listener into another realm. After about a minute and a half, Green comes in and starts yelling and the bands sound changes into what I would consider, a hardcore song and the beauty part of it is…it only lasts about a minute and a half and then the drums for Convicted In Life start up and we are in the next song. Convicted In Life is a powerful song at this point in the album. It’s the first real start of the album because it starts out with vocals and ends with vocals. The guitar parts are rather simple and to the point which is something that most people can get into. The lyrics are powerfully sung and the bass sings through the mix. Some of the lyrics are catchy too, as I was singing the song, I found myself screaming, “IT NEVER MADE A FUCKING DIFFERENCE TO YOU!!!” Which is a great line if you are having problems with someone, it’s just great to shout.

            This is the type of CD where the listener has to listen from front to back. The intros flow very well into the next track. I think this was done was wonderfully because if they would have incorporated the intros into the songs themselves, it would have made people bored and would have had to fast forward the track to get to the song part. By separating them, it gives people the option to listen to them or not.

            Ostia is another powerful song where the vocals practically start right when the song does. The guitar riff in song could have easily have been on the Arise album as well as the rest of the song. It’s a little slower of a song but with the combination of Andreas’s guitar and Derrick’s screaming…makes this a wonderful track.

            Buried Words is a track I first listened to when I was really pissed off. The only thing I don’t like about this song is at the introduction to it. It sounds like Andreas is having guitar problems for about 30 seconds which is like an eternity, then he comes in with solid rhythm riff for another 30 seconds and again, the rest of the band comes in and comes in with fury! When I was mad, this song fed me the anger I needed and required. I’ll forever love this track for the way it makes me feel when I listen to it. It’s fast, furious and everything Sepultura is. This is my favourite song on this album.

            Éunoé (intro) only contains a single Cello chord played over and over again for about 20 seconds until Crown and Miter comes in with Green screaming, “THERE IS NO WAY OUT!!!!” over and over again. The drums, guitar and bass are playing an incredibly fast rhythm part that could get any pit started in a hurry. But that’s not all! No no no no no!!! Horns make an appearance in this song along with some great sedge ways into other parts that gives the song more than one dimension.

The Quality Part:

            I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out sonically. Although, I did think the CD could have sounded a little warmer. The band decided to make the whole album via Pro Tools. Which to us engineers, means the whole album was recorded digitally via a computer. I’m a little old school when it comes to recording, I prefer to have the drums and bass recorded in analogue, but that’s just me though. I also wasn’t very pleased with the mastering of the album, I thought the levels could have been a little higher.

            Overall, I loved this CD. Go get it after you read this review, it’s well worth it.

rating: 10/10