So after being a Sepultura fan for nearly 20 years, and only really ever listening to the Max era albums I've decided to work my way through the post-Max era stuff.
My first exposure to Sepultura was (like many other metal bands) due to my older brother. He lent me Arise back in 200e, followed shortly by Chaos AD. These two remain my favourite Sepultura albums but I dig all the Max era stuff to be honest.
I remember when I was flat sharing with a buddy back in 2006 (who had very similar tastes to me) and he had a copy of Roorback. I didn't really know a great deal of Sepultura's history back then, but I had started listening to some Soulfly albums around that time.
I must've read something about the post-Max output but I remember thinking that the album art looked strikingly similar to Come Clarity by In Flames (which had just been released) so I thought I'd give it a shot. I think maybe it was the same artist who did both album covers?
Anyway, I didn't think much of Roorback upon hearing it. Of course, back then music wasn't so easily accessible. I decided that post-Max Sepultura was not for me and I wouldn't be wasting any of my money on their albums. That stuck for years, and none of my friends were into any of their later albums, so I just never really thought about it.
I think it was due to someone posting on DTF about Machine Messiah that gave me the push to give them a try. It was probably a little to do with the fact that I'd been unimpressed with recent Soulfly/Cavelera Conspiracy albums as well.
I thought Machine Messiah was decent, as was Quadra, so here we are. In this day and age it's so easy to sample all the albums I couldn't back in the day, so this is just part of that journey.
I've just spun Against, and you know what, it wasn't that bad. It had that tribal sound but was edging more towards hardcore than thrash. I'll try to continue suspending any preconceptions and keep going through their albums.