Review by Adam M on February 3, 2017.

Sepultura return with a renewed thrash vigour.  There is an intense and focused aura to the music that is performed on this disc.  The music is passionately performed.  This is welcome sign because some of the other music I've heard from this era (see Nation) is very lazy in comparison to what's on offer here. 

The songs have that tribal influence that was present on Chaos A.D. to a well done extent.  The groove is largely successful here in comparison to what I've heard in the past from Derrick Green led Sepultura  It makes for a nice and infectious type of metal performance that will have the songs in your brain long after listening to them.  Still when compared directly to Chaos A.D., the affair just doesn't seem as interesting or as dynamic.  It's still the band firing on all cylinders, but the extent of the success they're able to obtain is limited by the confines of their new style.  See the excellent Resistant Parasites which is a rousing number, but never reaches the level of a Chaos A.D. song and simply fills in the background.  Though exciting, one would wish for the caliber of tribal influenced metal of that former album and we are never actually taken to that point on Machine Messiah.  The level of excitement is thus relegated to this score of 7.5/10 and not able to trespass any higher than that.  This is somewhat of a shame because we know the type of interesting music Sepultura is capable of creating. 

There aren't many bands that sound like the tribal style that is focused upon here, however and this bodes well for the band.  They still perform a somewhat niche sound that has a large amount of potential for possibility.  It's just that these possibilities are limited by the new sound style and only taken so far. 

Rating: 7.3 out of 10 

Review by Adam on March 21, 2001.

Before the Roadrunner deal, Sepultura were still a band who could afford very little and couldn't even tour outside their homeland. This cd shows a lot of maturity in the bands music and the production is much better this time around. The songs are heavy but also have a little catchiness to them as well. This is a great thrash record and is very impressive for still a relatively young band. Andreas Kisser joined the band prior to the recording of this album and his talent shine through on this release as well. The intensity is up a notch and the quality is too. If the band only knew what was in store for them for the next album...(see review for Beneath The Remains)

Bottom Line:Great speed/thrash metal cd. Any and all Sepultura fans need this album!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.