Review by Felix on March 5, 2021.

Let me start with a little statistic. At the time of this writing, the first four Sepultura albums have an average rating of 88.75%. Chaos A.D. still reaches 70%, while the ten long players from Roots to Quadra are at 61.1%. The average would be even lower if the number of reviews of the individual albums were taken into account: 20 people reviewed Roots with an average of 50%, whereas the 87% of Quadra is based on only four opinions. What I want to say is: apparently it's largely consensus that Sepultura have only produced lukewarm shit since Arise.

Well, when I hear Kairos, I cannot disagree with the prevailing opinion. It's rather shocking that this album is still ranked at 74% today. The 2011 work starts quite solidly with the sawing guitars of 'Spectrum' and the opener quickly develops an apocalyptic dark tinge. Although the track remains stuck in the mire of mid-tempo, the threatening melodies do not remain without effect. The following title track is in a similar vein. With the one-word chorus of 'Kairos' I always think it is the little brother of the chorus of 'Nomad', but that is a venial sin. Again, the song bumbles along at a medium tempo, but otherwise shows its teeth. From the third title onwards, even I recognise a clear pattern. Kairos does not emphasise speed, even if parts of 'No One Will Stand' tries to score with high velocity. The record is more about creating a dense darkness. This works reasonably well at the beginning, but it wears out quickly - and the album only ends after more than 53 minutes. The Ministry cover, for whose performance there is absolutely no reason in my view, and the completely pale, meaningless 'Dialogue' do their best to throw Kairos off track. In fact, the album doesn't really find its way back on track either.

There are hardly any moments of suspense, inter alia because of the little variety concerning the riffs. A quite decent solo here ('Mask', a track that is, by the way, at least in phases fast and dynamic), and every now and then a deadly melody that makes you sit up and take notice (the beginning and the end of 'Born Strong'), that's it. But in addition there are the weak vocals of Derrick Green, who has the dynamic and the charisma of a bridge pillar, and rather lifeless drums. You can listen to all that, but it's not very exciting. 'Refuse / Resist', 'Beneath the Remains' or 'To the Wall' were in a different league, just to name three of many.

The result is a relatively powerful, but also somewhat dully produced album, whose creative potential is exhausted after 35 to 40 minutes. You get the feeling that Sepultura want to prove through quantity that they are still relevant, but that's not how the game works. Very few metalheads will fall into endless enthusiasm to the droning guitars of tracks like 'Embracing the Storm'. What's the average since Roots? 61.1%? I am generous. Kairos is worth 62% to me.

Rating: 6.2 out of 10

Review by Carl on January 23, 2023.

For the little country that Belgium is, we do have somewhat of a history when it comes to black metal. I don't mean to come across as chauvinist here, but the first few albums of Ancient Rites and Enthroned are total classics in my opinion. On the other hand, we also have that documentary "Black Metal in Belgium", which is embarrasing as fuck. Check it on Youtube, but don't come complaining to me if your forehead gets sore from your hand slapping it while watching that. Also from Belgium is Provectus, gracing us with their first full length, which thankfully is a lot less ridiculous as the aforementioned documentary.

Provectus deal in Scandinavian style black metal, the 90's way, but with a contemporary twist to it. Describing their sound, I'd put them somewhere between 90's Darkthrone, the early works of Emperor and Graveland, with some Dark Funeral and Enthroned added, and even some Belphegor in the distance. It has the raspy vocals, blast beats and tremelo picked riffing you'd expect from a band in this style, but Provectus also intersperses relentless blasting aggression with slower, more atmospheric parts, which makes the album as a whole sufficiently varied enough to stay interesting. The production is on the decent side, although it has the odd trait of sounding too gruff to be mainstream, yet that bit too slick to be a raw underground offering. I can't find any other way to describe it.

That they have a lot of ideas becomes very clear when you look at the running times of their songs, because it looks like they used them all. There are a good few that are around the seven minute mark, with one even going over 10 minutes. This is a point where I thought they could have trimmed the fat somewhat, because this is all on the lengthy side. Good thing they stuffed quite some variation in there so it surely isn't a slog, but I would not have minded a bit more compact songs.

To tie a ribbon around this review, I'd say that Provectus may not be reinventing the black metal wheel here, but it's a solid enough release to appease the black metal cellar dwellers out there. Within a world that has enough underground black metal bands to probably populate a small planet by now, Provectus make a good enough impression to stick out of the throng for sure.

rating: 7.5 out of 10