100 Greatest Songs of the 90’s #94 Sepultra – Refuse/Resist

Released : 1993

By the mid-nineties metal realised it could to whatever it wanted; if music as extreme as In Utero could be played on daytime radio, there were basically no more statues to kick over. The movement’s past wasn’t just quietly erased either, as a long list of mainstream bands from the previous decade became targets of ridicule, their easily pastiched formulas rendered toxic almost overnight.

Sepultra formed in Belo Horizonte, with brothers Max and Igor Cavalera at the their centre. Whilst they grew up listening to founding fathers like Black Sabbath as did many of their generation, is was first hearing the wytch-heavy froth of British trio Venom that changed their outlook, a very unlikely seed, but one which neverthless arguably changed the course of rock music.

By their fifth album Chaos AD the Brazillians were showcasing the rapid evolution of both their sound and ideology, an anger stemming in part from the rapid destruction of their homeland’s culture and natural resources. Refuse/Resist is a hugely aggressive statement flirting with thrash and punk, a simultaneous call to arms and raised finger. The kings were dead. Long live the kings.