Pandemonium

***Pandemonium*** is the third Cavalera Conspiracy album, released on October 31, 2014.

It was released on November 3 in the UK and November 4 in North America.

## Production

During the writing of the album Max Cavalera almost considered naming the album *Fuck That Groove* because of how fast and brutal the songs ended up. In an interview with Loudwire, Max admitted to putting his brother Igor to the test, “It’s like trying to make him play fast like he’s 15-years-old … You’re gonna play fast the whole time and every time he was in a groove, I’d say, ‘Fuck the groove, get out of the groove and go back to fast.”

## Album cover

The album cover shows all the assortment — the tank, big
skull, hands, stabbed heart, burning flags, crosses on chimneys giving off smoke,
thunderstorms, a bird of some sort, and the three worlds aboard the mighty gun
of “Deus Ex Machina”, which is the name of one of its tracks. A reviewer on *Metal Wani* says "it is by far one of the deepest, meaningful
and relative depictions of an album’s title and concept. This is something you
would find in a reputed gallery, and if it ever did make it to one, this would
definitely hold its own with all the other artworks."

## Music and lyrics

The album is heavier, thrashier, and has more death metal elements than their previous album *Blunt Force Trauma*, with added bits of hardcore punk, industrial metal, groove metal, and grindcore. The songs are rawer and solos tend to be less melodic. According to a handful of reviews, this album resembles the early Sepultura albums *Beneath the Remains* and *Arise* and reviewer Carl 'The Disc' Fisher on *Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life* proclaim that *Pandemonium* is the spiritual successor to the latter. The album has occasional forays into electronics by Igor and Rizzo, such as heard in the tracks "Apex Predator" and "Cramunhão". In an interview on *Metal Wani*, Igor said that *Pandemonium* is the fastest, most aggressive stuff that he and Max have done in a long time [since Max-era Sepultura]. Regarding Max's vocal style on the record, a reviewer on The Grim Tower quoted, "Max’s vocals sound much fiercer than ever, as he apparently had a large bowl of rocks before he went into the recording studio." His vocals are more in the background relative to the sounds of instruments, producing the effect of what I call "foggy vocals", such as heard in "Babylonian Pandemonium", "Scum", and "Insurrection".

### Songs

A new song titled "Bonzai Kamikaze" was uploaded to Napalm's official Soundcloud in August. The song is about Japanese kamikaze pilots and their fervor to commit suicide for their country.

## Tracklist

1. "Babylonian Pandemonium" (released as single) – 3:34
2. "Bonzai Kamikaze" (released as single) – 4:04
3. "Scum" – 2:28
4. "I, Barbarian" – 3:24
5. "Cramunhão" – 5:27
6. "Apex Predator" – 3:44
7. "Insurrection" – 3:49
8. "Not Losing the Edge" (released as single) – 5:09
9. "Father of Hate" – 3:31
10. "The Crucible" – 3:27

**Bonus tracks**

11. "Deus Ex Machina" – 6:28
12. "Porra" – 5:58

## Reviews

* Dr. Fisting of *Angry Metal Guy* (3/5) – "Marc Rizzo's guitar sounds like a video game, a VHS instructional tape, or Soulfly, and there's have no room for any of those things. The songwriting is extremely predictable."
* Peter Lindblad of *Back Stage Auctions* (A-) – "One of the most intense and ferocious records to date from the Cavalera brothers, *Pandemonium* makes Soulfly seem an unnecessary distraction for Max. This is one Conspiracy theory that demands more investigation."
* Ray Van Horn, Jr. of Blabbermouth.net (8.5/10) – "It's the closest in the way of a new Nailbomb album, only Cavalera Conspiracy boasts the otherworldly skills of Marc Rizzo and Igor Cavalera's capability to shift rhythms with concussive force. Marc Rizzo is the difference maker in turning *Pandemonium* into a fine-tuned machine and not merely a meat grinder."
* David Perri of Bravewords.com (7/10) – "*Pandemonium* is fierce, fit and will fuck you up, but the production is claustrophobic and murky that feels like wading through mud after it's been raining for days. Here's hoping that next time Max and Igor keep the rage, but set the studio knobs to stun."
* Dave Ingram Jr. of BRUTALISM.com (4/5) – "*Pandemonium* may be flawed, but it’s a violent ride from beginning to end, and you can’t ask for better entertainment than that."
* Mark Zapata of *Cryptic Rock* (4/5) – "A throwback to the old days, the Cavaleras ride again with *Pandemonium*."
* Joshua Overbey of *Dead Rhetoric* (9/10) – "*Pandemonium* serves a drop of sweet savagery that’s sure to sate the ravenous appetites of extreme metal veterans and neophytes alike."
* Acky Munro of *Freakin' Awesome Network* – "From start to finish this album is a mess."
* The Grim Tower (9.5/10) – "*Pandemonium* is a return to the old sound, complete with all the nuances of the modern era."
* *Metal Blast!* (4.5/5) – "Max and Igor have created one of the most compelling records of their careers with *Pandemonium*, and hopefully this proves to be a sign of things to come."
* Matt Reifschneider of The Metal Observer (8/10) – "This is most certainly ‘back to the primitive.’"
* Darryl of *Metal Utopia* (7/10) – "Max Cavalera proves that he hasn’t lost his edge after all these years and he’s as brutal and heavy as he’s always been."
* Akshay Sharma of *Metal Wani* (10/10) – "*Pandemonium* is my record o’ the month, and I give this album a smashing tenner! It is raw, it is fast, it’s the combined assault of not one, but two Cavaleras."
* Del Preston of *Planet Mosh* (4/5) – "Max is ghoulishly and viciously wicked; totally adding to the punk and thrashy vibe of the early days of grindcore sound that this album seeps."
* Mark Granger of PureRawk.com (4/5) – "Heavy, fast and full of energy, *Pandemonium* may be the most aptly named album of the year. It also sees the band at the top of their game. Time to join the conspiracy."
* Wren of *Stereo Killer* (3.75/5) – "What we have here is essentially the Sepultura record we’ve been waiting for, for years. It mostly pulls from the *Arise* era but with the tuning of *Chaos A.D.* and is a solid outing throughout but not nearly as memorable as its comparable albums."

* Amazon.com
* *Bloody Good Horror*
* *Desert Highways*
* Encyclopaedia Metallum
* *Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life* (9/10)
* *Geeks of Doom* (8.5/10)
* *Ghost Cult Magazine* (7/10)
* *Heavy Blog Is Heavy* (3/5)
* *Last Rites*
* *Louder* (4/5)
* *Maximum Volume Music* (8/10)
* metal.de (8/10)
* Metal1.info (7.5/10)
* *Metal Exposure* (7/10)
* The Metal Forge
* *Metal as Fuck*

* *Metal Injection* *(6.5/10)*
* *A Metal State of Mind*
* Metal-Temple.com (10/10)
* The Moshville Times
* New Noise Magazine
* *Rate Your Music*
* *Reflections of Darkness* (7.5/10)
* Rockpages.gr
* *Rock Revolt Magazine* (4.5/5)
* *Sea of Tranquility* (4/5)
* The Sludgelord
* *SonicAbuse*
* *Soundscape* (7/10)
* *Stormbringer* (4/5)
* Ultimate-Guitar.Com (7/10)
* WickedChannel.com (5.5/10)
* YouTube (86/100)

## Personnel

**Band performers**

* **Max Cavalera** – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
* Marc Rizzo – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
* Nate Newton – bass guitar, co-lead vocals on "The Crucible"
* Igor Cavalera – drums, percussion

**Songwriter**

* Max Cavalera – lyrics, music

**Production**

* Produced by **Max Cavalera**
* Engineered, recorded and mixed by John W. Gray
* Engineering assisted by Matt Turner
* Arranged by Igor Cavalera and **Max Cavalera**
* Mastered by Joe Laporta
* Lacquer cut by HL

**Management**

* Managed by Gloria Cavalera
* Legal representation patrolled by Bryan K. Christner
* A&R by Monte Conner

**Artworking**

* Artwork created by Stephan Doitschnoff
* Designed by Péter Sallai
* Photographed by Glen Laferman and Tom Barnes

**Booking**

* Booked by Ian Sales, Justin Hirschman and Rod MacSween

Music & lyrics
Tracklist
Reviews
Personnel

Music & lyrics
Tracklist
Reviews
Personnel

Music & lyrics
Tracklist
Reviews
Personnel

Music & lyrics
Tracklist
Reviews
Personnel