Album Review : Inflikted - The Cavalera Conspiracy**** For fans of : Pantera, early Metallica, Lamb Of God Quick history lesson - there were two brothers, Max was pretty good at shouty vocals and guitar, Iggor was great behind a drum kit, they formed a band called Sepultura which became the biggest band ever to come out of Brazil, sold warehouse loads of records and were very popular in the second wave of thrash metal. then there was a falling out, Max left and formed Soulfly who were pretty good, Sepultura were never as good without Max though. Now Iggor has also left the Seps and the two brothers are back together as The Cavalera Conspiracy along with Gojira's Joe Duplantier on bass and Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo. Iggor obviously has a large influence on the songwriting of the new band / project, whilst Soulfly and Sepultura were both decent honest hardworking thrash acts, they suffered from being a bit samey. In TCC the brothers and the band are invigorated, the music is superbly fast and heavy but with changes in pace, timing and rhythm that remind of 'Roots Bloody Roots'. He is an inventive drummer, most of the time drummers remain in the background of bands, powering the songs along but essentially blending in. Some few drummers though stand out, Metallica's Lars Ulrich did a lot to introduce off beat drumming into heavy metal that would go on to influence bands as diverse as Meshuggah and Muse. Iggor Cavalera has always had the ability to seamlessly blend tribal rhythm's with near blastbeat style drumming, it makes for much more interesting heavy music to have a man with a broad repertoire on the sticks. The album then, it is fast, brutal, dark and heavy with lyrics to match... "ultra-violent come and take control your soul… ultra-violent come and crush your soul the storm… ultra-violent coming with the storm your world… ultra-violent come destroy your world feel the agony, crawling on your knees feel the agony and the bloodshed ‘til there’s nothing left to bleed ‘til there’s nothing left to bleed" - from Ultra-Violent. 'Ultra-Violent' (featuring Down & Pantera bassist Rex Brown) is a real mosh pit maker, fast with easily shouted lyrics, then it slows down into a great big choppy beast of a riff. 'Hearts Of Darkness' thunders in traditional thrash style and again has a big choppy breakdown and some great soloing while Max chants "hearts of darkness, where hate is endless, hearts of darkness' where hope is hopeless..." over the top. Max's son Ritchie sings some of 'Black Ark' before Dad steps in and adds some real venom, title track 'Inflikted' is going to be explosive live, the siren like guitars and light drums suddenly giving way to a huge rolling wall of noise, "Inflikted - show no mercy - motherfucking weakness". TCC even manage a bit of humour, inadvertently, I challenge you to listen to the two minute blast of 'The Doom Of All Fires' and not think of the rather dafter 'The Roof Is On Fire' by Bloodhound Gang. It's good to see that yet another older band producing music of this sheer venom, Max and Iggor have rolled back the years with Cavalera Conspiracy, they've lost nothing of their pace and ferocity, but have benefited from years of experience and practise, Inflikted is probably going to be the thrash metal album of the year.