Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awe-Inspiring, December 15, 2004
I wrote a review of this album sometime back, but I don't think I really explained my stance all that well. Simply put, 'Under a Pale Grey Sky' is the most intense, brutal album I've ever heard. Screw Cryptopsy and Suffocation and Nile and Origin and Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon- Sepultura lays waste to them all on this album. People love to talk about the added energy and intensity that come with live albums, and, frankly, they tend to be full of it a fair amount of the time. Not so here. Max is more animal than man on the vox, the guitars are explosive and dominate the mix, and Igor is pretty out of control on the drums. They're loose, but not too loose, maintaining an unbelievable stomping groove on the later material, and careening, flailing but not quite out of control blur to the thrash numbers. They find the perfect balance- some bands think all you have to do is play as fast as possible, or make your album as bassy as possible, or have the thickest guitar tone, or the most insane vocalist and that'll make you the most extreme band in the world. But, there comes a point where emphasizing one of those traits means ya gotta cut back on some of the others, but you have to have 'em all to be truly intense, truly moving, and you need to still keep the energy and passion, and not become to calculating and artificial. Sepultura finds the perfect balance and plays with incredible intensity, making an album so explosive that it's pretty tough to imagine anything surpassing it substantially.
In lots of ways, this isn't an ideal live album from them, as it massively de-emphasizes their thrash material, which I prefer to the Chaos A.D. and Roots stuff, but they won me over by sheer force of will. No, sheer brutality isn't the sole purpose of metal, or even the main one, but it's certainly not without it's value, and if that's what you're looking for, look no further.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those Lucky Brits, November 17, 2004
They were the last ones to see the mighty Sepultura in their true form. That was the way it was and always should have been; with Max. The quality of this concert is absolutely fantastic. Igor's bass drums stand out significantly, but not enough to drown everything else out. Some complain about it because it was during the Roots tour. Well, I was a fan of the Roots album, and this brings some fresh life into those songs as you can definitely hear Igor's bass drums better than on the Roots record. Some people also complain that Max's voice fades near the end. Honestly, it does just a little bit, but it isn't enough to ruin it at all. Some of the most interesting tracks here are Kaiowas, Beneath the Remains/Mass Hypnosis, Necromancer, Endangered Species, Policia and the cover of We Gotta Know with Strife. The sound quality is crystal clear and everything you would want from a Sepultura show in terms of energy. Sure there aren't any songs from Schizophrenia but you can't have everything. Another problem that some people have is that the band makes no money from this, nope, nadda, zero. Look at their website, you'll see that they don't mention this thing anywhere. Now if that really matters to you, the consumer, then you can go ahead and not buy this, or get it used, but if you are a hardcore Sepultura fan, then chances are you have bought 1 or 2 of the new Sepultura Albums with Derrick. Well, think of it this way. You had to spend your hard earned money on a CD with Derrick. Buying this balances things out. You gave them money for Against or whatever the hell Derrick is leading them and so buying this is a little payback don't you think? Awe well, you don't have to listen to me and my crazy ideas, but I hoped this helped. Max returning to Sepultura would be a godsend and in some ways he has when I listen to this.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sepultura at his best!!!, November 2, 2005
I bought this double CD three monts ago with no big expectations; "Roots" was a so-so album with weak lyrics and poor production efforts compared to "Chaos AD" and "Arise", of course. When a friend of mine told me that U.A.P.G.S. was mainly based on the Roots album I hesitated a little but listened to it any ways... boy, was I wrong!. This is THE BEST Sepultura album with Max Cavalera and I don't think they could ever regain that kind of power again. If you're a Sepultura fan this is a "must have" album!!
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by Sepultura 
