Misplaced Pages

Dante XXI
Studio album by Sepultura
Released	March 14, 2006
Recorded	2005
Studio	Estudios Trama (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Genre	Groove metal thrash metal
Length	39:06
Label	SPV - BMG (Brazil)
Producer	André Moraes Sepultura Stanley Soares
Sepultura chronology
Live in São Paulo (2005) Dante XXI (2006) The Best of Sepultura (2006)

Dante XXI is the tenth studio album by the Brazilian metal band Sepultura, released in 2006 through SPV Records. It is a concept album based on the three sections of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy; Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory) and Paradiso (paradise). This is the last album to feature Igor Cavalera on drums.

Album information

Dante XXI was originally titled "Dante 05", but was changed when it became clear that the album would not be released by the end of 2005. The first single from the album was "Convicted in Life". A video for the song was released in 2006, and it won the MTV VMB Best Editing in a Video Award that year. In January 2008 the band released a music video for the song "Ostia". The album artwork was done by Stephan Doitschinoff, whom the band commissioned to do 10 paintings based on the Divine Comedy.

Covers of Judas Priest's "Screaming for Vengeance" and Sick of It All's "Scratch the Surface" have been recorded as B-sides. "Screaming for Vengeance" was added as a Japanese bonus track, while "Scratch the Surface" is included on the SOIA tribute album Our Impact Will Be Felt. The Brazilian edition (Krako records), contains two bonus tracks: "Mindwar" (recorded live from Stanley Soares's mixing desk in Erfurt/Germany, on December 3, 2004, while on tour with Motorhead) and "False" (demo recorded at High Five Studio São Paulo, during pre production for Dante XXI in July, 2005).

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com
AllMusic
Alternative Press
Blabbermouth.net	(7/10)
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles	(8.5/10)
Metal Storm	(8.5/10)
Stylus Magazine	C−

Many critics stated that it was the best Derrick Green-era Sepultura album thus far. Chad Bowar from About.com praised the album for its intensity and commented that it "brings the thrash at full blast". He also highlighted Green's vocal performance, as well as the album's overall concept. AllMusic's Steve Huey noted that much of the elements that made Sepultura "stand out from the metal pack" are still present on this record, and that this was one of Sepultura's strongest releases with Green on vocals.

Alternative Press reviewer Phil Freeman stated that with this album, Sepultura are "finally back at full strength", giving the listener "exactly what he hopes to get from pioneers in the art of skull-crushing". In a mixed review for Stylus Magazine, Cosmo Lee said that the riffs were "unmemorable" and the songs lacked "tension and release". He also criticized the album's artwork, describing it as a "weak, mild-mannered font worthy of indie rock".

Despite mostly positive reviews, sales of the album were disappointing and continued the decrease in sales of Sepultura's albums since Against, selling only 2,300 copies its first week of release in the US. Dante XXI has sold 120,000+ copies worldwide as of January 2, 2008 and went Gold in Brazil and Cyprus (their first music industry certification outside of Brazil since Roots).

According to Matthew Teutsch, a scholar of literature and popular culture, the album is "a modern-day soundtrack for Dante’s Divine Comedy" and allows an exploration of the poem "through an aesthetic rendering of twenty-first-century national (and international) issues".

Track listing

All music is composed by Andreas Kisser, Derrick Green, Igor Cavalera, except where noted

Credits

Sepultura

• Derrick Green - vocals
• Andreas Kisser - guitars
• Paulo Jr. - bass
• Igor Cavalera - drums, percussion

Additional personnel

Horns

• Luiz Garcia
• Samuel Hamzem

Cellists

• Fabio Presgrave
• Bia Rebello

Crew

• Guilherme Cersosimo
• Estevam Romera
• Rogerinho Motorhead
• Pedro Verdone

Others

• André Moraes - percussion, piano, programming, sitar, Fender Rhodes, horns arrangements, strings arrangements, introduction, minimoog, production
• Andreas Kisser - horns arrangements, strings arrangements
• Stephan Doitschinoff - paintings
• Mauricio Cersosimo - pre-production
• Susanne Kammer - design
• Stanley Soares - producer, engineer, mixing

Assistants

• Fragata
• Helio Leite

Charts

Certifications

References

1. ^ Bowar, Chad. "Sepultura - Dante XXI". About.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
2. "Pitty faz a festa no VMB 2006 - Diversão e Cultura". Bonde.com.br. 29 September 2006. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
3. ^ Huey, Steve. "Sepultura: Dante XXI". AllMusic. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
4. ^ Freeman, Phil. "Sepultura - Dante XXI". Alternative Press. Archived from the original on June 21, 2006. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
5. Kaye, Don. "Sepultura: Dante XXI". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
6. Popoff, Martin. "Sepultura: Dante XXI". Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
7. Collin. "Sepultura - Dante XXI". Metal Storm. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
8. ^ Lee, Cosmo. "Sepultura: Dante XXI". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
9. "SEPULTURA: 'A-Lex' First-Week Sales Revealed". Archived from the original on 2009-02-11.
10. ^ "Sepultura - Dante XXI Certified Gold in Cyprus". Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. 21 March 2007. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
11. Teutsch, Matthew (2008). "Dante in a Modern Context: A Review of Sepultura's Album Dante XXI" (PDF). LATCH: A Journal for the Study of the Literary, Artifact in Theory, Culture, or History. 8: 159–80. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 29, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
12. "Dante XXI Sepultura [CD]". Cdjapan.co.jp. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
13. "Ultratop.be – Sepultura – Dante XXI" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
14. "Lescharts.com – Sepultura – Dante XXI". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
15. "Offiziellecharts.de – Sepultura – Dante XXI" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
16. "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
17. "Sepultura Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved May 25, 2024.

External links

• Official SPV Dante XXI Site

• Sepultura albums
• 2006 albums
• 2000s concept albums
• SPV/Steamhammer albums
• Music based on Inferno (Dante)
• Works based on Purgatorio
• Works based on Paradiso (Dante)
• Music based on the Divine Comedy