Sepultura without the Cavalera brothers has been a tough sell for many despite the noble efforts of Andreas Kisser, Paolo, Jr., Derrick Green and current drummer John Dolabella.  Fortunately for Kisser, his name commands respect not only in Sepultura, but also his side projects Sexoturica, Asesino and now Hail! the latter also featuring Tim “Ripper” Owens, Paul Bostaph and David Ellefson.

All of this leads the insanely busy Kisser to issue his debut solo project, a double album subdivided between electric and acoustic explorations, HUBRIS I & II.  Heavy in one breath, quixotic and introspective in another, Andreas Kisser gives air to the more creative cages of his headspace with HUBRIS I & II.  Though his sophisticated venture at times goes off on tangents, most of the journey is absorbing.

Other than “Eu Humano” and “The Forum” from HUBRIS I plus “Page” from HUBRIS II, Kisser strays as far away from Sepultura as he possibly can.  “Eu Humano” wields a street-tough snarl which would’ve fit snugly on Sep’s ROOTS or even AGAINST, while “The Forum” slips into more punk drafts to accompany the song’s jagged riffing and tribal rhythms.  “God’s Laugh” is and isn’t Sepultura in nature; in the manner Max Cavalera both differentiated and assimilated his past on the first few Soulfly albums, so too does Kisser here.  Latin folk acoustic dominates “God’s Laugh,” yet it strikes a collision with electric blares in the middle section, complete with a prolonged solo by Kisser.  Perhaps the most rewarding track of HUBRIS I is the bobbing instrumental “R.H.E.T.”  Here Kisser cuts loose in an extensive solo frenzy atop a chugging riff station and a banging tempo from John Dolabella—lending stick work to his Sepultura hermano on HUBRIS I—as they recreate later with the loud and strutting “Lava Sky.”

HUBRIS II is billed as an all-acoustic album, which is a slight misnomer considering Kisser splashes plenty of distortion on “Sad Soil,” “Domenicana,” “Hubris” and “Page.”  Kisser’s acoustic undertaking is actually the more personable of the HUBRIS couplet as Kisser reveals further affinity for classical and flamenco guitar on “Worlds Apart,” “Breast Feeding,” “Vivaldi,” and “0120.”  The listener falls easily into Kisser’s acoustic-scape for most of the journey, even if HUBRIS II turns its coin to the scarred side towards the end with less-focused weirdness.  On the plus side, “0120” feels idealistically plunged straight into the Renaissance with its reed and brass supplementation.

If Kisser’s ambitious dual project suffers in any way, it’s only because there’s not a lot of glue between the songs on either album.  HUBRIS I & II is more a showcase of what Kisser can accomplish outside of a thrash metal construct.  Some may feel Kisser is waving a beckoning flag with HUBRIS I & II now that both Cavalera brothers have formed their own familial alliance.  In a way he is, since Kisser continues to bang his head against the proverbial wall trying to appease himself and Sepultura’s devout.  If dueting with the renowned Japanese drum ensemble Kodo wasn’t enough to win people over, crikey…

In South America, there’s no question Sepultura still rules with or without the Cavaleras.   Yet HUBRIS I & II is the sound of a talented musician who by all rights should be given more hype for his band’s recent efforts DANTE XXI and their fabulous CLOCKWORK ORANGE conceptualization, A-LEX.  Amidst the sitars, the tablas, the rootsy percussion, the keyboards, the oboes, the 12-strings and of course the power chords there lies a man subtly wounded who releases a hair or two of his angst into HUBRIS I & II.  Exploratory in nature, this is a ride Kisser takes for himself as if he needed to do this.  Though at times he loses his followers in the midst of his private pall, Andreas Kisser proves his resilient good standing in the metal community is no fluke.



www.myspace.com/andreaskisser
www.mascotrecords.com

**Ray Van Horn, Jr. is also the host of The Metal Minute (www.metalminute.com) as well as a contributing writer to Dee Snider’s House of Hair Online, DVD Review.com, About.com Heavy Metal and Hails & Horns and AMP magazines

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