It says something about Max Cavalera’s status as an unstoppable force of productivity that Go Ahead And Die’s second album is the third record he’s released since the start of the summer. Granted, the first two were revamped and re-recorded versions of Sepultura’s scrappy first releases, but the vicious new editions of Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation attest to Max’s refusal to half-arse anything he puts his hand to.
Much like the 80s crossover punks they so lovingly pay tribute to, Go Ahead And Die have gone heavier with their subsequent effort. Drafting in extreme metal drummer Johnny Valles, Max and son Igor (‘no, not that one’) Amadeus go so hard on the likes of Desert Carnage, Split Scalp and No Easy Way Out that they emerge in territories where being deemed death metal, thrash or hardcore comes down purely to the uniform you choose to wear. Elsewhere, Tumors and Drug-O-Cop chuck up neck-bothering ragers that could easily have come from Beneath The Remains – a heavier flavour of crossover that’s since been used so brilliantly by the likes of Power Trip, Creeping Death and Gatecreeper.
Nice as these throwbacks are, the magic of Unhealthy Mechanisms lies in its most bilious and ferocious assaults. Chasm and Cyber Slavery offer a maelstrom of riffs and spiky, snotty vocals from Igor Amadeus that lend fresh zeal to the band’s sound and are utterly annihilating
in their vitriol. Igor has, of course, previously shown off his talents in Lody Kong and Soulfly, but his work in Go Ahead And Die confirms our suspicions: with yet another prodigious Cavalera talent on the scene, surely, by 2030, nigh-on every band in heavy metal will have been touched by some distant branch of their extended dynasty like some bastard version of Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon. The sheer swivel-eyed mania and irrepressible brilliance of Unhealthy Mechanisms will have you (re)welcoming your thrash-death-punk overlords.
