Review by Adam M on February 3, 2017.

Sepultura return with a renewed thrash vigour.  There is an intense and focused aura to the music that is performed on this disc.  The music is passionately performed.  This is welcome sign because some of the other music I've heard from this era (see Nation) is very lazy in comparison to what's on offer here. 

The songs have that tribal influence that was present on Chaos A.D. to a well done extent.  The groove is largely successful here in comparison to what I've heard in the past from Derrick Green led Sepultura  It makes for a nice and infectious type of metal performance that will have the songs in your brain long after listening to them.  Still when compared directly to Chaos A.D., the affair just doesn't seem as interesting or as dynamic.  It's still the band firing on all cylinders, but the extent of the success they're able to obtain is limited by the confines of their new style.  See the excellent Resistant Parasites which is a rousing number, but never reaches the level of a Chaos A.D. song and simply fills in the background.  Though exciting, one would wish for the caliber of tribal influenced metal of that former album and we are never actually taken to that point on Machine Messiah.  The level of excitement is thus relegated to this score of 7.5/10 and not able to trespass any higher than that.  This is somewhat of a shame because we know the type of interesting music Sepultura is capable of creating. 

There aren't many bands that sound like the tribal style that is focused upon here, however and this bodes well for the band.  They still perform a somewhat niche sound that has a large amount of potential for possibility.  It's just that these possibilities are limited by the new sound style and only taken so far. 

Rating: 7.3 out of 10 

Review by Felix on January 6, 2021.

I always liked Mystic Prophecy. Of course, they had the most clichéd lyrics of all the current 142,592 bands recorded in M-A, but so what? They had the heart in the right place, a very good singer blessed with a strong voice and made pure metal flowing out of the speakers, sometimes good, sometimes so-so, but always authentic. And then came Monuments Uncovered.

First: the songs replayed here are in no way "monuments", at least not in the metal cosmos in which I like to stay. I also don't give a shit whether these are good pop songs (or occasional rock songs) or not. Because the artistic intention behind this record remains completely obscure. For a good reason - there shouldn't have been any, here it should have been only about the attempt to earn a few Euros with minimal effort. But then one could at least have expected Mystic Prophecy to have added their own touch somewhere here. Maybe that is the case in one or the other solo, but no title is changed in its basic structure, is presented in another tempo or has any moment of surprise to offer. Uninspired and like slaves of their own disorientation the quintet drags itself through one inanity after the other. Lead vocalist Liapakis doesn't come into his own at all in the poppy realms and thus the band robs itself of its strongest weapon.

Liapakis doesn't sound corny, but without any charisma. His unexpected complete lack of expression is the perfect partner to the powerless performance of the instrumental fraction. Of course, this Lenny Kravitz junk, for example, has a few percent more fire than 'Because the Night' or 'I'm Still Standing' and there would have been little objection to a single cover of 'Space Lord' on a regular album. But this whole work of art bristles with embarrassment. One look at the front painting is enough to know that there must have been a collective blackout here. A more childish picture you really only rarely get to see. But maybe I don't understand and the cover is supposed to be the ultimate humiliation of Kim Wilde, who was very pretty 35 years ago?

So don’t expect a metallic frame, these songs haven’t been pushed out of their comfort zone – and the same must be said about the musicians who fulfil the compulsory task without energy or conviction. Even the only acceptable track, 'Space Lord', sounds much more expressive, much more dynamic and much more casual in the original version. And even if I don't believe it and don't recognize it, maybe the originals somehow have a soul, a spirit or something else to like them for. Mystic Prophecy have successfully levelled all this with their uniformly unambitious recording of their versions. Wise guys may now point out that the production of these alleged monuments is fine after all. How ridiculous! A production can do the following things: 1. make a good record even better, 2. ruin an actually good record, 3. make a bad record even worse, but it can never make a shitty record good or leastwise bearable. Thus, it makes no sense to lose many words about the sound of Monuments Uncovered. Only for the record: the mix is okay, but it does not lend the songs the extra portion of pressure they would have benefitted from.

In short, this album is one of the most superfluous of all time. It has done exactly two things: it wasted raw materials and murdered the integrity of its protagonists. I don’t think it’s an album at all, just a betrayal. Mystic Prophecy, you can do it many times better.

Rating: 0.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 6, 2021.

I always liked Mystic Prophecy. Of course, they had the most clichéd lyrics of all the current 142,592 bands recorded in M-A, but so what? They had the heart in the right place, a very good singer blessed with a strong voice and made pure metal flowing out of the speakers, sometimes good, sometimes so-so, but always authentic. And then came Monuments Uncovered.

First: the songs replayed here are in no way "monuments", at least not in the metal cosmos in which I like to stay. I also don't give a shit whether these are good pop songs (or occasional rock songs) or not. Because the artistic intention behind this record remains completely obscure. For a good reason - there shouldn't have been any, here it should have been only about the attempt to earn a few Euros with minimal effort. But then one could at least have expected Mystic Prophecy to have added their own touch somewhere here. Maybe that is the case in one or the other solo, but no title is changed in its basic structure, is presented in another tempo or has any moment of surprise to offer. Uninspired and like slaves of their own disorientation the quintet drags itself through one inanity after the other. Lead vocalist Liapakis doesn't come into his own at all in the poppy realms and thus the band robs itself of its strongest weapon.

Liapakis doesn't sound corny, but without any charisma. His unexpected complete lack of expression is the perfect partner to the powerless performance of the instrumental fraction. Of course, this Lenny Kravitz junk, for example, has a few percent more fire than 'Because the Night' or 'I'm Still Standing' and there would have been little objection to a single cover of 'Space Lord' on a regular album. But this whole work of art bristles with embarrassment. One look at the front painting is enough to know that there must have been a collective blackout here. A more childish picture you really only rarely get to see. But maybe I don't understand and the cover is supposed to be the ultimate humiliation of Kim Wilde, who was very pretty 35 years ago?

So don’t expect a metallic frame, these songs haven’t been pushed out of their comfort zone – and the same must be said about the musicians who fulfil the compulsory task without energy or conviction. Even the only acceptable track, 'Space Lord', sounds much more expressive, much more dynamic and much more casual in the original version. And even if I don't believe it and don't recognize it, maybe the originals somehow have a soul, a spirit or something else to like them for. Mystic Prophecy have successfully levelled all this with their uniformly unambitious recording of their versions. Wise guys may now point out that the production of these alleged monuments is fine after all. How ridiculous! A production can do the following things: 1. make a good record even better, 2. ruin an actually good record, 3. make a bad record even worse, but it can never make a shitty record good or leastwise bearable. Thus, it makes no sense to lose many words about the sound of Monuments Uncovered. Only for the record: the mix is okay, but it does not lend the songs the extra portion of pressure they would have benefitted from.

In short, this album is one of the most superfluous of all time. It has done exactly two things: it wasted raw materials and murdered the integrity of its protagonists. I don’t think it’s an album at all, just a betrayal. Mystic Prophecy, you can do it many times better.

Rating: 0.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 6, 2021.

I always liked Mystic Prophecy. Of course, they had the most clichéd lyrics of all the current 142,592 bands recorded in M-A, but so what? They had the heart in the right place, a very good singer blessed with a strong voice and made pure metal flowing out of the speakers, sometimes good, sometimes so-so, but always authentic. And then came Monuments Uncovered.

First: the songs replayed here are in no way "monuments", at least not in the metal cosmos in which I like to stay. I also don't give a shit whether these are good pop songs (or occasional rock songs) or not. Because the artistic intention behind this record remains completely obscure. For a good reason - there shouldn't have been any, here it should have been only about the attempt to earn a few Euros with minimal effort. But then one could at least have expected Mystic Prophecy to have added their own touch somewhere here. Maybe that is the case in one or the other solo, but no title is changed in its basic structure, is presented in another tempo or has any moment of surprise to offer. Uninspired and like slaves of their own disorientation the quintet drags itself through one inanity after the other. Lead vocalist Liapakis doesn't come into his own at all in the poppy realms and thus the band robs itself of its strongest weapon.

Liapakis doesn't sound corny, but without any charisma. His unexpected complete lack of expression is the perfect partner to the powerless performance of the instrumental fraction. Of course, this Lenny Kravitz junk, for example, has a few percent more fire than 'Because the Night' or 'I'm Still Standing' and there would have been little objection to a single cover of 'Space Lord' on a regular album. But this whole work of art bristles with embarrassment. One look at the front painting is enough to know that there must have been a collective blackout here. A more childish picture you really only rarely get to see. But maybe I don't understand and the cover is supposed to be the ultimate humiliation of Kim Wilde, who was very pretty 35 years ago?

So don’t expect a metallic frame, these songs haven’t been pushed out of their comfort zone – and the same must be said about the musicians who fulfil the compulsory task without energy or conviction. Even the only acceptable track, 'Space Lord', sounds much more expressive, much more dynamic and much more casual in the original version. And even if I don't believe it and don't recognize it, maybe the originals somehow have a soul, a spirit or something else to like them for. Mystic Prophecy have successfully levelled all this with their uniformly unambitious recording of their versions. Wise guys may now point out that the production of these alleged monuments is fine after all. How ridiculous! A production can do the following things: 1. make a good record even better, 2. ruin an actually good record, 3. make a bad record even worse, but it can never make a shitty record good or leastwise bearable. Thus, it makes no sense to lose many words about the sound of Monuments Uncovered. Only for the record: the mix is okay, but it does not lend the songs the extra portion of pressure they would have benefitted from.

In short, this album is one of the most superfluous of all time. It has done exactly two things: it wasted raw materials and murdered the integrity of its protagonists. I don’t think it’s an album at all, just a betrayal. Mystic Prophecy, you can do it many times better.

Rating: 0.2 out of 10