The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart

Background

The band hinted at a thirteenth studio album as early as May 2012, when guitarist Andreas Kisser told Metal Underground that Sepultura would soon "start working on something new with [new drummer who joined in 2011] Eloy [Casagrande]" and see if they could "get ready for new music early next year." Later,. Kisser revealed that Sepultura was "already thinking about new ideas" for their next album and was going to "have something new going on" in 2013.

On December 10, 2012, producer Ross Robinson, who produced Sepultura's Roots album, hinted on Twitter that he would be producing the new album, tweeting: "Oh, didn't mention.. Spoke to Andreas, it's on. My vision, smoke Roots- It can be done", which was later confirmed with another announcement that Steve Evetts would be co-producing the album.

By April 2013, the band had 13 songs in development, with Kisser commenting positively about the progress of the album, saying: "This is the first time writing with Eloy Casagrande on drums and everything sounds fresh(...)You'll just have to wait to hear it. It's very difficult to describe what we're doing, but I can say that will be one of the strongest Sepultura albums to date." In May, vocalist Derrick Green reported "We have written most of the music already and now we are working on lyrics for the album. We should have everything ready before we hit the studio June 1st."

On June 10, during the recording of the album, the band announced that they had six songs recorded for the album, and according to Kisser, they were "going in a rate of two songs a day". Later that month, it was announced that former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo would make a guest appearance on the album, with Kisser explaining "When the mics were all ready and running Eloy and Dave started playing and the magic was on, so great! The part they recorded will be a special part on the middle of one of the songs, it came out crazy!"

On July 12, it was announced that the band has completed recording the album, and a week later, they announced that it would be called The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart.

Musical style

Vocalist Derrick Green described the album's sound as "really sinister, dark, and metal as hell!" whilst guitarist Andreas Kisser said that the album is "brutal, fast and straight to the point". They also commented positively on the input of new drummer Eloy Casagrande, with Green explaining "It's been great working with Eloy in the writing process because it brings a whole different energy to the music. The many changes that have been going on in our lives and in the world also add to the making of the new album."

Concept

Guitarist Andreas Kisser said of the album title: "I was inspired by a phrase which is the main message of the story: “The mediator between the head and hands must be the heart” to express what we are saying on the lyrics." Although the album was inspired by the 1927 film Metropolis, it is not intended to be a concept album, unlike two of the band's previous studio albums, Dante XXI (based on Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy) and A-Lex (based on the 1962 book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess). As guitarist Andreas Kisser explains:

"In the movie, a crazy millionaire wants to transform a robot into a real person. That’s kind of the opposite of what we live today. More than ever we are robotized, through the worldwide web, Google glasses, chips under our skins and the globalized slavery our society suffers nowadays. The [aforementioned] phrase points to the heart as being the human factor who keeps a man, a man, not a robot. The heart beats with freedom of choice, we have to think by ourselves to create a real world, not a matrix. Being a novel written in the early 1920′s, it’s almost prophetical. It helped us to put the ideas together for the lyrics to express what we see today. I live in São Paulo, Brasil, one of the big metropolis in the world with more than 20,000,000 people living and working in it. I know how it is to live in daily chaos, our music reflects a lot of that feeling."

Reception

Ray Van Horn, Jr. from Blabbermouth gave the album 8 of 10 stars, stating that " (...) most people should come out of this listening session pleased by the results". Matt Hinch from About.com said that "Mediator is arguably Sepultura’s best album this millennium and I'm sure some will even say since Chaos A.D.", and gave the album 4 of 5 stars. The album sold over 1,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Derrick Green and Andreas Kisser; all music composed by Kisser and Eloy Casagrande, except where noted.

Singles

Personnel

Digipack includes DVD making of Directed by Otavio Juliano Executive Producer Luciana Ferraz Photography: Mike Balboa, Eduardo de Andrea and Otavio Juliano