Andreas Kisser

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by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer

Andreas Kisser’s upcoming double album Hubris I & II is Sepultura guitarist’s first solo effort, and it shows. The variety of styles, genres and approaches on this mulligan-stew of an album couldn’t have been wider, even if diversity was the actual purpose behind this release. But it wasn’t. All ideas, experiences, and moods that Kisser has been privately musing on while presenting a perfect image of the ultimate metal god in Sepultura, have finally, in one way or another, found an expression on this impressively varied yet cohesive solo debut.

The first disk of this release was meant to be all about the electric guitar, while the second one – an acoustic opus. However, both bleed into each other, showing that for Kisser’s guitars – be it electric, acoustic, steel-stringed or nylon-stringed – are simply a means of expression, not a categorized set of gear that he keeps apart in separate tool boxes.

To prove this point and to defy the initial concept of separating of the two, there is plenty of acoustic guitar on the first disk, and some indelible electric guitar on the second. In fact, the opener of the first disk, “Protest,” is an exquisitely wrought acoustic number that channels Jimmy Page’s late ‘60s instrumental wizardry and mixes it with ethnic chanting. “Euphoria / Desperation” that follows takes the vibe further into the direction of heavier but no less colorful ethnic romps underpinned by metal riffs.

The result is a haunting, multi-layered, irresistible atmosphere that sets the mood from the word go, as this rich exotic vein continues throughout the record, at times joining hips with contemporary Brazilian popular music and, at times, gives way to straight-up metal.

In an interview with Hardrock Haven, Kisser admits that the second disk, which was meant to be acoustic, was far more challenging to make than the first part of this album. And the first track proves this point perfectly. “Sad Soul” is a melancholy number in which classically-bred acoustic guitar lets its younger electric sister run atop of its rigorous arpeggios to create an exquisite layered dissonance of traditions and purposes and then magically transforms into a prism through which you can see the essence of Kisser’s message on this album – the interaction between the old and the new, between rigour and abandon, between the earth and the stratosphere.

(If the audio player doesn’t populate, click here to stream the interview in a stand alone player.)