Written By Caine Blackthorn
The last transmission from a band that never learned how to stand still
Forty-two years is a long time to stay angry.
Most bands burn out. Some soften. Others turn into legacy acts – touring museums of their former selves, playing the same songs like fossils trapped in amber. Sepultura never really did that. They mutated instead. Sometimes brilliantly. Sometimes messily. Always stubbornly.
And now, at the very edge of the road, they leave behind The Cloud of Unknowing, not a grand, sprawling farewell, but something smaller, stranger… and arguably more honest.
Four tracks. Eighteen minutes. Not your average victory lap. Just a final statement from a band that still refuses to behave.
A Controlled Detonation, Not a Goodbye
If you came here looking for Roots II or a walk down memory lane drenched in callbacks to Arise, you’re going to walk away confused.
Sepultura have spent the better part of three decades dismantling expectations, and they’re not about to suddenly become sentimental now.
The Cloud of Unknowing doesn’t try to summarize their career. It fractures it pulling pieces from different eras and forcing them to coexist in uneasy tension.
The result? Something that feels less like a goodbye… and more like a band still mid-evolution when the curtain drops.
Track Breakdown
“All Souls Rising”
This is the punch in the mouth you were waiting for thats fast, violent and unstable.
It opens like classic Sepultura razor-wire riffing, Derrick Green sounding like he’s tearing through concrete but then it twists. Orchestral textures creep in, rhythms shift, the ground starts to feel unreliable beneath your feet.
And Greyson Nekrutman on his first and only recorded appearance heredoesn’t play like “the new guy.” He plays like someone trying to leave a permanent scar in under four minutes. Mission accomplished.
“Beyond the Dream”
Yeah… this is the one that’s going to split people. A Sepultura ballad.
Not a fake one and not a “clean intro then heavy chorus” trick. A real, slow-burning, emotionally exposed track.
Derrick Green leans into melody in a way we almost never get from him, and it’s… human. Vulnerable, even. The guitar work drifts instead of attacks.
Does it hit as hard as it wants to? Not quite. There’s an argument that it fades instead of lingers.
But the fact that they even went there on their final release is exactly why Sepultura has outlived most of their peers. They don’t protect their image. They risk it.
“Sacred Books”
This is where things get weird in the best way.
It lurches and crawls. Riffs grind against each other like machinery on the verge of failure. Then out of nowhere, piano. Not decorative. Not pretty. Just… unsettling. It feels chaotic and almost unfinished.
But that chaos? That’s early Sepultura energy reinterpreted through decades of experience. Not the same fire but the same refusal to conform.
“The Place”
The final Sepultura song. Let that sit for a second. It doesn’t explode the way you expect. It simmers, it expands and contracts. Moves through moods instead of locking into one.
There’s tension here, social and emotional. It builds toward something resembling catharsis, but never quite hands it to you clean. Sepultura were never about clean endings.
What This Really Is
Let’s be honest for a second. Is this the perfect ending? Maybe not. A full-length album would’ve felt more definitive. More ceremonial. More… final.
This is a band walking off mid-sentence. There’s something almost more fitting about that because Sepultura’s legacy was never about neat conclusions. It was about movement and resistance.
And The Cloud of Unknowing captures that better than a polished farewell ever could.
The Verdict
This EP doesn’t try to be their greatest work. It’s the sound of a band still experimenting, pushing, still slightly uncomfortable in their own skin even at the very end.
Sepultura didn’t fade out. They just… stopped mid-mutation.
Final Score:
(4/5 Devil Horns)
Highs:
- “All Souls Rising” is feral and unpredictable
- Continued experimentation right up to the end
- Derrick Green delivers one of his most dynamic vocal performances
Lows:
- Feels more like a closing chapter than a final curtain call
- “Beyond the Dream” may divide listeners
- Lacks the weight of a true final album
Bottom Line
There will never be another Sepultura, not because no one can copy them, but because no one else would be stubborn enough to evolve this fearlessly for this long.
And even at the end… they’re still not done changing.
Order The Cloud of Unknowing EP
The Cloud of Unknowing EP will be available in the following formats:
- Oxblood
- Transparent Petrol (NB exclusive)
- Crystal clear (band exclusive)
- Transparent red (band exclusive)
All LP variants come with a CD of the EP in a card wallet.
Track listing:
1. All Souls Rising
2. Beyond the Dream
3. Sacred Books
4. The Place
04.29 US Montclair, NJ @ The Wellmont Theater [Tickets]
05.01 CAN Montreal, QC @ MTELUS [Tickets]
05.02 CAN London, ON @ London Music Hall [Tickets]
05.04 US Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre [Tickets]
05.05 US Louisville, KY @ Old Forester’s Paristown Hall [Tickets]
05.06 US Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl [Tickets]
05.07 US Atlanta, GA @ The Masquarade [Tickets]
05.08 US New Orleans, LA @ The Civic Theatre [Tickets]
05.10 US Daytona Beach, FL @ Welcome To Rockville* [Tickets]
05.11 US Charleston, SC @ Music Farm [Tickets]
05.12 US Greensboro, NC @ Piedmont Hall [Tickets]
05.13 US Reading, PA @ Reverb [Tickets]
05.15 US Chicago, IL @ Ramova Theatre [Tickets]
05.16 US Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple* [Tickets]
05.17 US Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave [Tickets]
05.19 US Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom [Tickets]
05.21 US Denver, CO @ The Ogden Theatre [Tickets]
05.22 US Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot [Tickets]
05.23 US Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club [Tickets]
05.25 US Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues [Tickets]
05.26 US San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park [Tickets]
05.28 US Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre [Tickets]
05.29 US Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern [Tickets]
*Festival Date
European Tour Dates (June – August 2026)
June 5–7: Plzeň, CZ – Metalfest Open Air [Tickets]
June 9: Segrate, Italy – Circolo Magnolia [Tickets]
June 10: Rome, Italy – Eur Social Park [Tickets]
June 11–13: Interlaken, Switzerland – Greenfield Festival [Tickets]
June 11–14: Nickelsdorf, Austria – Nova Rock Festival [Tickets]
June 14: Würzburg, Germany – Posthalle [Tickets]
June 15: Heidelberg, Germany – halle02 [Tickets]
June 17: Saarbrücken, Germany – Garage [Tickets]
June 18–21: Clisson, France – Hellfest [Tickets]
June 18–21: Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting [Tickets]
June 23: Oberhausen, Germany – Turbinenhalle [Tickets]
June 24: Potsdam, Germany – Waschhaus [Tickets]
June 26: Huskvarna, Sweden – Folkets Park [Tickets]
June 27: Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell [Tickets]
June 29-July 2: Wacken, Germany – Wacken Festival [Tickets]
July 31: Tallinn, Estonia – Tallinn Rock Festival [Tickets]
August 5–8: Villena, Spain – Leyendas Del Rock [Tickets]
August 6–9: Walton-on-Trent, UK – Bloodstock Open Air [Tickets]
August 9: Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena [Tickets] (Final European Show)
SEPULTURA ONLINE