Chaos A.D.

Two years of playing the Arise material left the band afraid of standing still, so they changed how they wrote. John Zorn and Al Jourgensen of Ministry were among the producers considered; the one they chose was Andy Wallace, who had mixed the previous album. The band wanted isolation and Wallace suggested Rockfield Studios in South Wales. This is the first album they recorded as a quartet. On the three records before it Andreas Kisser had played both guitar and bass; here Paulo Jr., who had been playing live with them since 1984, appears on a studio album for the first time. "Kaiowas" is wholly acoustic and was taped live among the ruins of Chepstow Castle, with Kisser and Max Cavalera on guitars and Igor Cavalera and Paulo Jr. on percussion. The speed drops and the weight shifts onto groove. The opening "Refuse/Resist" begins with the heartbeat of Max's then-unborn son Zyon and moves into Afro-Brazilian drumming that recalls the samba-reggae of Salvador. The album reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 — the band's highest placing at the time and Roadrunner's first record in the top 40. The running order here is the original's as printed.