Released	January 23, 2009
Recorded	São Paulo, Brazil at Trama Studios, in 2008
Genre	Groove metal, thrash metal
Length	54:19
Label	Steamhammer
Producer	Stanley Soares Sepultura Monika Cavalera

A-Lex is the eleventh studio album by Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura. It was released on 23 January 2009 by independent German record label Steamhammer Records. This is the first album featuring new drummer Jean Dolabella, since the departure of Igor Cavalera in 2006.^[1]

This is the second concept album released by Sepultura, following 2006’s Dante XXI which was based on Dante Alighieri‘s The Divine Comedy. A-Lex is based on the 1962 book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, which in 1971 was adapted into afilm version by Stanley Kubrick.

The album was recorded in São Paulo at Trama Studios and mixed at Mega Studios during 2008, since February through the process of composition^[2] until August when the band finished the mixing process and revealed the track listing and album title.

Andreas Kisser stated about the influences obtained from Burgess work:

“

We will write our soundtrack for this story and Burgess’ life will be an inspiration also to write the music, lyrics and for the artwork.[3]

”

The title is a pun on the main character from the novel, Alex and the Latin for “without law”:^[4] a (without) + lex (law); presumably referring to how Alex and his companions behaved.

A-Lex is available in three versions: a deluxe digipak with an embossed cover, a regular jewel case and on a vinyl gate-fold LP. On January 16, 2009, the album was released for exclusive listening on last.fm.

Two music videos have been made for the album. The first, “We’ve Lost You”, was filmed in São Paulo, Brazil, and was released in February 2009. A video for “What I Do!” was released in May 2009. Sepultura performed on the A-Lex World Tour 2009 in Europe and North America.

Allmusic gave A-Lex 4 stars out of 5 and called it a “vicious, loud sledgehammer of an album”.^[16] Alternative Press (p. 108) gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and said, “A-Lex deftly fuses the band’s many stylistic phases, from the thrash and death metal that launched their career to later explorations of punk, hardcore, groove metal and even tribal rhythms.”^[17] Record Collector(p. 103) gave it 3 stars out of 5 and said, “Much closer to a live, hardcore punk sound than the refined digital crunch of their previous records… As ever with Sepultura, Kisser’s slick riffage and the visceral drums are the point.”

A-Lex received positive reviews despite the absence of Igor Cavalera. New drummer Jean Dolabella was well received by fans and media. A-Lex sold 5,000 copies in its first week of release in Brazil^[18] and 1,600 in its first week of release in the United States.

Track listing

Lyrics

1. A-Lex I

[instrumental]

2. Moloko Mesto

Oh my brothers, have another glass
Moloko plus vellocet, drencrom, synthemesc
I viddy with my glazys the ultra-violence ball
Bloody chained faces, a real horrorshow

Moloko mesto

Cocaine running through the veins of our system
Crack heads, stones burned, one way ticket, no return
Drug cartels and traffic routes
Open borders, enslaving youth
Many pills to control your mood
To shape your mind to obey the rules

Moloko mesto!!

What’s it gonna be then, eh?

I did not choose this evil but born with it within
I am my only master, the master of my ways
Take heed embrace yourself when you cross my path
I speak to you and tell the truth the sin has no end
Moloko mesto

3. Filthy Rot

I don’t live today
Not in this world we see this way
I don’t cheat a game
Not in this field we have to play

“Dear, dear land I fought for thee
And brought thee peace and victory”

Go on cowards
Go on bastards
I don’t care no more
All is worse
All is darker
I can’t breathe this air

“Dear, dear land I fought for thee
And brought thee peace and victory”

Bloody wires
Clockwork soul
What choice is left for me?
The earth is dying
Go on humans
My pain has no gain

“Dear, dear land I fought for thee
And brought thee peace and victory”

4. We’ve Lost You!

Love is a failure
Hate is just another deadly trap
Trust is just a moment in life which you should command

We’ve lost you!
Who knows who?
We’ve lost you!

Pain is faking gain
Profit is no relief
To lie is to justify another lie you take as truth

Who knows who?
We’ve lost you!

Death is a part of life
As peace is part of war
I just need to clear my mind to learn both sides

Who knows who?
We’ve lost you!

5. What I Do!

Eyes bloodshot, I see a broken face
At any moment this can all just turn to pain
I’m feeling empty, so I unrelieved
Cause what I do, I do cause I like to do!

A life in my hands, a power so grand
You think it’s over but you just keep pushing me
Don’t try to reason, can’t hardly wait
Cause what I do, I do cause I like to do!

No need to fight me, can’t run away
It doesn’t matter you’ll be fucked up anyway
My mind is twisted, most of the time
Cause what I do, I do cause I like to do!

I’m on a mission, only one way
I insert the fear in the hearts of my enemies
I walk with clenched fists, no other way
Cause what I do, I do cause I like to do!

6. A-Lex II

[Instrumental]

7. The Treatment

I look inside myself
And feel there’s someone else
Just a creature with no limit
I’ve lost all moral choice

My blood is cold
I’ve lost all my control
My blood is cold
There’s little left of me

Voices rip right through my head
But it’s nothing familiar to me
Broken down and conditioned
You’ll never understand just who I am

My blood is cold
I’ve lost my heart and soul
My blood is cold
Where is my own free will?

Push me under keep me under
Stop trying to fuck with me

Why have you misplaced me?
Why have you forsaken me?

8. Metamorphosis

I’ve never realized how bad it was
To lose the ground to rest my feet
Humanity is lost inside
My eyes can’t teach my mind

Clockwork nerves controlled my arms
Pupils are wide open to see
No coming back from where I left
I’m a rotten orange healed by force

A number was my name
A priest was my strength
A cell was my home
A nightmare so unreal

I’m not the man I used to be
I’m something else, this is not me
No self respect, no memory
I’m living my own metamorphosis

9. Sadistic Values

What did I do to deserve this agony?
Filled with desire and ambition but no more
Free from the anger but conditioned and alone
Drowned in the tears of the one thing that once loved

The onset of slaughter still rages on!
The future is so black the thrill is gone!

Lack of trust buried deep
Sadistic values haunting me

Haunting me!
Sadistic values, haunting me!

Robotic eyes are watching
It’s time for a new world order

Reverse the rules kill the need
Increasing pressure follows me

Follows me!
Sadistic values, haunting me!

10. Forceful Behavior

I’m not allowed to be myself
To inspire a world, a new breed
I’m only allowed to copy religion
To bow my head, the fear of God

I’m not allowed to build the truth
Understand and respect our past
I’m only allowed to vote for scum
Obey their laws and hear their lies

Forceful behavior
Forced
Forceful behavior

11. Conform

You need to walk tall, speak low
Act right, think straight
Fall in line
Keep moving, avoiding confrontation

You cannot hold back the time
Conform or die
The wall’s too high
What difference does it make to me?

It’s a slow
Unrelentless
Strangulation

12. A-Lex III

[Instrumental]

13. The Experiment

Action speaks loud, louder than any word
You need to watch it all, you need to learn it all
False smiles, all hypocrites
You know you’re paying all, you need to watch your back

Do you think he’s cured?
Do you think he’s sane?
Do you think he’s free?
Do you think at all?
Being you and not being me
Is this a way to cure a life so obscured?

Experiment from the government
It’s a moral sin of our society
They’re feeding lies to an empty mind
A mind impelled to be good

A chemical war inside – No choice no more
A human guinea pig – No choice no more
He ceases to be a man – No choice no more
He has no choice no more – No choice no more

14. Strike

Bored my symptoms are dead
Rarest seconds I have to rest
Time will keep my instinct to seek
And my urge will bring me revenge

Strike, strike!

It’s never been easy to beg
Rethinking the plan reinventing a man
I had to learn it all the hard way
The vengeance strikes deep within

Strike, strike!

I’m not the leader of my acts
No longer hearing my mind
I’m living a life underground
I’m so fucked!

Strike, strike!

15. Enough Said

If you cannot say what it is that you mean,
Then what you say has no meaning!

16. Ludwig Van

[Instrumental]

17. A-Lex IV

[Instrumental]

18. Paradox

The blame I took it
The shame I’ve passed
The choice to leave another life unchanged
Expanding world
It’s a disease
They forced their peace into my veins and brain
Another rude fall
Down on my knees
I couldn’t breathe I thought I was insane
The drug TV is there for all to see
To show you brother you have no other way

This is not life!

The choice to leave one’s free will behind
Leads to a mind blowing paradox
I trust my feelings
My only guide
I only say what I say to hear what I don’t hear
Another rude fall
Down on my knees
I couldn’t breathe I thought I was insane
The drug TV is there for all to see
To show you brother you have no other way

This is not life!
My free will died when they took my mind