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Were you around during the Golden Era of Metal? Max Cavalera lived it. Most of us were five year olds, listening to next door’s tape of Metallica’s Black Album on repeat for a solid year. Or was that just me?
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The landscape, the texture, the feel of metal was forged in part by Max and his brother Iggor during their Sepultura days; one of the first extreme metal bands to emerge from South America and conquer the world. Tribal beats, punishing rhythms, and off-hinge performances cemented the Hermanos Cavalera as must-see walking insane asylums powered by riffs and screams. With the massive success of their Return to Roots tour, in which they played Sepultura’s seminal Roots album, they’re doing it again. This time, they’ll be taking thrash classic Beneath the Remains (thirty years old this year) and its acclaimed follow-up Arise around the country. For the first time in a long time, our metal brothers and sisters abroad look at us with a green tinge to their eyes…
Back so soon? It feels like you were only here yesterday with the Roots tour.
Yeah it was really good man, we had a great time during the Roots tour. We end up trying out this new version of Beneath the Remains and Arise. And we try it last year in Russia, and South America. And it was beyond words, it was so good. It was like so, exciting and just felt right, felt good and we were even happier with playing those, of playing Beneath the Remains than we were with Roots. I mean, you see we had more fun, you know? We had this idea and offers from Australia to want to do it and, was between tours, in between Soulfly tours, and we of course got super excited, and we’re doin’ it man.
So it’s gonna be great, and it’s like … You don’t understand how jealous America is ’cause they really want this tour here right now. Yeah actually they’re, they’re mad at you guys ’cause you have that now and we’re not doing it in America so it’s like … We haven’t done any new work yet, but … I’m super excited man, I think it’s great, the whole show rolls really great, really cool it’s just a good celebration of those records. And Beneath the Remains is 30 years old, right now in this year. So it feels right to do this right now. It feels like it’s the right time to do it.
And we’re playing them very good too, got a really good band, Iggor’s playing great, and when I did this with him I told him “If we’re gonna do this man, we gotta do it all the way, I don’t wanna hear one bad review. I wanna blow everybody away.” And he’s like “This thing has gotta be all fire or we don’t touch.” It’s either we do it all the way or we don’t do it, and we decided to go for it and we took it very seriously.
Is this gonna be another gig for you both?
Yeah, it became a thing. It became this kind of side thing we have, that when I’m not doing Soulfly and when I’m not doing Killer be Killed, or Cavalera Conspiracy we get to go back to these albums and celebrate them. And I think fans really appreciate that ’cause a lot of them wanna hear them with my voice and my guitar and with Iggor’s drums, the real thing so … I tell you about how it was accepted in South America, I think Australia is gonna be just as great. And also how killer Roots was in Australia, I have no doubt that this tour is gonna be a big success in Australia it’s gonna be great, I think it’s gonna be one of the best tours we’ve done in Australia.
I think they wait for the breakdown parts of Dead Embryonic Cells, and Desperate Cry, so they can go apeshit like we’re gonna wanna say when those parts come. ‘Cause those parts were created for that, you go nuts, whenever they happen. So yeah, so I think those are really big records for a lot of people, almost like a soundtrack of some people’s lives!
[MAX]
That’s so rare. Anyone being jealous of Australia, when it comes to metal tours.
Yeah I think in some of those places we kind of did that. I mean we did the Roots tour, we went to South America, and then we went to South America back with Beneath the Remains. And it was great because I think really the fans really appreciate that. But I think what happens with Beneath the Remains and Arise you go a little deeper in even hardcore fans. The ones that really love that era. Kind of like the death-thrash era of ’89, ’90, ’91. I call it the Golden Era of Metal. It was together with many great sub-styles coming out, Morbid Angel, a lot of Earache stuff, Entombed and Carcass and all that great stuff.
So should be able to go back and do it now, thirty years later, and now it’s even better ’cause those records now they’ve been, almost like they’re in people’s DNA, it’s in their blood. They know every inch of it, as much as we do, they know the breakdown parts, I think they wait for the breakdown parts of Dead Embryonic Cells, and Desperate Cry, so they can go apeshit like we’re gonna wanna say when those parts come. ‘Cause those parts were created for that, you go nuts, whenever they happen. So yeah, so I think those are really big records for a lot of people, almost like a soundtrack of some people’s lives!
It’s a soundtrack now too, new fans must be finding these albums too.
A lot of fans, you can go back to that era and be like, “For sure I grew up listening to these records.” Some of them got into it back in ’91 and ’92 when we came down, but a lot of them didn’t, a lot of fans weren’t even born in that time, so for those fans we do this. I think it’s good I think everybody kinda gets to see something special that they haven’s seen, and it’s quite cool man. There’s something cool about this nostalgic feeling of this, it’s going back to these records. I wouldn’t do it otherwise, ’cause if it was not done right, and I feel the way we did it was the right way, with Roots and it was great, it was so fun, it was so cool, and it came out just so good.
Do you think it’s important to revisit these albums? Do you think this generation deserves to see these songs given a modern treatment?
What we did is we applied our own ideas, experience of all the years of playing, we are better players now so we can play the songs even better. And you got the sound of it that’s great, so it sounds better than the records, it’s played better, and I think people need to see this for sure. And I think even for influence for bands, I think those records influence a lot of people in the music world, and will influence even more after even they get to see this tour, and I can see a lot of people they’ll be in the crowd that have bands they’re probably gonna go “Fuck yeah I wanna, this is great!” And get their band going with the kind of inspiration that this thing has, the effect that this thing has on people.
For me and my part of my career and now I’m 49 … Kinda I almost done everything that I kinda wanted to do. So this is only touch the things now that I really are in love with, Soulfly is one of them. Killer Be Killed is one of them. And these things with my brother is another one of them. I don’t waste time on other things so, to me I feel very blessed that I’m able to, in this time in my career, I’m able to visit these records with Iggor, and do justice to them live. So I’m still going to the future with the metal, and my own passion of metal because I’m a huge metal fan.
I have noticed that, yes.
I support metal, I’m a supporter of metal. I’m a preacher of metal. This last Soulfly tour was amazing because I was trying to explain to the fans what this metal music means to me, and I was doing these rants during the show. So it wasn’t really big rants, it was short rants but they were really cool because I think I tried to put a point across, I tried to tell them “Listen this metal music, it’s bigger than life, it saved my life actually and our odds, coming from Brazil, was very, very against us to make it. And we made it through the music through the metal and, part of me is very, very grateful for metal for allowing me to make my dreams come true in this realm, in the realm of metal.”
So I was trying to do that and I think it came across really cool. I think it gave the Soulfly show, more of a positive vibe. And there was even some reviews, a Kerrang! review of the New York show. They were impressed of that to say “It was the night of heavy riffs, angry aggressive riffs, but very positive air, almost like a happy vibe in the air.” And that’s cool, and that’s what I like about Soulfly, it’s positive, it’s a positive band.
So is this a band? What do we call Max and Iggor together? Not Cavalera Conspiracy, of course…
We don’t really have a name for it, right now they’re kind of using Return to Beneath Arise, and most people know it’s me and Iggor and we are playing tribute to those records. So it’s, the thing’s if we even need the name. It’s really good, it’s really good and I think we created an atmosphere that’s really exciting with this … especially this tour record we put together, it’s really energetic, brutal, aggressive, and fun. And I promise if you people like Roots you’re gonna love Beneath the Remains and Arise because it’s even better, it goes deeper into the marrow, and it’s gonna be an amazing, amazing Australian shows, I’m really excited.
Catch Max & Iggor Cavalera at the following dates:
Tuesday 19 March // The Gov // Adelaide (18+)
Thursday 21 March // 170 Russell // Melbourne (18+)
Friday 22 March // The Valley Drive In // Brisbane (18+)
Saturday 23 March // Metro Theatre // Sydney (18+)
Sunday 24 March // The Basement // Canberra (18+)
