Max Cavalera
By Steven Patrick
As the front man of the legendary thrash band Sepultura, Max Cavalera helped to influence an entire generation of metal musicians with the addition of world music to the thrash format. Sepultura’s sound drew heavily on the music of the band’s native Brazil and led to the production of such metal classics as “Chaos A.D.”" and “Roots, Bloody, Roots.”
Unfortunately, being influential doesn’t necessarily lead to solidarity. Sepultura broke up in the early ’90s, which led Cavalera to form the band Soulfly as an outlet for his musical expression. Since the band’s formation in 1997, Soulfly has recorded six studio albums. The latest, “Conquer,” was released in July of this year.
If all of this wasn’t enough, Cavalera also reunited with Igor Cavalera, his brother and ex-Sepultura drummer, to record with a new band, dubbed Cavalera Conspiracy.
Cavalera took time out of his busy touring schedule to talk in his distinctive Brazilian accent about his writing process, Dimebag Darrell’s knack for finding the perfect gift and the possibility of a Sepultura reunion in the future.
UW: Did you write this Soulfly album chronologically alongside the Cavalera Conspiracy album?
Well, the way I work is normally I write music all the time, and unless I'm in a studio — actually right there in the studio — most of the stuff I write I really don’t know where it’s gonna go until later. So there’s things on “Conquer” that were old recordings from a long time ago, and then there’s some things in the studio. So it depends. Most of my music, it’s recorded all the time. I just write songs all the time. I don’t write songs like I have to. I write songs because I like to, you know? I get my guitar and I write, you know? It’s fun. I enjoy doing that. Writing music’s like a therapy for me.
UW: Now that you’ve reconciled with your brother Igor, do you see a Sepultura reunion happening in the future?
Well, it’s not impossible, you know? But it’s also something that we’re not spending too much time on now because there is really a long way to go to that. I’m just happy to make peace with Igor, really… and doing the Conspiracy album. Playing with Igor again is great. Maybe. Everybody knows we would like to have a reunion, and even to the person who said it would happen … to be fair to the hardcore fans, it would also be good to invite the other players, not just the classic lineup … some of the guys from the first period of the band, which was the first 10 years — it was more death metal, you know, Sepultura … it really was a death-metal band in the beginning — and have these guys come out and do some of the reunion. If it happens … if it happens, I would want to do it this way. It would be more … it would have more integrity than just the Sepultura that everybody knows.
UW: As a good friend of the late “Dimebag” Darrell, what are your thoughts on playing the Alrosa Villa?
There was a huge amount of respect between me and him. He really understood what I was doing and was a big fan and always showed that. He came to see me all the time, especially after my break up with Sepultura, which a lot of times I’d play cities with Soulfly and not many people came out to see me with Soulfly because it wasn’t Sepultura or whatever. But Dimebag and Vinnie [Paul] were one of the few people that came out right after I broke up with Sepultura. He gave me a pair of camouflage pants once, which I thought was really cool. Not many people knew how much I love camouflage pants, but somehow he found out and gave me a pair with a style that ‘'d never seen before. It made an impression on me and touched me very deeply. A lot of people don’t pay attention to details. I was very sad when he died. It has been on my mind since I saw the confirmation of the tour, but in another way, I think that maybe it’s another way for me to pay my tribute to him maybe by doing the show there. I’m going to try to make a really cool night, and if Dimebag was there, he would love it. But his presence will be there anyway, you know? I like to look at things that are negative and turn them around. I’ll try to turn this show that is in that place that this horrible thing happened … try to make something cool out of it with the utmost respect to Dimebag — but try to make a cool night that should be an awesome thing for everybody.
UW: How do you think that “Conquer” fits with the rest of the other Soulfly albums?
I think “Conquer” is the heaviest … fastest, heaviest, the most aggressive Soulfly album. At the same time, it’s probably more experimental too. Some of the songs are very experimental all the way, with Iron Maiden kind of riffs all the way to Egyptian world music into grindcore and death metal…. Everything is combined, so to me it’s quite exciting to make this album, “Conquer.” I really enjoyed making it, and I really enjoy watching the fruits of that work. I’m watching the fans go crazy every night on stuff like “Blood, Fire, War, Hate,” “Unleash,” “Paranoia.” That just show me that the album was the right album to write with already instant classics that the fans recognize themselves, like those songs that I just told you. I can tell that they’re already Soulfly classics. They’re going to be on the setlist forever.
Originally Published: Issue 677 - November 12, 2008
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