In 1984 brothers Max & Igor Cavalera formed Sepultura (Portuguese for ‘Grave’) in their native Brazil, and quickly established themselves as one of the country’s leading Metal bands. In their early days, fuelled on a diet of American and European Heavy Metal and Hardcore, Sepultura were extreme in every sense of the word, merging Proto-Black and Death Metal while pretty much experimenting and making it up as they went along, especially when it came to recording in the studio.
In 1985 they released their debut record Bestial Devastation, five tracks of raw aggression that included the songs ‘Antichrist’ and ‘Necromancer,’ a self produced EP that was recorded in just two days. The brothers have pretty much since admitted they had no real idea of what they were doing at the time, barely even bothering to tune their instruments while in the studio. Sepultura followed this up in 1986 with their full length debut Morbid Visions, recorded with a similar DIY attitude and featuring songs including ‘War,’ ‘Crucifixion’ and most notably ‘Troops Of Doom,’ which started to get them noticed outside of their native Brazilian scene.
Their rise from here is legendary as Sepultura first evolved into one of the worlds leading Thrash Metal bands, signing to Roadrunner Records and releasing the albums Schizophrenia (1987), Beneath the Remains (1989) and Arise (1991), cementing their place at the top of the genre alongside the likes of Slayer and Megadeth. Sepultura cracked the US market before another evolution in style and a turn in the musical tide of the early nineties, saw them conquer the world as the undisputed kings of Groove-Metal alongside Pantera.
Their 1993 record Chaos AD was a seminal release and is perhaps the defining moment of their career, before Sepultura’s popularity peaked in 1996 with Roots, as they infused a greater influence of World-Music with a Nu-Metal sound inspired by the likes of Korn and Deftones, with the production wizardry of Ross Robinson combining this with everything that made Chaos AD so greatly unique. At this point Sepultura were at the top of their game, achieving gold record sales and topping Metal festival bills across the world … what could possibly go wrong!?
At the pinnacle of their rise in the Metal world the house that Sepultura built would spectacularly crumble. As the face of the band Max Cavalera’s popularity had started to rise above his fellow musicians, and he began to become isolated from his band-mates as he formed a power couple of sorts with his wife and Sepultura’s manager Gloria Cavalera. The deterioration of the relationship accelerated further in August 1996 at the UK’s Monsters of Rock Festival in Castle Donnington.
Sepultura played as a three-piece that day with lead guitarist Andreas Kisser taking over lead vocals, as Max had left the site earlier in the day following the tragic news of the death of Gloria’s son. Max naturally took some time out from the band before returning to Europe to continue their tour. But he was left blindsided by his bandmates who informed him they wanted to sack Gloria as their manager, unhappy at the preferential treatment Max was receiving in the press.
This was the final straw for the frontman who would subsequently quit the band he had created with his brother, playing one final show at London’s Brixton Academy on Dec 16th 1996. A bitter divide would form between Max and Igor, and it was decided Sepultura would continue without him with the addition of US vocalist Derrick Green. Max would go on to form his own project Soulfly, and the two bands would go head to head with the release of new albums in 1998, Sepultura with Against and Max with Soulfly’s self-titled debut. To date Soulfly has reportedly sold in excess of 645,000 copies, while Against has sold in excess of 120,000.
The star power of Max Cavalera certainly seemed to be the winner in the aftermath of their acrimonious split. Both bands continued the influence of Roots and incorporating Brazilian and further elements of world music in their sound, while Max also aligned Soulfly closer to the in vogue Nu-Metal scene of the time. Sepultura would continue to forge a career for themselves releasing a further three records with Igor on the drum stool, before he would reconcile with Max and in 2007 would leave Sepultura to once again play with his brother as Cavalera Conspiracy. In the same time period Soulfly would release five albums in total.
Together once again the brothers released their debut Inflicted on Roadrunner Records in 2008, and a further three albums through to Psychosis in 2017. Max continued to juggle Soulfly with Cavalera Conspiracy, while Igor always maintained working on many different musical projects. Since the COVID pandemic both musicians have been nothing if not prolific with their musical output. Notably Igor released two experimental albums in 2022, Liminal with Petbrick his Electronic / Industrial project with Wayne Adams (Big Lad), and Plague God with Absent In Body, a Sludgy Post-Metal collaboration with Colin H. Van Eeckhout and Mathieu Van De Kerckhove of Amenra.
Whereas Max seems to have been in a wholly reflective and sentimental mood, revisiting his early days and a distinctively retro 80s Thrash / Death Metal influence with the self-titled release of Go Ahead And Die (2021) the band he formed with his son Igor Amadeus, as well as Soulfly’s 12th studio album Totem (2022). And it seems this inspiration could well have been the catalyst for the next move in the Cavalera career, as in July 2023 the brothers have gone full circle and travelled back to the very beginning of their journey by re-recording Sepultura’s earliest work. Two fingers up perhaps to his former bandmates Andreas Kisser and Paulo Jr by Max, as he had watched them continue to fly the flag and use the name of the band he created for over two decades.
It had broken Max’s heart to walk away from Sepultura and see them continue without him, despite having always played their material in his sets, even creating Cavalera Conspiracy tours based around the material from Roots, as well as the Beneath The Remains and Arise albums. And in a way this move is one which seems to say that these are our albums not yours, with the brothers dropping the word ‘Conspiracy’ from the band name and adopting the original Sepultura logo on the album covers.
The result of the re-recordings is that Cavalera have absolutely reinvigorated the old material, unsurprisingly creating a shine almost forty years later which breathes new life to the classic songs, improving the original recordings in every way. It’s fair to say that listening back to Sepultura’s debut release Bestial Devestation (1985) and Morbid Visions (1996) is a little bit of a rough experience. The production sounds poor with very little bass, Max’s vocals sound raw and under developed, and while the riffs and Igor’s incredible percussive talents are there, the lo-fi quality of the sound dominates the listening experience.
In comparison the new recordings sound crystal clear, brutally heavy and thunderously old-school all rolled into one. With the re-releases on Nuclear Blast Records providing a perfect tribute to the songs which gave life to one of the most recognisable names in Metal, and from two of the finest musicians to have ever graced the genre. And when all is said and done in 2023 … Blackened Hardcore-Thrash / Death-Metal has never sounded better! KZ
Words by Abstrakt_Soul
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