How Max Cavalera Is Still Honoring Sepultura’s Legacy

While Sepultura have announced their farewell touring, former members Max Cavalera and his brother Igor have their own way of honoring the band’s legacy. The brothers have been out on the “Third World” trilogy tour revisiting and reworking three of the band’s early albums and Max spoke with Full Metal Jackie on her weekend radio show about the experience.

At one point in the chat, Full Metal Jackie asked Cavalera his thoughts on his former band announcing their farewell run and winding things down. But he was quick to point out that there’s still celebration of Sepultura’s music that will continue to live with he and his brother.

“They still call it Sepultura, but everybody knows that’s not the same and it’s never going to be the same. I don’t have nothing to do with what they’re doing with the disbanding of the band,” stated Cavalera. Me and Igor, we have our own path, we’re on our own thing. We’re revisiting those old material on our own time. The way we did them was the way we always did which was from our heart. For us, it’s really special to preserve that.”

Within the chat, Cavalera spoke about re-recording Sepultura’s Schizophrenia album with his brother under the Cavalera banner, coming up with the new addition to the album “Nightmares of Delirium” and how the experience has been influencing him as he continues to work on music.

Max also discussed the experience of having a musical “tribe” of a family and their common bond, the response to bringing back Nailbomb after so many years and he reveals the one thing that he’d still like to do as a musician that he’s not gotten around to yet.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and this week we welcome to the show the legendary Max Cavalera. Max has revisited Sepultura’s Schizophrenia album with his brother Igor and they’re bringing it to the fans as part of their Third World trilogy touring. Max, this comes on the heels of revisiting Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation. Why the decision to go back and re-record these records? And what in particular were you looking to change or improve upon?

The idea of the re-record actually came from playing live. I was doing a bunch of shows with Igor. We went back to the Roots record and then we went back to the Arise record and we got this really amazing reaction from the fans. They loved it and they wanted more. That’s when the idea was born. Let’s go back and re-record those really old early records that we made in Brazil when we didn’t have any money and we had some really bad equipment and no time in the studio so they sound like crap. We have a chance to right a wrong.

It was an opportunity to show the fans what we wanted those records to sound like, what we envisioned them to be but we could never achieve because of the situation that we were in. So it was an amazing task. I think it was a big, big challenge in front of us.

There was the big temptation to change things, to change the riffs, to change the songs. And I resisted all the temptation and we made them exactly as they were. We just improv’d on the playing and on the attitude, on the adrenaline of the playing. But we get to play them like I call this live show Nostalgic Brutality, which I think is the best way to describe them.

it’s the best way to describe what you get from the Third World trilogy show. You go back in a time machine to the ’80s and you revive all those songs and it’s amazing. It’s an amazing feeling. They sound great and I just love them doing it.

I think these three records, they needed that because they’re the ones that sounded real bad. Everything after that we got better in the studios. We got better at our instruments. But those first three needed to sound the way they sound now in the re-recordings, and I’m very happy that we did it.

Sepultura is something that is very much engrained in your history as well as Igor’s. Obviously you’ve moved on and done very well for yourself with Soulfly and a variety of other bands, but Sepultura is where you started and you can still revisit the music however you choose. But now knowing that the band is coming to an end with their farewell tour, what are your thoughts on seeing the group that you started and played such a role in your early musical life come to its conclusion?

I feel, and I’m not saying that just for myself, but I think a lot of fans feel that me and Igor kind of carry the spirit of Sepultura with us on everything that we do. I don’t know. They still call it Sepultura, but everybody knows that’s not the same and it’s never going to be the same. I don’t have nothing to do with what they’re doing with the disbanding of the band.

Me and Igor, we have our own path, we’re on our own thing. We’re revisiting those old material on our own time. The way we did them was the way we always did which was from our heart. For us, it’s really special to preserve that.

READ MORE: Why Did Max Cavalera Leave Sepultura in the ’90s?

I think it’s kind of like that young heart. You’re the teenage heart that lives inside of you. I kind of like keep that really sacred. And no matter what happens in the business or the politics of music, I try not to let that affect my young mind and soul that I carry with me all the time.

So I feel like that when I talk about Sepultura, it was a special band of a special time, and we celebrate that. I get a chance to celebrate that with Igor, regardless of what the other guys are doing.

Cavalera, “Nightmares of Delirium”

Max, one of the cool things about this revision of Schizophrenia is the new song, “Nightmares of Delirium.” It’s bringing a bit of the old with the lineup of the new. Your son also has a hand in the lyrics as well. Tell us how the idea to add this new track came about and how you approached getting in the mindset of matching your work from nearly 40 years ago.

That was a trip. We had the challenge of creating a bonus track to match the record. And I thought it was a cool challenge. And what I did was for a week I just listened to Schizophrenia non-stop. Try to really soak up the vibes and the ideas and the songwriting of that era.

So I ended up writing the riffs for “Nightmares of Delirium.” They all came out in a bunch of different times. And I put all of them together and I was never a fan of writing lyrics. It’s like doing homework to me.  I was a bad student. I hated homework when I was in school. So writing lyrics feels a bit like homework to me. So I was like, “Dude, come on.” I asked my son, “Can you help me out, man, and just write some lyrics for this song?” I don’t really want to write the lyrics for this thing.

So he came up with this real Lovecraftian lyrics, which I love, by the way. I think the lyrics are awesome. Fits the song perfect. And it’s called “Nightmares of Delirium,” which we are going to be playing on this tour.

It was a challenge to create something that I think would have fit the record even if that song came out in 1986. If that song came out on Schizophrenia, I think it would have been part of the record. I really believe in my heart that that song song is created with the same intensity and aggression and spirit of the rest of the record. I think that it’s fitting the re-recordings perfect and we got a new song.

It was funny, I was talking to some fans the other day. They’re like, “Man, do a whole record of those. Make a new record with just that kind of stuff.”

And so I guess a lot of them really like that song a lot. Hopefully we can do something like that in the future as well. But for right now, for that record, it was cool to do one song. And I love the lyrics that Igor came up with.

And I think was like, we had a challenge in front of us, we accepted and we rolled with it. And the result came out pretty sweet.

One of the through lines of a majority of your post-Sepultura work has been family. The Cavaleras are a musical family. Gloria has long had a hand in management. You’ve got your brother back playing with you. The generation of sons have gotten involved in playing and performing with you. What has it meant to share this life and all these great experiences with those closest to you? And is there any competitive musical spirit around the dinner table?

I loved it. I think it’s so cool. When me and Gloria got married, I told her, “We’re gonna start our own tribe.” And she didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. We’re gonna create this from the ground up.

The beauty of it is that it’s organic. It’s not formed by some big company and some millionaire put this thing together. There’s none of that. It’s all organic. It’s all done by us. And I love the fact that Gloria managed the way that she manages.

Her office looks the same as it did 30 years ago with crazy posters on the wall, and it’s a mess, but it’s cool. And now I get to do albums with my sons. I have Soulfly with Zyon. New Soulfly is coming up later this year, and I get to play Cavalera material with my brother.

My son Igor, to me, and I keep it as simple as possible, is doing what you love with people that you love. That’s what comes down to it. That’s the secret and the key to success. To me, it’s what made me want to keep doing this forever.

I treasure them more than anything I could get from music, would that be awards or gold records or Grammys? That stuff is cool, but it pales in comparison. Relationship. Family. Working with the family, working with the kids. Of course we fight and there’s arguments and sometimes it’s kind of kind of cool. I get to be the dad. Be like, “Oh, if you don’t play the song, you’re going in time out.” I can think of worse punishments.

Before they were over 21, we had to hide all the beer from them on tour. It was funny because we knew they’re gonna like sneak in and drink because we did that when we were that age, you know.

But I love it, man. I think it’s a full metal family. No gimmicks. It’s about all real original metal family, man. This Cavalera family is full on to the bone a metal family that I wouldn’t change for anything in the world. I’ll take the good with the bad all day long.

It’s an amazing feeling to do this with the family.

Max. With such a wide range of bands over the years, the ideas have to be plentiful. What’s been inspiring you of late? And outside of revisiting Schizophrenia and the one new song, is there more new music coming under the Cavalera banner?

This year is gonna be busy with new Soulfly coming up. I’m working on it right now, actually. The writing is all done. We have to finish the recordings. But we’re definitely gonna have a new Soulfly record out this year and we’re gonna tour for that later in the year.

I think we’re doing some more touring later in the summer with Soulfly, with Cavalera and with Nailbomb also doing a couple shows in Europe. And as far as as creating new music for Cavalera, I don’t know, I think like I’m going to slow down a little bit.

I’ve been putting out records non-stop now for 30 years. Literally almost every two to three years I’ve been putting something out and I feel like I need to slow down a little bit. But knowing my personality, I know I’m not going to be able to.

I’m gonna get involved in something and next thing you know, I’m working on a new Killer Be Killed or it’s gonna be another Go Ahead and Die, which is great. I don’t mind. I love it. They say when you’re doing what you love, you never, work a day in your life. It’s totally true for what I do. My passion of metal is bigger than life.

I’m a fan first and foremost. I’m a huge metal fan. So I’m a total dork metal geek at heart. I go on tour with musicians, I sit down with them, I ask them what’s your favorite 10 metal albums of all time?

And they’re like seriously, you actually asking me that for real? And I love it. I love the whole being a dark metal thing is great. Keep that teenage heart alive no matter how old you get, if you love with that with the same passion that you did. And I do.

I love metal as much as I did, maybe even more now than than when I first started listening to it. I think there’s a lot of great new bands. There’s a lot of. I listen to a lot of old stuff, classic stuff, but I also listen to new stuff coming up all the time. I get excited for it. I think the future of metal looks great and it’s cool to see also being more popular too. It’s getting more popular everywhere in Europe and Australia. Metal is getting more popular than ever and that’s amazing.

We’ve got Max Cavallara back on the show with us. And Max, one thing that has happened since the last time we talked that I wanted to touch on. You’ve got Nailbomb back together for their first show in 30 years. What was it like to revisit that material for an audience again? And did it spark anything creatively where we might see Nailbomb reenter your orbit creatively?

That’s a tricky one. We are doing some stuff live, which is great because we did it last year with on a Max “dynasty” show. That show was so good that everybody was like, “You gotta do more of this.” Point Blank to me is a very inspiring record.

It’s something I did on the side when I was making Chaos A.D.. And it was my own curiosity of industrial music meets metal, but more aggressive than normal. I love Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, but I wanted them to be heavier. So we created an album with that in mind.

The record came out so cool. The thing that is even crazier is the topics of the album. They are more relevant now than they were back when we first recorded Point Blank. Because of that, I also have a chance to jam with a lot of really cool musicians.

Nailbomb, the first time we played live was for the Dynamo Festival, and we made a live band just for that show. So it’s kind of like the same process, the same thought process go on into this new rendition of Nailbomb. So we created a whole new band to play live.

And it’s just paying homage to another great record of my catalog and some of the stuff that’s really Nailbomb more than anything probably that I ever done. I hear from right and left I love this record, man. This record, it’s so influential, so cool and so different. It’s so heavy. It’s one of those record that it’d be a waste not to play this stuff live.

As far as making a new one. That’s a whole nother topic, though. That’s like, maybe me and Alex gotta get together and find out if it’s the right time to make a new Nailbomb. I don’t know. I think it would be cool to try it, but we’re not there yet. In the meantime, we get to play these live shows and maybe even bring it to America later in the year.

Max, you’ve made the most of your opportunities over the years. Is there still something you’d like to do in music or outside of music that you’ve not had a chance to pursue just because of available hours in the day?

Well, kind of. I love what I do because it’s not measuring in how big you get or popularity. It’s measured by passion. And because of that, it really becomes unique. You’re not really chasing fame, you’re chasing perfection in the music. And that’s a whole other thing from people that are chasing fame. Those are completely two completely different things.

I’m always looking for that perfect album, the one that when I finish, I go, “That’s my masterpiece. This is the one. I cannot get any better than this. Maybe now I can even quit.” I don’t feel like I have done that yet.

So the chase is what makes it interesting, is what makes it cool. It’s almost like the struggle is the glory type situation. So I keep making records, trying to find that perfect record, that masterpiece kind of record, and that gives me the energy, all the feelings, the anger, the aggression to keep playing this kind of music.

If you ask me point blank, it would be something that you would really love to do if you could right now, it would be to do a tour in a bunch of really famous football and soccer stadiums.

Oh, that’d be cool.

I don’t know when I ever will be able to do that. I’ll let fate take care of that. But in the meantime, I just really enjoy what I do. I totally love playing, no matter the size. That’s just how I function. I just love the music and the vibe of the live show so much that once I step on the stage, it’s like a possession comes through.

I become something that I’m not normally in normal life. And that’s really kind of cool to be part of something like that. I know it’s cheesy to say magic, but I don’t know any other words, so I have to go with that. It’s a magic thing that happens on the stage, and it’s amazing that you get to do that every night just for the love of it, man. It’s so cool.

Thanks to Max Cavalera for the interview. The Schizophrenia re-recording is available now. You can stay up to date with Cavalera and Soulfly through their respective websites. Cavalera Conspiracy is on Facebook,  X and Instagram. You can also follow Soulfly on Facebook, X and Instagram. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.