During an appearance on Full Metal Jackie’s syndicated radio show, Max Cavalera, co-founder of the iconic Brazilian metal band SEPULTURA, recently expressed his thoughts on the band’s demise. Max, now aged 55, has been playing and traveling and performing SEPULTURA’s classics with drummer Igor “Iggor” Cavalera, his brother and a former band member, for a few years now. The brothers have revived the raw energy of SEPULTURA’s early days, often filling fans with nostalgia as they recall the band’s rise to international stardom.
When asked for his response upon SEPULTURA announcing that it was disbanding, Max replied in a voice that incorporated nostalgia, pride, and even a dash of melancholy. “To me, I think — and I’m not saying this just for me — I believe a lot of fans believe that me and Igor sort of bring the spirit of SEPULTURA with us on everything that we do,” he explained. “And I don’t know — they still refer to it as SEPULTURA, but everybody understands that it’s not the same and it’s never gonna be the same.”
Max pointed out that he and Igor are on another path and have not had anything to do with the decision of the band to break up. “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 are on our own thing, we are re-working those old material on our own time.”. And how we went about them was how we always went about — it was from the heart.
For Max, this isn’t a recreation of classic music—it’s a personal quest to save something that is sacred. “For us, it’s really special to save that. I think it’s kind of like that young heart, the teenage heart that resides in you. I kind of like keep that really sacred.”. And regardless of what goes on in the business or politics of music, I do my best not to let that get to my young mind and soul which I have with me always.
His affiliation with SEPULTURA extends far beyond a professional landmark. “It was a great band of a great time and we celebrate that — I get to celebrate that with Igor, whatever the other guys are doing or not doing.”
But not everyone from SEPULTURA’s earlier days is pleased. Guitarist Andreas Kisser, who significantly contributed to the band’s sound after joining towards the end of the 1980s, was highly critical of Max and Igor’s choice to re-record albums such as Morbid Visions, Bestial Devastation, and Schizophrenia—the latter being Andreas’s first record with the group.
“I don’t think anything,” Andreas said to the IMPACT Metal Channel. “I mean, it’s a strange decision that they had. I think artistic value is zero. Maybe they’re aiming for some cash or something, but there’s no need to do something like that.”
Andreas instead cited ex-SEPULTURA guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz’s current band, THE TROOPS OF DOOM, as a more sincere tribute to the period. “I far prefer THE TROOPS OF DOOM… who are really doing a fantastic tribute to that time, very truthful, playing new things, composing new music… But if they are having a good time, so let it be. I don’t care, man. I just think it is totally unnecessary. It’s really very disrespectful from themselves, for their own selves in the past.”
He didn’t beat around the bush when it came to Max’s contribution either. “It’s strange to see a guy [Max] who’s always like, ‘Oh, I did this,’ ‘I did all that,’ ‘I’m so creative,’ and ‘I did everything by myself,’ and doing this crap, like re-recording riffs that we did 30, 40 years ago. It doesn’t click, the rhetoric with the example. But whatever. I just don’t think that — the artistic value is zero.”
In contrast, Max viewed the re-recordings as an act of passion and fan service, not as a nostalgia cash grab. During an interview with V13, he explained the motivation behind revamping the early records. “I believe [Igor and I] were [performing special tours commemorating] the other [SEPULTURA] albums, such as we did ‘Roots’, and then we did ‘Beneath The Remains’ and the response was so explosive and the fans were responding so well, with the way we were performing that material live…”
That good energy was an inspirer for Max. “I told Igor how cool it would be to put this sound on these old records that sound like crap, but especially if we can get them to sound as good as how we sound today because we sound great today how we’re playing.”
Max also dealt with the backlash over re-recording classic material. “There’s a huge taboo about re-recording. There are tons of people who are [freaked out] about messing with old things. I had to sort of block all that and think, ‘Fuck it. Let’s do it, man, but let’s do it the way we wanna do it, the way we wanna hear it as fans.'”
He and Igor weren’t keen on making the sound too modernized—they wanted to make it gritty, raw, and true. “So ‘Morbid Visions’, ‘Bestial Devastation’, it’s still really dirty and aggressive, maybe even more aggressive than the original… We play a bit faster and it’s more angry. I don’t know how, but it’s angry than the original.”
For Schizophrenia, Max regarded it as an underappreciated jewel that never attained its potential. “The songs are awesome, but they were never actually recorded the way they should be. So now we’re really pleased. We recorded the three, we had the trilogy and we got to tour it.”
For these new recordings, Max and Igor recruited Travis Stone (PIG DESTROYER) on lead guitar and Igor Amadeus Cavalera on bass, a lineup that blended heritage with new energy. The new recording of Schizophrenia was recorded between April and June 2023 in Mesa, Arizona, and mixing was done by Arthur Rizk. Cover art was tenderly restored in watercolor by Eliran Kantor.
While SEPULTURA’s career lasted for almost 40 years, it was during Max’s time that the band reached its commercial zenith. Albums such as Roots and Chaos A.D. were also gold-certified in the U.S., establishing the band’s place in the history of metal.
In celebration of 40 years of music, SEPULTURA officially announced a global farewell tour later in 2023. Andreas Kisser, lead vocalist Derrick Green, long-term bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr., and newly appointed drummer Greyson Nekrutman, who replaced Eloy Casagrande early in 2024, comprised the last lineup.
Even if SEPULTURA is playing their final show, the heartbeat of the band lives on through the violent reinterpretations of Max and Igor and their unrelenting passion. That’s where the essence of SEPULTURA truly lies for a great many fans, and for Max as well.
