MAX CAVALERA Says Metal Scene Today Is As Good As It Was 20 Or 30 Years Ago

Exclaim!‘s Aggressive Tendencies recently conducted an interview with former SEPULTURA members Max Cavalera (guitar, vocals) and Igor Cavalera (drums) about their “Return To Roots” tour during which they are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the band’s classic album “Roots” by performing the LP in its entirety. You can now watch the chat in two parts below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On hearing new bands that are pushing the envelope musically:

Igor: “I also can see ourselves in that a lot. Like when we started out, we had that attitude that a lot of these bands that we are seeing now [have]. And it’s cool that we somehow still can have a relationship with it — connect somehow. ‘Cause we do see ourselves, like when we were 14 or 15, going completely crazy with SEPULTURA at the time and breaking a lot of barriers. And to see all these young bands doing that for us, it’s refreshing, but also it kicked our ass to do more as musicians. It’s cool.”

On discovering new bands:

Max: “Back in the day when we were involved with the underground tapetrading, we were tapetrading with the guys from MAYHEM and DEATH and MORBID ANGEL and KREATOR. So I think it’s the same spirit [that’s] alive [today]. Like when you search for bands. I’m a big searcher — I’m always searching for new stuff — and when I find something that I like, I love to get in touch with [the band] and get the shirts. I wanna represent them, I wanna wear their shirts. So I think that’s kind of the underground spirit. It’s a choice. You can let that die and be like one of those rock guys that get old that don’t like nothing new and just live from the past. ‘Oh, the old glory days.’ It’s, like, fuck the glory days! This is the glory days right now. This is as good as it was twenty years ago, or thirty years ago. It’s a choice that you can make. And we made the choice to like a lot of this new stuff and get in touch with [the bands] and get involved with them, which I think is great. And I love that. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I saw a NAILS video I thought was really cool — a making-of their new album — and the drummer, he says that the whole inspiration for him is Igor‘s drumming on [SEPULTURA‘s] ‘Arise’. And it’s so cool to hear that. It’s so killer to hear that. And then you go listen to the album, ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’. It’s so sick. It’s such a great record. So it’s very inspiring to hear stuff like that for us. The other cool thing is the respect level, because a lot of those guys really love and respect what we did in SEPULTURA. So a lot of them get super honored to have us liking them. And it’s kind of — like Igor says — kind of a cycle. We gain influence by them, and we also influence them. I got a package from Todd from NAILS, and he said in the letter, ‘By the way, in ‘Unsilent Death’, I sneak in the ‘Territory’ [SEPULTURA] riff, and I hope you don’t mind.’ And it’s, like, ‘Yeah, brother! The more, the better.’ That’s killer. I love to hear that. So I think that’s really cool that happened, the whole respect factor, and we always had that with SEPULTURA. And it continues now with whatever we are doing. So I’m looking forward to more new things, discovering more new bands in the future.”

Max and Igor will embark on another North American tour in February to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of “Roots”. Several new cities will witness the performance by Max, Igor, Marc Rizzo (guitar; SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, ILL NIÑO) and Tony Campos (bass; SOULFLY, STATIC-X, MINISTRY, FEAR FACTORY). Kicking off in Las Vegas, the tour will feature support from IMMOLATION and FULL OF HELL.