Former SEPULTURA drummer Igor “Iggor” Cavalera was a guest on a recent episode of White Centipede Noise, a podcast focused exclusively on noise, based out of WCN Studios in Potsdam, Germany. Asked about the fact that many of the early extreme metal bands in Brazil — including SEPULTURA, SARCOFAGO, HOLOCAUSTO and VULCANO — embraced satanic imagery and themes in the 1980s despite being based in what is largely considered a Catholic country, Igor said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”For us, explaining the first wave of black metal that we had in Brazil, it wasn’t really about worshipping Satan, but it was about attacking the church, which it has a huge difference. For us, it was way more political. ‘Cause the church is controlling everything in South America, and they’re involved in politics, and as we all know, they’re the most evil thing. They came in and they really raped the land with the colonization and everything. So for us to go against the church, it was an act of rebellion. And for us it also made more sense to attack that than just attack the government in general because they’re the same thing in our view. So when you had the SEX PISTOLS going like against the queen, for us, our form of aggression was, like, ‘No, let’s destroy the church.’ ‘Cause they’re all connected. So I guess that’s where it kind of like blurs where we’ve also never been Satan worshippers; that wasn’t our thing. Of course, I study a lot of like the dark side of things, I read a lot of books, but I was never… ‘Cause I believe they’re all the creation of the same thing — the evil and the good and Satan, in my opinion, is also a creation of the church. So for us to worship that, it was almost, like, ‘Oh, how come you don’t accept Jesus, but you accept that one, which is kind of like — they’re the yin-yang.'”
He continued: “So that’s where that movement started from. It was about that aggression. And then, of course, musically, it was an extreme form of showing how we wanted to rebel. And then, of course, metal by being one of the styles that we liked the ideas, but we didn’t like how metal was made in Europe or in America, ’cause it was too polished. And they were talking about dragons and slaying castles. And we’re, like, ‘That’s not our reality.’ So I guess that’s where it started.”
This past February, Igor launched a solo tour of the United Kingdom during which he performed electronic music from the repertoire of his solo discography inspired by the varied sub genres of avant-garde, drone, industrial and harsh noise.
Along with older brother Max Cavalera, Igor is a founding member of the Brazilian thrash metal band SEPULTURA. Igor is now the drummer for CAVALERA, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SOULWAX, PETBRICK and other projects. Cavalera is one half of the DJ duo MIXHELL, an electronic music project he founded with his wife, Laima Leyton, in 2006. With MIXHELL, he has toured the globe, performing in festivals such as Glastonbury, Bestival and Reading.
In 2013, Igor moved to London with his family and in 2016 joined the Belgian band SOULWAX, recording drums for their album “From Deewee” and touring as part of “Transient Program For Drums And Machinery”. Soon after, he founded PETBRICK with Wayne Adams — a project that involved melting noise and crushing electronics over grinding drumming.
Igor has been performing live with analog modular gear, drum pads and visuals for intimate crowds at experimental festivals such as Dio Drone (Florence) and clubs such as Cafe Oto and Iklectik (London). His latest releases include “Aural Manifestations” on Damian Records in America and Deepthroat Records in Europe and “Alucinações Sônicas” on Hospital Productions.
Igor left SEPULTURA in June 2006 due to “artistic differences.” His departure from the band came five months after he announced that he was taking a break from SEPULTURA‘s touring activities to spend time with his second wife and their son (who was born in January 2006).
In 1996, Max Cavalera exited SEPULTURA after the rest of the band split with Max‘s wife Gloria as their manager.
Source: blabbermouth.net
