Cavalera (or Cavalera Conspiracy) are re-living old glories on the re-recordings of classic Sepultura death-thrash platters Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia. Not only are these revisits from the heart, they rip hard. Certainly, Max and Iggor Cavalera aren’t pulling the George Lucas on metaldom, as they showed on physical but with physicality on the Morbid Devastation Tour. Now, to commemorate the release of Schizophrenia as Cavalera, replete with crushing new track, “Nightmares of Delirium,” the brothers, plus Max’s song Igor Amadeus Cavalera Jr. (Go Ahead and Die), and Travis Stone (Pig Destroyer, Desolus), hit the road with Decibel death metal faves Necrot and newjack thrashers Dead Heat.
We caught up with our man, Max, while he was just off a West Coast heater, where Cavalera destroyed venues up and down the coast, and left a path of (bestial) devastation in their wake after a slew of Midwest shows. Always amenable, ever a guy with a fantastic attitude, and a diehard metalhead, Max entertained our old-guy questions with veteran cool. Turns out, he’s even more psyched when he learns yours truly is from Michigan and possibly a (former) Lions fan. Read on below as we get into the meat of the re-recordings of Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia (all out now on Nuclear Blast), and what it’s like to never give in, give up, or let time get the best of him.
If Cavalera hit your town, and you’re on the fence (or pondering life with a walker) about attending, let’s just say the setlist is the best early “Sepultura” period head-bashers to grace our presence since 1994. Yeah, we’re old, but you don’t have to be. Into the pit with Max fucking Cavalera!
You’re on the road now with Necrot and Dead Heat. And, as I understand it, you’re performing tracks from Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia, along with a few other classics.
Max Cavalera: It’s been great! It started in a really cool way. The first show was in Cottonwood (Arizona) at the Queen B [Vinyl Café]. It was a small show—maybe 100 people. More of a warm-up, intimate show, but it was cool. Almost like a rehearsal for the real thing. [Laughs] Then, we went to San Diego and Los Angeles, where we sold out The Belasco [Theater]. Now, we’re just rolling, man. I’ve always loved the first shows of a tour. They’re always unique—a little bit of the unknown. So, the first shows are always exciting. Touring with my brother in Cavalera turns into a pure machine. After one-two weeks, it’s a lethal machine. We get tighter, faster, and more aggressive. The bands that are with us are killer. I’ve been a big fan of Necrot for a while. It’s an awesome package. There’s a lot of young kids coming out. I’m happy with the way it’s going right now.
This tour is called the Third World Trilogy tour. Obviously, the tour title refers to the re-recordings of Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia that have been met with wide-spread acclaim. Tell me a little bit about the setlist.
Cavalera: Those three albums make the trilogy, although we’re heavily leaning on Schizophrenia on this run. It’s a newer record. We did the Morbid Devastation tour, where we played Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions. We’re still playing some stuff off those records because the songs are cool. We’re playing deep cuts on this run. People love “Necromancer,” “Mayhem,” and we have to play “Troops of Doom.” I’ll say Schizophrenia is more fresh [for us] now. We’re playing “Inquisition Symphony,” which we never, even with Sepultura, play live. That’s a seven-minute instrumental in the middle of the show. We didn’t know if it would work or not, but it’s turned out awesome. It’s kind of atmospheric. We’re also playing the new song [“Nightmares of Delirium”] we made for the re-release. We’re getting great feedback from the fans on that one. We’re playing some of the classic, too. We’re playing around with material from Beneath the Remains and Arise. So, it’s heavy on Schizophrenia, which, I think, is very underrated. There would be no Beneath the Remains if we didn’t make Schizophrenia. It was a very important record for us.
My wife was getting into Sepultura a few years back and came into my office and asked me which Sepultura album was my go-to. I told her, Beneath the Remains. I expected her to say Chaos A.D. or Roots because they’re sonically less chaotic, but without hesitation she said, Schizophrenia.
Cavalera: It’s a gateway record, man. [Laughs] We realized we could mix black metal, death metal, and thrash into a pot and stir that pot. The result is very unique. You get the aggression from black-death and the precision—the technical aspect—of thrash. It’s very energetic and fast! That’s what I love about Schizophrenia. [Laughs] It’s fun to play live. The younger generation coming to the shows are loving it. They never got to see us [as Sepultura] play these songs live. It’s really cool.
I can imagine. I remember the first time I saw Sepultura. That was the Obituary/Sadus tour in 1990 in Detroit [at Harpo’s]. It was totally wild—I was a young teenager then. I missed the New Titans on the Bloc tour, but managed to catch up on the Helmet/Ministry tour at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Detroit in 1992. Again, later-stage teenager, but I went ballistic. I think you played “Territory” or “Clenched Fist” before they had titles.
Cavalera: Right on! You’re old. [Laughs] You must be a Lions fan then.
Growing up, yes. They had a great year this season.
Cavalera: Little by little, they’re getting better.
I enjoyed the re-recordings of Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions. What was it like re-recording Schizophrenia? That’s a very complex album.
Cavalera: It is. It was tricky. We re-recorded it a bit faster than the original. Me and Iggor went back and watched old videos of us playing Schizophrenia live. There’s a video us playing Mexico in 1989 [HERE]. We’re playing the songs so fast. I was intrigued by the idea of recording Schizophrenia faster. The original is there. The tempo is cool. I thought it’d be cooler to re-record them a little bit faster. That was on purpose. The triplets are faster, Iggor’s drum parts are insanely fast, and I think it makes the re-recording sound more live. It’s adrenaline driven. That’s the only major change from the original. Everything else is the same, which is how we approached Morbid Visions. Don’t mess with the songwriting. Don’t mess with the riffs—they’re killer! The riffs just needed to be heard a little more. They were buried under a shitty production at a bad studio. I think this is what we had envisioned in the first place. We couldn’t have done that because of the conditions back then. So, now we have both, which is cool. There’s the fucked-up production original—I love the original!—and the re-recording, which is where it’s at sound-wise. A lot of people have forgotten about this record [Schizophrenia]. We wanted to point the album out to a new generation of fans.
There’s misunderstandings as to why you re-recorded Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia. It wasn’t because it was convenient.
Cavalera: It wasn’t, man. A lot of people talk about Arise, Chaos A.D., and Roots. I get it. Those are great albums, but if you want to know about Sepultura—our roots—you have to go back to Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia. We’re going back in time, and people are paying attention. They’re starting to understand our beginnings. We were on the cusp of extreme metal. A track like “Antichrist” is a prototype of it. It has that blastbeat, the machine gun beat. That was Iggor’s interpretation. The way he did it was unique and super-cool. Now, the blastbeat is so normal, but it wasn’t back then. It was an exciting moment. I was tape trading with Chuck [Schuldiner] from Death, the guys in Mayhem, Trey [Azagthoth] from Morbid Angel. We’d trade shirts and shit. We were creating the underground network, which alive today, even with the Internet. I’m still in contact with a lot of bands, and I love to exchange merchandise with them to support them. That’s why we got Necrot and Dead Heat on this tour. They’re such cool bands.
I remember when I talked to the Sarcófago guys for the Decibel Hall of Fame induction of I.N.R.I. many years ago, and they said the same thing. Everything was so new and exciting back then.
Cavalera: Yeah, Sarcófago made a lot of songs with that same formula. I think “Necromancer” is just as ambitious too. It has a lot of parts and a very cool chorus. What “Necromancer” showed was the band had potential. I think it opened our eyes that we could go somewhere. Then came Morbid Visions and our first-ever hit, “Troops of Doom.” But I love all of Morbid Visions. I love “Funeral Rites,” “Crucifixion,” and “War,” which is one of my favorite songs. Schizophrenia is the after, the melting pot. I remember the demo for “From the Past Comes the Storms” had the wrong English title. It was originally called “The Past Reborn to the Storm,” which makes absolutely no fucking sense. [Laughs] I was translating back then. I didn’t speak English. My friend was translating Portuguese to English. That’s how we’d end up with all these wrong translations back then. [Laughs] It was punk rock, man. I like that, though. In a way, I’ve always felt we should’ve left it with the wrong English. This whole tour is nostalgic brutality. It takes me back. We’re revising and revisiting the songs from that era. It’s the closest thing to it. The Belasco show felt, to me, like 1988/89. The vibe in the air was “Wow!” I didn’t know that was possible in 2025. There were a lot of thrashers, the pit was crazy, and the energy in there was good. If that’s metal in 2025, then we’re in good hands. They’re treating metal the right way.”
You’ve played a lot of shows in your life. How has this tour changed your perspective?
Cavalera: A lot of it is the same. The energy is there. If you don’t have an exciting crowd, we’re not going to be excited to be there. They go hand in hand. The old songs have a different vibe. We had hits but not the big anthems like “Refuse Resist” or “Roots Bloody Roots.” The atmosphere between us and the crowd is pretty awesome on this tour. Inside the band, it’s me and Iggor, but we have Amadeus [Igor Amadeus Cavalera Jr.] and Travis [Stone], too. They’re younger, the new blood. They’re the new generation. They’re connected with the new generation and the new bands like Goetia and Genocide Pact. Me and Iggor are the wisdom of the old brothers. The combination of wisdom and energy is killer—it’s vital! That permeates into the crowd, and the crowd feels that. The crowd is similar. The old guys are in the back. They don’t want to be in the pit anymore, but they still love it. They’re enjoying the shit out of it. Then, there’s all the youngsters going nuts in the pit. I think it doesn’t matter for us if we had a show of hits. We could have a show of only deep cuts and it’ll still be wall-to-wall mayhem. That’s so cool. I’ll just say this to anyone who wants to see us. We’re playing back-to-back, nonstop. It’s an hour and a half of vitality and brutality. We’re not fucking around. [Laughs]
That’s a long setlist. How’s the body reacting to it?
Cavalera: I feel really good. I’m more surprised about my brother. That’s some heavy-ass drumming for a long time, but he’s killing it. He showed me his blisters. Huge blisters exploding out of his hand. He’s proud of them. He’s like, “Dude, check this out—just like the old days!” Connecting to Iggor after all these years is really special. There’s something to be said about what me and him have been through in our lives, all the way from the beginning. Growing up in poverty in Brazil, which made us feel like it was us against the world. We stood up together, through good and bad. Now, we’re back doing what we love with the people with love. That’s the very definition of success. It’s why we do this. The fans appreciate that. There’s not a whole lot of brothers left in the world. We don’t take this for granted. We’re loving every second of it. We hang out a lot. We watch movies together, listen to songs together. We always mess around with the setlists, trying to make them better. It’s cool to give a fuck, you know? Once you stop caring about what you do, it becomes something else. We’re the opposite of that.
I hear you. I’m not in a band, but I still get excited about getting CDs and shirts in the mail. Not much has changed, for me, since I started getting into metal. I’m still way into it.
Cavalera: Right on! [Laughs] That’s a metal thing. It’s in all of us, in every one of us. I don’t think you lose that. You have to recognize it and work on it, though. It’s hard to stay excited and updated. I still love all the classics. I still worship Celtic Frost and Hellhammer and Entombed. I also like a lot of new stuff, too! Metal is like a mafia family. Once you’re in, you can’t get out. [Laughs] It’s for life! Very rarely do you hear someone say, “I was into metal in 2011, and yeah, I don’t like it anymore.” For us, it’s a life commitment. There’s so much I get from metal. We hear a lot of deep stories in metal. Guys coming to the shows saying they’ve lost their brothers to cancer, and the last show they saw together was with Sepultura or Soulfly. They’re doing metal for them. That grabs you. Makes you realize how important this is for a lot of people. I mean, I write songs in my living room. When they’re done, they go to the far corners of the world. They make an impact on peoples’ lives. That’s really cool. We’re like a tribe. This thing is forever. I believe that in my heart. My 17-year-old heart is still intact. I know it sounds dorky to say I’m a metalhead at heart, but I won’t change for nothing.
** Cavalera are currently on tour with Necrot and Dead Heat.:
Feb. 19 – Cottonwood, AZ @ Queen B Vinyl Cafe*
Feb. 20 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
Feb. 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
Feb. 22 – Chico, CA @ Senator Theater
Feb. 23 – Reno, NV @ Virginia Street Brewhouse
Feb. 24 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Feb. 26 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Feb. 27 – Portland, OR @Roseland Theater
Mar. 03 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
Mar. 05 – Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
Mar. 06 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
Mar. 07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre
Mar. 09 – Boston, MA @ Paradise
Mar. 11 – Albany, NY @ Empire Live
Mar. 12 – Wilmington, DE @ The Queen
Mar. 13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Mar. 14 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
Mar. 15 – Greensboro, NC @ Hanger 1819
Mar. 16 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theater
Mar. 17 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
Mar. 18 – Ft Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
Mar. 20 – New Orleans, LA @ Howlin’ Wolf
Mar. 21 – Houston, TX Hell’s Heroes Fest ^
Mar. 22 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Beer City
Mar. 23 – Dallas, TX @ Echo Music Hall
Mar. 24 – Wichita, KS @ WAVE
Mar. 26 – San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
Mar. 27 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
Mar. 28 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater
Mar. 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Van Buren
** Cavalera’s brutal re-recordings of Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions, and Schizophrenia are available now via Nuclear Blast. Order the madness or be a fucking septic schizo! Order HERE.
Source: www.decibelmagazine.com
