The prolific Soulfly return next month with their ninth album release, Savages.
Formed in 1997 on the back of the ignominious break up with frontman Max Cavalera’s former band Sepultura, Soulfly continue to churn out the records. This latest offering comes just 18 months after previous and heaviest album to date, Enslaved.
We spoke to the iconic Brazilian metal merchant, who is clearly upbeat about the impending release.
“I’m excited for Savages, I think it’s a killer new album,” says Cavalera.
“It has some of the extremity of Enslaved, it has the groove of early Soulfly. It’s a powerful record and I’m very pleased with the way it turned out.”
After assisting Soulfly with the mix of 2005’s Dark Ages, the band were able to entice renowned producer, Terry Date (Pantera, Slipknot, Sepultura), back to oversee the new record.
“We had a chance to record with Terry Date in Seattle, he’s a master professional, supercool producer and I love the sound of the record,” Cavalera explains.
Adding to the intrigue of the album is the news that Cavalera’s son, Zyon, will take over on drums from predecessor, David Kinkade.
Zyon is perhaps best known for the in utero ‘heartbeat’ introduction to Sepultura’s greatest album Chaos A.D. Twenty years on, he’s now the ‘heartbeat’ to the Soulfly tribe headed by his illustrious father.
“Zyon’s been practising a lot last year and we invited him to play with Soulfly in Europe and South America and that’s when using him became a reality,” the proud father says. “(Since then) he’s been helping shape the album, just me and him going at it with writing riffs and he was putting beats on it.
“We did this work for a month and a half at home and then when we entered the studio he was prepared and felt comfortable. For me it’s a dream come true working with my son like that on the whole record.,” Cavalera adds.
“If you’d have told me 20 years ago that my son was going to record with me, I probably wouldn’t have believed you, I probably would’ve thought you were full of shit”.
“If you’d have told me 20 years ago that my son was going to record with me, I probably wouldn’t have believed you, I probably would’ve thought you were full of shit”Known for collaborating with artists across his whole career, Cavalera was more than happy to finally get a chance to work with long time friend, Neil Fallon, from the band Clutch.
“He’s an old friend of mine from old Sepultura tours we did with Fear Factory and Clutch. We’ve been friends for all these years and we’d never worked together and I always wanted to do a song with Clutch. I love Clutch, I think they’re one of the great bands around,” Cavalera explains.
The track, ‘Ayatollah Of Rock N Rolla’ has been touted as a future single from Savages.
“I sent him the song and he (Fallon) did the vocals on his own and when I got the track back it just blew me away with how cool it sounded. The talking voice at the beginning and then the cool vocals in the middle – its really killer, its one of my favourite songs on the record. I think it shows a different side of Soulfly,” says Cavalera.
A prominent collaborator, Cavalera looks back…
“I don’t really have a favourite, they’re all great. We love working with lots of people. If I had to pick a one, probably Sean Lennon (son of John). That was completely off the wall, different to anything I’ve ever done, so that would definitely be a wild one that no one expected. It was crazy.
“Sean was super nice, we met on the way to Australia for the Big Day Out when Soulfly played in ’98, and Sean Lennon was on the plane, we met there and we ended up sharing the same bus and he was in the next dressing room and so we were seeing him on the whole tour.
“We ended up getting in contact with him (after the Festival) and when it was time to do Back To The Primitive, I invited him to do a song (‘Son Song’), which came up killer.”
Soulfly have just completed a touring schedule entitled ‘Maximum Cavalera’ with Incite and Lody Kong featuring Max’s other sons, Richie (Incite) and Igor (Lody Kong). So will the whole family make it down under anytime soon?
“Yeah we’d like to. We’d love to play Australia. It would be cool if we could bring ‘Maximum Cavalera’, which would be fucking awesome.”
If the family tour couldn’t eventuate, Cavalera didn’t pause in stating who he’d love to tour with if given an opportunity: “Napalm Death. I’m a big fan. I love their style. They’re brutal, fun guys and they’d be a sick band to go on tour with,” Cavalera beams.
Cavalera’s other band, Cavalera Conspiracy, formed with his brother Igor (also ex-Sepultura) usually follows on with an album of their own after a Soulfly release. With more of a thrashy punk vibe to their sound, it seems fans are in for a surprise on the next Conspiracy release.
“I’m going to do a Cavalera Conspiracy album next year, we’re planning on doing a grindcore album with Igor. We’re going to turn Cavalera into grindcore and make it super brutal and super fast and we’re going to just be extreme and change the sound of the band entirely. It will surprise a lot of fans but I think in a good way,” Cavalera reveals.
“We’re going to turn Cavalera [Conspiracy] into grindcore and make it super brutal and super fast…”Somehow amongst the Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy tours and album releases, Max has also found time for a currently unnamed side-project ‘super group’, teaming up with Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and Dave Elitch, former drummer for The Mars Volta.
“We’re in the studio at the moment continuing to record. What’s cool about this record is that we’ve got Soulfly vocals, Dillinger vocals, Mastodon vocals all in the record, and that’s going to be pretty insane,” Cavalera explains.
“We’re going to record the album and make everything but not (release) until next year. I really like it, very organic, very metal, I think people are going to like it.”
If that wasn’t enough to keep Cavalera busy, he’s also playing some upcoming shows as part of a concert called ‘Metal All Stars’, a charity event that assists the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Pantera) organisation, Ride For Dime Inc.
Cavalera will be joined by such metal luminaries as Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down), Joey Belladonna (Anthrax), Brian Fair (Shadows Fall), and Aaron Rossi (Ministry), with more to be named. Cavalera is excited to be part of the shows.
“I was approached by this company and they were really excited to make a super group to play live. I’m only doing five songs, I think a couple of Sepultura and a couple of Soulfly, and it will be fun playing with friends and musicians I like.
“It’s going to be fun to get down to South America and catch up with those guys and tear some shit up”.
It’s hard to believe that Max Cavalera is still in his early 40s, having recorded the thrash masterpiece, Beneath The Remains as a 20 year-old. With a bundle of albums in Cavalera’s ever-expanding discography, do any record of his records stand out for him personally?
“From Sepultura, Chaos A.D., was something different to everything that we’d done (to that point), a step forward for the band. We kind of slowed down a bit from the thrash of Arise and came back with a different groove and it was fun.
“Nailbomb was an amazing project with angry metal with an industrial vibe and out of Soulfly I still like the first album, Prophecy, Enslaved as it was more extreme and Savages of course,“ Cavalera emphatically states.
With a book also to come out by year’s end (My Bloody Roots), the Cavalera name will not be too far from any heavy metal conversations.
Prepare to enter the pit soon and, as Max likes to say, “Destroy this fucking place”!
Savages is released October 4 through Nuclear Blast.
