Project Featuring MAX CAVALERA, GREG PUCIATO, TROY SANDERS Inks Deal With NUCLEAR BLAST

The as-yet-unnamed project featuring Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, ex-SEPULTURA),THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN frontman Greg Puciato, Dave Elitch (ex-THE MARS VOLTA) and Troy Sanders (MASTODON) has inked a deal with Nuclear Blast for the release of its debut album, tentatively due in mid-2014. The CD is being recorded at Fortress Studio in Los Angeles, California with producer Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA).

A brand new audio interview with Cavalera — conducted by Greece's Metal Kaoz — in which he discusses the upcoming project, among other topics, can be streamed below.

Talking to U.K.'s Terrorizer magazine, Max said about the project with Puciato, Elitch and Sanders: "It's going to be cool. We just don't have a name yet. The name is a pain in the ass to find a name, but the music is great. We have been working on this for two years."

He continued: "Greg approached me kinda like how Alex [Newport; FUDGE TUNNEL] approached me to do NAILBOMB in that he was really, really trying to get me to do this project. I told him already I was pretty busy doing SOULFLY and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY [and] I was not really looking for an extra thing, but he was pretty insistent and then I just gave up and was, like, 'Let's fucking do this!'

"It started with just me and Greg and then we got Dave Elitch — he's an amazing drummer — and then Greg knew Troy and we asked him to be the bassist so it kind of became a supergroup all of a sudden. We jammed a couple of times and the last jam we did it sounded killer; the songs are really powerful real heavy. It's hard to describe but I think the coolest thing about this project is that all three of us are going to sing on every song."

Earlier this year, Puciato told Noisecreep about how the project started: "We were at a DEFTONES show in L.A. at the Palladium and we were talking backstage about old thrash metal, punk and hardcore and we found ourselves referencing many of the same things and we were like, 'Fuck, man, we should make a record together and do it as a one-off like NAILBOMB.' A month later, I talked to Max again and he said we should actually do that.

"No one in metal makes collaborative records like people in jazz and hip-hop do. It doesn't have to be like a band that you're launching from the ground that you go on tour with. There is something to be said for collaboration and throwing yourself out there and learning something new from working with different people. Dave was a buddy of mine already and he's a phenomenal drummer. He was the first person I thought of to play drums.

"We [DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN] spent a lot of time touring with MASTODON and Troy seemed like a really obvious fit. We had a really easy time writing. We can't release it right behind the DILLINGER record and we also have to figure out when the MASTODON record is coming out and the same for whatever Max is doing next. It's going to come out. It's just going to be a matter of logistics as to when."

Interview (audio):