IGOR CAVALERA JR. Talks How A Resurrected NAILBOMB Is Still 'Fighting The Good Fight' Amid Global Political Strife

By David E. Gehlke

NAILBOMB's 1995 "Proud To Commit Commercial Suicide" live album had its stated purpose: The band, in effect, was no more. The side project of then-SEPULTURA frontman Max Cavalera and FUDGE TUNNEL's Alex Newport, NAILBOMB arrived with a bang the year prior with its lone studio offering, "Point Blank", a confrontational, anything-goes amalgamation of thrash, death, industrial and punk, infiltrated with movie samples and the unforgettable album cover of a Vietnamese woman with a gun pointed at her head. The album's lyrics reflected a world still battling corruption and the manner in which one can cope. Thirty-two years after its release, "Point Blank" remains remarkably prescient. Just read the news.

With the blessing of Newport, in 2024 Max Cavalera brought NAILBOMB back to life. In Newport's place is Max's son, Igor Jr. (GO AHEAD AND DIE),who, along with several members of grindcore masters PIG DESTROYER and bassist Jackie Cruz (also of GO AHEAD AND DIE),has been making the rounds in Europe and is currently on a double bill across North America with SOULFLY. Aside from the predictable keyboard warrior chatter of this not being a legitimate version of NAILBOMB because of Newport's absence, the return of NAILBOMB has been as good as advertised. There is some symmetry at play here as well: Igor Jr. was "in utero" during the recording of "Proud To Commit Commercial Suicide" on July 3, 1995, at the Dynamo Open Air Festival, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, as his mother, Gloria, watched from the side of the stage. As BLABBERMOUTH.NET would quickly learn in this interview, Igor Jr. is a chip off the old block — he's every bit as friendly and easy to talk with as his old man.

Blabbermouth: What was your first exposure to NAILBOMB?

Igor: "It would have been when I was in utero. [Laughs] If you watch the Dynamo video from '95, my mom is eight months pregnant with me. I was technically there at that show. Otherwise, I grew up hearing it. I really got into it probably around the age of 13 or 14; that was when I got into the more extreme stuff, like industrial and grind and crust, stuff like that. Actually, even before that, I was into FUDGE TUNNEL. They've always been one of my favorite bands. Everything Alex does, I love, even bands he's recorded or the stuff he's done as a producer. I'm a huge Newport fan. I'm 31 now. That's over half of my life that I've been really into this music, and getting to play it is such an honor."

Blabbermouth: Have you developed a relationship with Alex?

Igor: "Yeah, just digitally. I never actually met him, other than when I was a baby. When we first started doing this, he and I were emailing back and forth. I was picking his brain about the album and what he was going through, his mindset, things like that. He actually made me a really detailed list of what each song was about, at least to him. I'm sure if you ask him and Max, you'll get two different answers. I forget the word, but it was almost like I was an actor. I had to fill a role; I wanted to get into his headspace and do the best job I could. I'm a huge fan. I would like to see NAILBOMB with Alex as much as anyone. He doesn't want to do it, and he gave that blessing first with my folks; then, when I got involved, we were talking, and he was like, 'Your vibe, everything on stage,' he dug it. For me, that was the biggest honor that I could ever get from someone. It's huge shoes to fill. I've never actually had that much of a spotlight on me. Most of my own bands are pretty DIY; I fund the stuff, and I write it myself. I play it myself. This was the first time I really had to fill in for someone like that. And it was awesome. It came with a lot of hate too. I never got so many rude messages as when I started doing NAILBOMB. [Laughs] To me, it's kind of funny. I laugh at a lot of that stuff. I have pretty self-deprecating humor to begin with, so to me, I was just like, 'I'm pissing these people off. This is awesome!'"

Blabbermouth: The band is using three guitarists onstage. That doesn't guarantee it will sound good, though, but it seems like you, your dad and Travis have worked it out.

Igor: "Travis also plays lead guitar for CAVALERA. And he's the bass player of PIG DESTROYER, and he's in a handful of DIY bands. I met him when we were 16; we were kids then. And our chemistry is really deep, and I think that's a big reason that it works: the communication, the playing style, the trust between all of us is just really tight. You're right, it's one of those things that might not work when you try it, but I do think the fact that we just have such a deep chemistry with each other really makes it work. And he's such a good guitar player. It gives my dad and me a lot of room to focus on the riffs and the vocals, because my dad and I are both rhythm guitar players. We're not really shredders. We're not Steve Vai-type dudes at all. [Laughs] We wanted to have someone who could do those solos — those solos on that album are really weird. Anyone familiar with it knows it's a lot of noise. It's a lot of overlapping delay-type stuff. That's not always easy to replicate, especially if it's three or four guitar tracks; on top of that, you need a good guy to do that, and Travis is really the perfect fit. We actually have two lineups because half the band is basically PIG DESTROYER right now. Adam Jarvis and even Alex, who does the samples, they're all three in PIG DESTROYER. So sometimes schedules conflict. For that other lineup, we use Chris Moore, who is in MAGRUDERGRIND, REPULSION and COKE BUST. He's a phenomenal drummer; the perfect dude to fill it out. And on lead guitar for that lineup, we use my buddy Demir Soyer, who plays with a band called GOETIA. They're also out of D.C. Almost the whole band is from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I've known those dudes a long time. A lot of us met as teenagers. I love the scene and music coming out of there."

Blabbermouth: Are there any songs that you are particularly fond of from "Point Blank"? I always loved "Wasting Away", "Guerrillas" and "World Of Shit".

Igor: "I love 'Guerrillas'. From the Dynamo show, that crowd's huge in that video. I think it was something like 90,000 people there. There's something about 'Guerrillas', like that first riff. With the count- one, two, three, four in, my dad is like, 'Jump! Jump! Jump!' And the crowd erupts. I noticed that song still does that for a lot of people; it's towards the front of the set. It's one of those powerful ones that just kicks off, but I love the hits too, like 'Cockroaches' and 'Wasting Away'. Even with 'Cockroaches', like when that drum intro comes in. We're using all the samples that are direct from the record. That was the biggest thing for me. I was like, 'If we're going to play it, I want it to be those cues, those intros.' They need to be exact because that's what everybody's been listening to for 32 years now. It's hard to pick a favorite. Even the covers we do are great, like 'Exploitation' from DOOM."

Blabbermouth: Are you still doing "Police Truck" by DEAD KENNEDYS?

Igor: "Yeah. When those hit, it's just amazing. The energy is awesome. And particularly, that Bloodstock show [from 2025] was really, really sick. They have the whole videos online, and that's actually what I practice to, the live one. At this point, I know the album front to back, so I practice with the live set now, and it just gets me fired up every time I watch it. They did 'Police Truck' at the Dynamo show and had D.H. Peligro on drums then too, who is the OG drummer of the DEAD KENNEDYS. We were doing it as a headline show, and we realized that the whole album's only 45 minutes. So for some people that's short; for me, I don't mind as much. A great band, you could see them for half an hour, and it's awesome. But I do understand, for the crowd, for the people paying to be there, we tried to make it over an hour. We fleshed it out with some of those covers, and we added some extra intros and little things like that. 'Police Truck' fits perfectly with the vibe and the political stance of the album."

Blabbermouth: Your dad and Alex wrote "Point Blank" over three decades ago. It's clear that some of its themes are still very much relevant, if not more so today. Are you finding they are resonating with people?

Igor: "Yeah, absolutely. I think those problems are the same 30 years later. They've actually just become more amplified. I think because of social media, just access to the internet, connection with the rest of the world, particularly these places we're at war with, you can be in contact with people in these areas and get a firsthand experience. I do think it makes it more relevant and has shed light on issues that have been going on since then and before. Most of the album is anti-racist and anti-sexist, and these problems have been around basically forever. I think a lot more people have an interest in it as well, as opposed to back then. I think, back then, people were into it, but some of them were like, 'These are sick riffs, and it's a good album.' Now, with a song like 'World Of Shit', it's more relevant than it's ever been. It's a worldwide thing now. We've played this album on different continents now, all over the States, all over Europe. We went to Australia earlier this year, and you really realize that it resonates with people everywhere, and everybody's just sick of what's going on, you know? It's awesome to get to play that and spread a positive message, even though it comes off maybe in a negative way, or at least as a negative representation of everything. I think the end result is a positive thing, and it uplifts people, and it kind of reminds them just to keep fighting the good fight."

Blabbermouth: Do you think the fact people never had a chance to see NAILBOMB live is also at play here?

Igor: "Yeah, and a big part of it, too, is that for the younger generation, people my age and even younger, some of these shows we've been at have 15-year-olds and young kids, like, with their parents, getting to experience it. And that's the way I look at it. Would you rather see NAILBOMB at all or not at all? If we weren't doing this, it would never happen. As I said, Alex just isn't interested. He doesn't really like playing heavy music anymore. And that's been my whole argument. You should just be happy to see it and experience it because it was such a one-time thing, like lightning in a bottle. So yeah, getting to bring it back for a younger generation and even for people who heard the album when it came out and never got to see it, you can tell it's impactful, and people love it. I'm just happy to be a part of it."

Blabbermouth: By the way, your dad looks and sounds great these days. He's often said he has no plans on stopping. Is that more motivation for you to see him still out there playing at such a high level?

Igor: "Absolutely. There's definitely a stigma about heavy music, metal and punk, that it's a young person's game, but I think if you take care of yourself and you care about the music, protect your voice if you're a vocalist and take care of your health if you're a drummer. Getting to see my dad do this; he just turned 57. It gives me a lot of hope that I'll still be doing this when I'm that age. It really shows you don't have to slow down if your body feels capable. You need to take care of your voice, your hands, your arms and everything you need to do it. There's a lot of longevity to this. He really doesn't stop. We just did seven weeks of CAVALERA in Europe. He came home for four days and flew back to Europe, and he's doing seven weeks with SOULFLY right now. All summer, he's on a 13-week tour. It must be 60, 65 shows or something like that. He doesn't slow down, and even the shows we're doing coming up with NAILBOMB, he's doing double duty. So realistically, if you're counting both those shows every day, he's doing like 110 shows in four or five months, and it's just inspiring. He really is a huge inspiration for me. He's one of my best friends. I mean, he's my dad, of course. He's the parental figure when he needs to be, and so is my mom [Gloria]. She's our manager. She is the 'general,' as we call her. Getting to see them coast into their golden years, still rocking and just going hard, is such an inspiration, and it keeps me going, because it's not easy being on the road. Playing music is probably the easy part. Being on the road is the hard part."

Blabbermouth: You grew up around the touring lifestyle. How much has that helped ease your transition?

Igor: "As a kid, it was just fun. I wanted any excuse to not be at home. [Laughs] I liked being on the road. I really liked being around the music. I found so many of my favorite bands on the road, jamming tunes with my dad and the crew, picking up little bits of knowledge wherever I could. I've never been against education, but I realized I was learning more on the road than in school. Public schools in America are shit. Let's just be honest. I didn't go to a private school. I didn't go to an art school or anything like that. I just went to a regular public school. I realized I learned more about the world from being on that bus than I ever did in a classroom. And so that's how it was for me as a kid. I really wanted to go. I liked being around my family, and I liked seeing the world. As I got older, I had more responsibility. Being one of the people on stage, obviously, you need to know the songs front to back. You need to practice. Like, even right now, I have literally no social life because I'm practicing NAILBOMB. I'm practicing the [SEPULTURA] 'Roots' album, which we're doing a couple of shows with for CAVALERA. I'm practicing with my band HEALING MAGIC, which is my personal little sludge post-metal kind of thing. So I practice every day. I play bass and guitar. I sit right here at this desk and just jam for hours every day. Sometimes I wish I'd hang out with people a little more. Sometimes I wish I'd see my friends a little more, but the payoff of having no social life is being really tight on stage and handling that responsibility professionally. It's very important to me. If I go on stage and I'm playing like crap, it's going to piss me off."

Blabbermouth: When you're on the road, you're around people all of the time. That's probably given you a level of street-smarts that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Igor: "Yeah, it teaches you social skills you can't learn any other way. And yeah, dealing with strangers, overcoming even a level of social anxiety about talking to people, even doing stuff like this is very hard at first, but I've learned how to do it. What I really realized is that I like talking to people, and I like picking people's brains from all over the world. And I approach anybody as friendly until they give me a reason not to. And I'd say 99 percent of people are nice, and we have stuff in common. And regardless of where I am in the world, I've realized that people in general have more in common than not. We all like music, food and drinks. Good weather. It's a human condition we all share, and you really only realize that by talking to people. There's only one way to learn it, and that's by getting out there and doing it."

Photo credit: Andy Sandoval (courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records)