ANDREAS KISSER On His Post-SEPULTURA Plans: 'I'm Not Gonna Stop, Of Course, Doing Music'

In a new interview with France's Metal OBS, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser was asked about his plans for after the completion of the band's ongoing farewell tour. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm not gonna stop, of course, doing music. I have so many ideas, but I didn't decide yet where to go. I still wanna enjoy the moment, enjoy the tour, enjoy the very last run that we have this year. But I have many possibilities. Maybe [I will] do another album myself or try something different. I wanna explore different worlds. I'm going more to the art world, like painting and mixing music with colors and stuff. And it's interesting, to try to go to different places. I don't wanna find another world that is the same as SEPULTURA. I already did [all that] during SEPULTURA. So I'd like to absorb more ideas and to be aware of new possibilities and see what happens. But now I'm very focused of what we doing today and the [last few months of the] tour."

Kisser also talked about SEPULTURA's recent announcement that it would release a new EP, "The Cloud Of Unknowing", on April 24 via Nuclear Blast Records. Regarding why he and his bandmates chose to release new music while preparing to put the group to rest, he explained:  "When we announced the farewell tour two years ago, almost three years ago, we announced that it's gonna be open. But I mean, we know we are dying; SEPULTURA is stopping. So we're gonna leave it open to fulfill our last wishes. For instance, we had the chance to play Lollapalooza in Brazil for the first time… We went to Iceland for the first time. So we need time to go to places and to fulfill all the possibilities. So every album that SEPULTURA puts out, we take three years touring the world. If you see the history, that's our rhythm. Because we go everywhere. We've been to more than 80 countries and we go far and it takes time. So, why rush? Why run? I mean, there's no reason that we [have to] announce [the final tour] and in a year we have to stop just because people think the farewell has to stop in a certain time. And we leave it open, because we live the moment, we live the present. And it turned out the possibility to record an album."

Kisser continued: "We did the 70000 Tons Of Metal last year, which is a cruise, from Miami to Jamaica and then Jamaica to Miami, and then we make the best of the situation. We went to the Criteria Studios in Miami to record four songs. I had a few ideas. I always have demos and ideas floating around. And [SEPULTURA drummer] Greyson [Nekrutman] came into the band two years ago, and he brought a new perspective, a new energy, new frequencies to the band that it was great. The atmosphere was perfect for us to work. We went into the studio. We didn't have a release date. We didn't have a name for the album. We didn't have even names for the songs. I mean, the song 'Sacred Books', the number three song, we wrote in the studio, jamming, together, me and Greyson and stuff, and we did it in the studio. So it's very spontaneous. It's an album that it doesn't have any attachment to any strategy or marketing or whatever you wanna call. It just happened. And it's great, in this third year of our farewell tour, to have a new element, to have new songs. We have four new songs, which we will play live on this upcoming tour and stuff."

As for why SEPULTURA didn't make a full-length album and opted to record an EP instead, Andreas said: "The pressure of doing an album is totally different. It's totally different. It's another story. We have an EP. The format really fits wherever we felt at the time. Why we have to do an album? There's no law that [says we have] to do something like that. So we made the best of what we had in our hands. The elements of the present. We [were] in Miami. We [had] a few ideas. We went to the studio for 10 days, and we did it. And then a year later now, everything's ready to release. We put out the first single, and April is coming out the whole, full EP. So it's great. I mean, it's, it's something that was really spontaneous. It's kind of crazy. Of course you have some planning, you have some ideas, but you have to let room to improvise as well."

SEPULTURA has already released two singles from "The Cloud Of Unknowing": "The Place" and "Beyond The Dream". SEPULTURA collaborated on the latter with Sérgio Britto and Tony Bellotto of TITÃS.

SEPULTURA kicked off its farewell tour on March 1, 2024 at Arena Hall in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The sold-out show marked the band's debut performance with Nekrutman, who previously played with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.

SEPULTURA announced previous drummer Eloy Casagrande's departure on February 27, 2024, explaining in a statement that he was leaving to join "another project", with Eloy later confirming that he was the new drummer of SLIPKNOT.

The news of Eloy's exit from SEPULTURA came just two months after the band announced it would celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2024 by embarking on a "farewell tour" which would cover the entire globe.

In SEPULTURA's statement, the remaining bandmembers expressed their shock over Casagrande's departure, saying they were "taken by surprise" that their now-former drummer would "abandon everything related to SEPULTURA" less than a month prior to the start of the tour.

SEPULTURA is putting together a live album commemorating its last run of shows. The band is recording 40 songs in 40 different cities for what will be a "massive compilation of our best, most energetic moments on stage," according to a statement released by SEPULTURA in December 2023.

The final North American leg of SEPULTURA's "Celebrating Life Through Death" tour will feature support from thrash legends EXODUS, hardcore heavyweights BIOHAZARD, and newcomers TRIBAL GAZE. The trek will kick off on April 29 in Montclair, New Jersey and will visit major cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles, before concluding on May 29 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. Along the way, SEPULTURA will also perform at major festivals, including Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple.