ANDREAS KISSER Says Current SEPULTURA Lineup Is 'Fantastic': 'We Feel So Great On Stage'

In a new interview with Willy Radio conducted at last month's Alcatraz festival in Kortrijk, Belgium, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser was asked about the setlist for the band's upcoming 40th-anniversary tour, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, man, for next year, that will be a big problem. [Laughs] But we like to to try to do a place on the setlist that we change songs. We like to play the side Bs and side Cs and side Ds [laughs] — you know, songs that we never played before…. Sometimes it's a fan or a friend who suggests something, and we go there and play it. I mean, we have no problem of really dealing with our own catalog. It's great when we have a challenge to play something that we don't play for so long. And the idea is to do a live album for next year, to celebrate 40 years of SEPULTURA."

He continued: "This [current] lineup [of SEPULTURA], it's fantastic. We feel so great on stage, jamming, playing songs from every part of our history, especially the 'Quadra' songs, which is amazing to play live. So we wanna put that on the live album. And that's what we're gonna work for next year."

Kisser previously discussed SEPULTURA's upcoming live LP last month in an interview with Oran O'Beirne of Bloodstock TV. "Next year we're gonna celebrate 40 years of a career, so the idea is to put out a live album," he explained. "We're actually recording everything right now; we're recording every show. It's great that nowadays, because of technology, we have this possibility, so we don't have really to be attached or limited to one or two gigs to record a live set. So the idea is really to collect recordings from all over the world and prepare a really nice celebration release of our history, of our music. So, new songs or a new album, I don't even see happening in the [near future]."

Elaborating on how SEPULTURA is going about putting together the material for the upcoming live album, Andreas said: "I'm trying to be as much organized as I can. We have this Dropbox file with all the music. I have an Excel file with all the dates and all the songs. When you have the songs fresh in your mind, you make some notes — 'Oh, broken string here,' 'Shitty sound there,' or whatever. So at least we have a kind of a map where to start.

"It's exciting," he continued. "I mean, SEPULTURA doesn't have a proper live album per se. We have DVDs, we have the Barcelona stuff [1992's 'Under Siege (Live In Barcelona)'], which is very old. But I think it's a tradition of — when I grew up, my favorite albums were all live albums: 'No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith' [from MOTÖRHEAD], 'Alive I' and 'II' from KISS, THIN LIZZY — you name it. Many great albums. 'Made In Japan' [from DEEP PURPLE]."

When O'Beirne noted that not many bands release live albums nowadays, Kisser said: "You know why? Because the thing of the image of the YouTube, whatever, it kind of killed that. We are all from Brazil. We didn't see any of the shows [back in the 1980s], and to have a live album and to dream about to be there, to listen to the people screaming, it created this atmosphere for us. That's what we wanna try to do. Vinyl is back, [so we wanna] do a really nice package with a lot of photos and really show where we. I mean, we go everywhere in the world. We visited 80 countries so far [in] almost 40 years of a career. And now at the end of September, we go to Singapore for the first time. Still a first after so long. So it's exciting. It's great."

SEPULTURA's previous live albums include 2002's "Under A Pale Grey Sky", 2005's "Live In São Paulo" and 2014's "Metal Veins - Alive In Rock In Rio".

SEPULTURA comprises Kisser, vocalist Derrick Green, bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. and drummer Eloy Casagrande.

SEPULTURA was formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais. Guitarist Jairo Guedz joined the group the following year and played on the band's first two releases, 1985's "Bestial Devastation" EP and their 1986 full-length debut, "Morbid Visions". He also participated in the early songwriting sessions for 1987's "Schizophrenia".

In early 1987, Jairo quit SEPULTURA and was replaced by São Paulo-based guitarist Kisser.

In 1996, Max exited SEPULTURA after the rest of the band split with Max's wife Gloria as their manager.

Igor left SEPULTURA in June 2006 due to "artistic differences." His departure from the band came five months after he announced that he was taking a break from SEPULTURA's touring activities to spend time with his second wife and their new son (who was born in January 2006).