Former SEPULTURA Drummer Discusses MIXHELL Project

Former SEPULTURA and current CAVALERA CONSPIRACY drummer Igor "Iggor" Cavalera and his wife, Laima Leyton, recently spoke to AOL's Noisecreep about their DJ/hip hop/electro project MIXHELL.

When asked if SEPULTURA and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY fans will like MIXHELL, Igor — who plays live drums in MIXHELL while Laima is the DJ — replied, "I don't know. I really enjoy it, because for me it's still very, very extreme. My drumming is very energetic. It just has different grooves to it than what I do with CAVALERA."

"It's a bit heavy, but it has a lot of flavors in it, and it's not 100 percent that he's always on the drum set," added Laima. "He comes and goes from the sampler to the drum set. So whenever he's on the drums, it generates a lot of energy. Really strong. It's like a momentum of the show so it's really nice. Sometimes, he's just straight beats and disco beats and sometimes he does like tribal beats."

Having just wrapped up a North American tour, MIXHELL is working on a release for the spring.

"We're still deciding if we're going to have the full-length album or an EP with some remixes, but for sure something is going to come out," said Laima. "We're going to be going into the studio with BURAKA SOM SISTEMA. We just finished a track with SOULWAX and CROOKERS, and we're going to do one with CROOKERS and SOULWAX for the album as well. So a lot of collaborations coming up."

When asked in a May 2009 interview how his metal background has affected his work with MIXHELL, Igor replied, "For me, even when I was playing metal, I always tried new things, I was never stuck to one [thing]. It was always, like, very open-minded. Anybody who followed the SEPULTURA years knows that we tried new things; it was not about being stuck in time; it was about moving up, always. So, for me, MIXHELL is a continuation of my career."

Igor Cavalera left SEPULTURA in June 2006 due to "artistic differences." He has since been replaced by Jean Dolabella (ex-UDORA). Igor's departure from SEPULTURA came five months after he announced that he was taking a break from the group's touring activities to spend time with his second wife and their new son (who was born in January 2006). Filling in on drums during the band's spring 2006 European tour with IN FLAMES was Roy Mayorga, who played with Igor's brother Max in SOULFLY for several years in the late '90s and again in 2001-2003.

Igor is the second Cavalera to leave SEPULTURA. In 1996, Max Cavalera exited the group after the rest of the band fired Max's wife Gloria as SEPULTURA's manager.

Igor and Max are currently collaborating on a new project called CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. The group's debut album, "Inflikted", was released in March 2008 via Roadrunner Records.