IGOR CAVALERA Is 'Very Proud' That SEPULTURA's Early Albums Are 'Still Relevant To A Lot Of People'

Former SEPULTURA members Max Cavalera and Igor "Iggor" Cavalera will perform select tracks from the band's seminal "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" albums on a U.S. tour this spring/summer. Joining Max and Igor on the trek will be Mike Leon of SOULFLY and Daniel Gonzalez of POSSESSED. In a new interview with Ghost Cult magazine, Igor stated about how he plans to prepare for the tour: "Of course, it is quite a physical tour. The drumming on it is quite extreme from those two records, so I do have to do a lot of practicing. Luckily, I have a studio here [home] in London that I can come in and do some drumming and try some stuff. And of course we will be doing a bit of rehearsals for this with the whole band before the tour starts, but it's always good to be prepared for something like that. Of course those are songs that somehow they are ingrained in my brain already, but I do need to… because I'm involved also with so many projects, sometimes I do need to do a bit of focusing so I can get all the parts right so my hard drive doesn't explode."

Asked if he has to re-learn how to play some of those songs which were originally written and recorded more than 30 years ago, Igor said: "I do have some notes that I write down, and I've been this for many years. I don't really read music professionally, but I do have some notes that I know where to follow certain things. And those are certain eras where a few songs are very similar to each other — they are variations of the same song, in a way — so not to get confused with certain parts, especially with tempo changes and things like that, I try to keep a bit of a notepad [so] I can look at and I know exactly where I am with a track. 'Cause otherwise, of course, we all go into some kind of a brainfart where you're, like, 'Oh, shit. What's next?' So I try to keep those notes somehow close to me, even when I'm playing live. I have the setlist, but I also have a few things that I write down that help me situate myself in that case."

Reflecting on the fact that "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" are both more than three decades old, Igor said: "I'm very proud that those records are still relevant to a lot of people, including myself. I really enjoy those records, and to play them live is such a pleasure because I really enjoy playing music with my brother; I really enjoy the connection that we have, the chemistry that we have when we play live. And to have a chance to do this, for me, it's very special, and I really appreciate that. I know there's a lot of brothers out there who are not even here, like the Abbott brothers from PANTERA, or even someone like Eddie Van Halen is gone — now it's only Alex — so the fact that I have my brother to still do things [with], I feel very fortunate that I can still go out and play with him."

Max and Igor kicked off a tour celebrating "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" back in 2018. In early 2020, Max revealed plans to bring the trek to the U.S., but no dates had been announced prior to the pandemic.

In a 2018 interview with Wall Of Sound, Max stated about revisiting the "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" material on the most recent run of shows: "I had to learn those riffs again for the tour, and I had to rediscover the albums again. It was a really fun process, learning the lyrics again. I kind of fell in love with the albums again. I don't have a favorite — I like both together, and I think they're meant to be together. For some reason, they just feel right when you play them together. I was very young when I made them, so it made me very aware of my state of mind at the time. I feel like I'm pretty much the same guy. I'm [52] now, but I'm still a metalhead in the heart. I still have the teenage spirit. I'm a huge metal fan, [a] huge supporter of metal. That's just how it was when those albums were done. It's a blessing that I get to do that with my brother, especially after all we went through together and we didn't speak for 10 years. Now, it's good — we are in a good place, and our brotherhood is really good, and we're just having fun with this music... There's an energy and a real anger and real passion in those songs that translates into people losing their minds when they hear it. I don't even have to tell them, 'Circle pit' — they will do it themselves. It's just the power of music."

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 son (who was born in January 2006).

The current SEPULTURA lineup — featuring guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. alongside Derrick Green on vocals and Eloy Casagrande on drums — released its latest studio album, "Quadra", in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast.

Max and Igor photo credit: Jim Louvau