MAX CAVALERA Names His Top Three Thrash Metal Albums Of All Time

As part of Jonathan Montenegro's "My 3 Questions To" series, former SEPULTURA and current SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera was asked to name his top three thrash metal albums of all time. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I went a little bit old school. The first one is from Canada, SACRIFICE 'Forward To Termination'. Amazing record. I played it so much when I was a teenager in Brazil. Also NUCLEAR ASSAULT 'Survive'. Danny Lilker, the man. Yes! Danny on the bass. NUCLEAR ASSAULT was amazing. They played with us in Brazil. It was great. The singer, John Connelly, had to borrow my guitar, and he played, and it was full of blood. And he gave it back to me. And the whole guitar was full of blood. But I loved the show. And it was cool to have his blood on my guitar. And the last one is DARK ANGEL with 'Darkness Descends'. It's the perfect death/thrash record, but it's more on the thrash side of things. Very, very amazing drums from Gene Hoglan. And I love DARK ANGEL; I love the power and the brutality of the riffs."

Max added: "Those are three inspirational thrash records that helped shape all my stuff I did from that era."

Back in 2014, Cavalera told Tone Deaf that SLAYER's "Reign In Blood" is an album that he "must have on a tour… Yeah, I gotta have 'Reign In Blood', man," he said. "It's still, to this day, a beautiful, great piece of work. It's quick, you know? Under 30 minutes. But the way those songs are put together with the punk influence, the hardcore influence on top of thrash, it was brilliant. I really love that."

SEPULTURA was founded in 1983 by the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera with Wagner Lamounier and Jairo Guedes Braga (known professionally as Jairo Guedz). Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. joined just a few short months later and in 1987, with the departure of Jairo and addition of guitarist Andreas Kisser, the solid lineup of SEPULTURA was final. The band quickly became an influential force in heavy metal music thanks to its dynamic studio recordings and intense live performances.

Although SEPULTURA has maintained a diehard fanbase in all parts of the world throughout the band's four-decade history, "Roots" and "Chaos A.D." were by far SEPULTURA's most commercially successful, having both been certified gold in the U.S. for sales in excess of five hundred thousand copies.