SEPULTURA's ANDREAS KISSER On Where He Stands With MAX And IGOR CAVALERA Today: 'There's No Relationship At All'

In a new interview with Mark Kadzielawa of 69 Faces Of Rock, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser was once again asked about the possibility of reuniting with original frontman Max Cavalera and drummer Igor "Iggor" Cavalera for a final show to cap off the band's ongoing farewell tour. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I hope [we can make it happen]. Yeah, it'd be great. We're working on it. And I think we have the plan to go till 2026. We'd like to go everywhere, really to explore all the stuff that we can on this last goodbye. And hopefully at the very last show, which will be in Brazil, we have the participation on all the ex-members, including the brothers, of course. That'd be great for the fans and for everyone involved. And hopefully we could celebrate together this amazing history."

Asked what his relationship with Max and Igor is like at this point, Andreas said: "There's no relationship at all. We have just a communication between our managers and stuff, and that's it. Very respectful. But no friendship or no communication."

When Kadzielawa noted that it would be "nice" for SEPULTURA to reclaim the "great friendships" between all the current and former bandmembers by the time the final SEPULTURA concert rolls around, Andreas said: "Well, I don't know if that's possible, but all I can tell is what SEPULTURA is today is that: friendship. We love each other, band and crew. And this is the SEPULTURA way of being. This is the SEPULTURA spirit. No fucking separate buses and separate dressing rooms, and I don't talk to this guy, I don't talk to that guy — you know, that bullshit. We very much love each other. We have dinners together. We do stuff together. We jam together. We are on tour together. It's great. The vibes are amazing, and that's the way it's supposed to be in a celebration. So [I'm] very happy with everything that's going on the way it is."

Pressed to name his "favorite phase" or "favorite thing" he has done as a member of SEPULTURA, Andreas said: "Today. Yeah, that's the only time that I deal with my past and my memories. I have so many great memories. I mean, I had my dreams when I was teenager, but the reality of SEPULTURA was much further and much better than that I could ever dream, could possibly imagine all the stuff that happened in our history. It's fantastic. And the feeling is today. It's now. That's the present. That's the most important thing of all. That's where life happens. And today is the best of all. You look back and you see this 40 years of history — so much amazing things that happened, all the people that I met and my family that I built around the music and traveling, all the friends that we made. That's today. I mean, that's why we're celebrating today. We can go back and really pinpoint some special moments, but everything resumes to today."

The classic SEPULTURA lineup fell apart in 1996 with the exit of Max after the rest of the Brazilian four-piece split with the vocalist/guitarist's wife Gloria as their manager. Max's brother Igor stuck around with the group for another ten years before leaving SEPULTURA and re-teaming with Max in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.

Kisser previously addressed the possibility of the Cavalera brothers performing with SEPULTURA at the band's final show this past June in an interview with U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine. He said at the time: "I won't deny that it would be great to have a very last show with their participation, but it has to be great. It has to have people who are there to celebrate and not trying to discuss who was right or wrong on decisions from the past. In the end, we are celebrating now as the SEPULTURA of today. If they want to be a part of it, it would be amazing."

Kisser's comments came less than two weeks after Max was asked by Sakis Fragos, publisher/chief editor of Rock Hard Greece, if he has been approached by SEPULTURA's current lineup to take part in what will eventually be the band's final concert at the end of the farewell tour. He responded: "I have not [been approached]. In fact, I think I saw one thing Andreas, of course said [in an interview], like, 'Why are we gonna ask them [Max and Igor to take part]? They're gonna spoil the party,' which is very typical [laughs] of Andreas to say that.

"I don't know. I think I'm gonna let things happen the way they're gonna happen," he continued. "I'm not gonna force anything, and if there comes a time where we feel that we should make a reunion — okay, fine, as long as we do it the right way. Just like with these re-recordings [of early SEPULTURA albums that Igor and I are doing under the CAVALERA name]. I think we made them the right way — honest, proper, from the heart.

"So right now I'm not thinking about that [a reunion]," Max added. "I know they announced the end of the band. I don't understand this idea. I don't know if they were forced to do it, or if it's a mutual decision of just stop playing 'cause you don't wanna do it anymore. I don't know. I myself cannot live without music. I need to play live. It's like the air I breathe.

"I love what I'm doing right now with Igor, with CAVALERA, and we're gonna continue," he concluded.

Max previously discussed the possibility of a classic SEPULTURA lineup reunion in a February 2023 interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of Rock Interview Series. He said: "I'm very, very busy right now with all the projects, 'cause I've got so many — SOULFLY being my main band, but also GO AHEAD AND DIE with my son Igor, and KILLER BE KILLED. And I'm already playing a lot of the old stuff with my brother; that, to me, right there, it fills the void anyway.

"So, yeah, I don't think about that at all," Max said in regard to a SEPULTURA reunion. "At this moment, I don't need to do anything like that. I think at this moment I'm so busy with the stuff that I have in front of me, and the fans love all the stuff that I've been doing anyway. There's no point, really. 'Cause I haven't even thought of that idea in a long time. But I think that my main thing right now is SOULFLY… And I love the fact that SOULFLY just keeps getting stronger and stronger with every record. And I look forward to the time to write the next one. It'll be another challenge and another chance to make something good again."

In the summer of 2022, Igor told the "Mike Nelson Show" about the possibility of him and Max returning to SEPULTURA: "I have to be honest with you, man. The reunion, in my opinion, it's me and my brother — that's the person that I wanna be united with. So, for me, if the other stuff, it doesn't happen, I can't really be too bummed about it. Of course, it would be amazing, but the real reunion for me is just me and my brother being together. That's what makes me happy."

Although SEPULTURA has maintained a diehard fanbase in all parts of the world throughout the band's nearly four-decade history, Max-era albums "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.

Max was asked in a December 2021 interview with "General Population With Marco Lesher" what he thinks of his replacement in SEPULTURA, vocalist Derrick Green. "It doesn't bother me," he insisted. "It is what it is. At the end of the day, the fans know what the band was and what it is now, the difference [between the two]. And I really don't care. I'm not bitter. They do what they do; I do what I do. It's been like that for a long time now. But you can't touch the classics; those records that we did [in the 1980s and 1990s]. It still goes, but it is what it is.

"If you wanna really hear something that sounds close to what it was, you have to come see me and Igor play," he added. "That's the only thing that is gonna be close to what it was, to that time."

Igor and Max have spent much of the past decade celebrating the 20th anniversary of SEPULTURA's "Roots" and 30th anniversary of "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" albums on tour all over the world.

In 2020, SEPULTURA bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. said that he has had "zero" contact with Max, adding that a reunion with the band's original frontman would have to happen "naturally."

Back in 2017, Igor told The Salt Lake Tribune that he and Max "believe SEPULTURA doesn't really make sense nowadays, to do what they're doing." The drummer also downplayed the possibility of a reunion of SEPULTURA's classic lineup, saying: "Unless it's something really solid — and we haven't seen that from their part — of doing something totally professional and coming together, trying to do something like that. At the end of the day, it would be special for the fans, so it's not like a closed door, but at the same time, we have no time to spend energy with this kind of thing. So we just move forward."

Max echoed his brother's sentiments, telling The Salt Lake Tribune that he doesn't even think about his former bandmates much. "For a time — for a long time — there was a war in the press, like, 'He'll talk this, I'll talk that,'" he explained. "I got really tired of it, honestly. I'm not gonna do that anymore. So let them go their way and do their thing, and we're gonna do our thing, and I think that's the best for everybody."

While stopping short of completely ruling out a reunion of SEPULTURA's classic lineup, Max said: "Right now, we don't even need it. It's been so much of that kind of bad vibes through the years that I don't even know how that would even really work out. I think what [Igor and I] are doing is the closest thing to that, and it works great, it works like a charm. It's amazing."

In December 2023, SEPULTURA announced that it would celebrate its 40th anniversary this year by embarking on a "farewell tour" which will cover the entire globe.

SEPULTURA's current lineup comprises Kisser, Green, Pinto Jr. and touring drummer Greyson Nekrutman, who officially replaced SEPULTURA's longtime drummer Eloy Casagrande in February.

This past January, Max was asked by Scott Itter of Dr. Music if he has heard any of the SEPULTURA albums that were recorded following his departure from the group. He responded: "I haven't. It's like… People say if you break up with your wife and she marries somebody else, you don't really go on Facebook and go see what they're doing. [You keep your] distance. I feel kind of like that. So I have no interest. I've got a lot of stuff to keep me busy. It's a fair question, and I'm sure a lot of people wonder about that, but, yeah, I haven't [heard anything]."

Max previously addressed the question of whether he has heard any of the music SEPULTURA recorded after his exit from the group nearly three decades ago in a 2015 interview with Sticks For Stones. At the time, he said: "Fuck no! I don't give a shit about SEPULTURA or what they're doing. I just heard from fans that people don't like their albums, and they're shitty, and the band's just going down and down, and, I don't know… I really can't care, can't care less what they're doing. It don't concern me at all. I've got my things going, and, for me, it's just so sad to see a band that was so important and special in the '90s turn to shit like that so fast. But whatever, that's what they're doing. But I've got my things, I've got my things to do, and I'm proud of what I did with them. We did great records and we did cool stuff, and that's there forever, and I'll leave it at that."