SEPULTURA's DERRICK GREEN Says ELOY CASAGRANDE Is 'Definitely One Of The Best Drummers Out There'

Cutter of Envision Radio Networks' "Hangar 19" podcast recently conducted an interview with vocalist Derrick Green of Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Asked about the latest addition to SEPULTURA's lineup, drummer Eloy Casagrande, Derrick said: "He's been playing for many years. He started when he was seven years old. He joined us when, I believe, he was 19 or 20. He's from Sao Paulo. Yeah, he's a kid. That's his nickname — 'The Kid'. [Laughs] He's incredible. I mean, it's something you really have to witness live. I think we've been really fortunate to have him in SEPULTURA. I think it's brought a big amount of energy to the writing process, to the live shows, and I think it's [taken] us [to] a whole different phase of SEPULTURA. So I think it's definitely a must-see. It's incredible watching him play and having other people comment on seeing him play as well, like people who have had a big impact on our music; when we were fortunate enough to play with them, they've picked up on this and admired his playing as well. I think he's incredible. He's definitely one of the best drummers out there."

SEPULTURA played its first show with Casagrande on November 25, 2011 in Lichtenfels, Germany.

Casagrande joined SEPULTURA as the replacement for Jean Dolabella, who left the band because he could no longer handle being away from home for long periods of time.

Eloy is a 23-year-old drum prodigy from São Paulo, Brazil who won the Modern Drummer "Undiscovered Drummer" contest as a teenager in 2006.

Asked what Casagrande has added to the band, Green told Metal Hammer, "Definitely the fact that he's young and that energy helps a lot. He's a very disciplined drummer — he's been playing since he was seven. And he's been doing a lot of things by himself and playing with different people, and that's really, really impressive. He had a lot of things put together before we even met him; he's already done so much. And I think with us, a combination us together, it's a great learning process for him to grow and at the same time, we're learning a lot from him, so we can do this together. And this is something extremely important when you're doing a band that's been together for so long, to have this connection. And we felt this connection with him immediately. And we could tell that he was very focused and very committed to doing extremely good music."

Dolabella left SEPULTURA after a five-year run of relentless touring and two studio albums. He joined SEPULTURA in 2006 following the departure of the band's original drummer, Igor Cavalera.

Interview (audio):