SOULFLY's MAX CAVALERA: I Miss SEPULTURA's Rhythm-And-Lead-Guitar Chemistry

SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera recently spoke to MetalUK.com about the group's upcoming CD, "Prophecy", and the recent personnel shuffles that have plagued the band, including the guest appearance on the album of former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. Asked what he feels the influx of fresh new people has brought to the record, Max said, "It brought more fire to the whole album. It's one thing playing with people you know, you know exactly what you're going to get, and [another] playing with somebody that comes fresh and new, full of new ideas. [A] perfect example would be [former ILL NINO guitarist] Marc Rizzo, [who] has made the guitars on this album…the first time I've had guitars like this since SEPULTURA days, and I think that was a missing link in my music for a long time. Many people, including myself, always missed that killer rhythm and lead type chemistry I had in SEPULTURA, and I could never get it right in SOULFLY, and it was always a struggle. Marc comes in and makes this album completely much more the way it's supposed to be."

With regards to SOULFLY's collaboration with Ellefson, Max said, "I think Dave was really good to work with because we live in the same city. We've been sharing stages since Rock In Rio all over the world, and it's funny that all this time we never thought we'd work together. The opportunity kinda came and I thought it would be really cool to do something different and have two different people come and play bass. At that time I didn't know exactly what Dave was up to. I knew that MEGADETH was not going on anymore, but I didn't know if he was doing another band. So I just kinda invited him as a guest musician, just for half of the record or a couple of songs. He did great. He really liked the songs and the way he played, you can tell he is a really experienced musician and it's awesome to work with people like that. . . He felt some of the stuff [we presented to him] was really punk-ish and thrash-style, and he really liked that. And he thought the other stuff was stuff he had never heard of before. A different kind of music, you know? . . . It's not like MEGADETH — it's like a completely different world — and he enjoyed that very much I think — that he was able to contribute on the thrash songs, as he has that thrash bass sound, but also contribute on the…on things like 'Wings', he plays on those things. And they're so melodic, so different. MEGADETH…I know their songs, I know they have strictly metal melodic parts, but these are more like gospel and really off-the-wall type stuff. So, it was cool, he was really fun to work with." Read the rest of the interview here.