MAX CAVALERA On Re-Recording SEPULTURA’s Early Albums: “The Spirit Of The Original SEPULTURA Is Here”

In a recent conversation with Czech Republic’s Project Backstage, Max and Igor “Iggor” Cavalera opened up about revisiting the early days of Sepultura through their new project, Cavalera. While the duo continues releasing fresh material under Cavalera Conspiracy, they chose to re-record Sepultura‘s early work under a separate banner, Cavalera. The reasoning? It’s about honoring their past while keeping their music alive in new ways.

Igor explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Well, it’s actually a bit simple, but also it can be a bit confusing if you’re just picking up the stuff and you’re reading. But the way I look at it, and it makes sense to me, is that Cavalera Conspiracy, me and Max, we write completely new songs, and then with Cavalera, we are having these re-recordings and then performing them live. So, they’re not like completely different projects. They’re the same project, but maybe just different faces of the same project.”

“And in a way, at the end of the day, it’s all Cavalera — from the beginnings of Sepultura, it’s always been about me and Max. So Cavalera is the soul of the whole thing. And there’s a bit of mutation in there, with Cavalera Conspiracy and Cavalera with the re-recordings and the live show. So it can be a bit confusing, but at the end of the day, it’s quite simple,” he added.

Max echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the core of what they do has remained the same since their Sepultura days: “It’s all from the same root. It comes from the same spirit that we had. And the most important thing, the coolest thing is that the spirit of the original Sepultura is here with Cavalera. I think that is what the fans feel it most. And I think that is the greatest thing we have, is that what they wanted to feel is what we had in the soul and the spirit of the original Sepultura. And we’re doing that with this — mostly with Cavalera, because we get to play the Sepultura material. Cavalera Conspiracy, we get to do new music, which we’ll do in the future as well.”

Despite the changes in name and format, the brothers see themselves as continuing the same legacy they began decades ago. After Sepultura’s classic lineup split in 1996, with Max‘s departure and eventually Igor leaving in 2006, the brothers regrouped to form Cavalera Conspiracy.

Now, through both projects, the brothers aim to keep that spirit alive without any plans for slowing down. As Max put it, “We plan to keep rocking for a long time. Nobody has retirement plans. Those don’t exist. I don’t know what that is. We are rockers — lifers, as they say.”