Rise of The Cavalera Conspiracy

“I was on tour with Soulfly – Iggor wanted to see me and patch up, but it had been more than ten years. That was an awesome phone call because it was so out of the blue – I wasn’t expecting that. I invited him to Phoenix, he flew over and we ended up jamming together. We played Roots and Attitude and it was just really, really strong, man.”

The emotion in Max’s voice can be sensed all the way from the other side of the Atlantic as he talks about how he and Iggor grew up together on the streets of Belo Horizonte listening to Motorhead, Venom and old punk records. Their rise to heavy metal stardom was seismic and the power of their reunion resounded so far in Max that he hatched a plan to forge them together again.

“After all that, well, I lied to him! I told him that I had a bunch of songs written for a project and he committed to it. He said, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll do it’ and the next morning I thought, ‘Oh God I’m in trouble, I need to go write some songs.’ I started writing songs non-stop then for the album that became Inflikted.”

Video: Cavalera Conspiracy - Sanctuary

Recruiting guitarist Marc Rizzo of Soulfly and Gojira bassist Joe Duplantier, the Cavalera Conspiracy recently released their debut under the moniker, ahead of a gruelling tour schedule. The brutal effect of the spine of Sepultura playing together again is one that Max expects to have tears, as well as bodies, flying in the pit.

“We were joking about it last week; I was out in Spain with Soulfly and everybody’s so excited about the Conspiracy tour that, for fun, I ended up playing [Sepultura staple] Inner Self. A friend of ours who was there during the show and is the same age as me ended up crying. I told him that the Cavalera Conspiracy is going to end up making a lot of grown metal men cry because of the old sound. But at the same time it’s also new…it’s just really exciting.”

With such a mixture of teary-eyed metalheads, slam dancing kids and an influence list longer than the Amazon – just how are we to categorise this new Cavalera sound? Tracks such as Black Ark have a far thrashier sound than Soulfly has touched on, and there is a definite return to the black metal influences that spawned classics such as Roots.

“Maybe there’s a tendency to think it’s angrier, faster, heavier,” suggests Max, “but I feel like it’s just me and Iggor together. We listen to lots of different stuff but the main core of it is metal and hardcore.

“There are so many bands where, tragically, one member has died and you can never really hear them again. As Bob Dylan said, people can play cover songs but they can’t really play for that person and create that sort of magic situation. Hearing me and Iggor play – the voice, the guitar and the drums – that’s really the backbone of Sepultura. We’ll be able to play a lot of classics and make a lot of fans happy, and also play new shit. Our first show is in Madrid for a festival with Rage Against the Machine, so we’re as nervous as anybody else would be about that.”

Video: Sepultura - Territory

As Max says, the Cavaleras plan extensive touring for the band, making the Conspiracy more than your simple side project. But once the gigging is done it’s back to situation normal as Iggor returns to Brazil and Max moves back to the day job – promoting Soulfly’s fifth studio album Conquer; another LP he’s incredibly proud of.

“This record is definitely deeper into what was started in Prophecy and continued in Dark Ages. It’s almost as though we’ve been working on a formula, and this is the closest that I’ve ever got to what I’m searching for in terms of Soulfly – aggressive, melodic, international, experimental but at the same time very much metal. This is close to perfect.”

A strong claim indeed, and one that you don’t feel Max is making lightly. The seasoned frontman, now in his late 30s, has been around the block enough times to know what does and doesn’t cut the mustard. The record features the usual trademark guest appearances, and Max feels that both of those additional musicians have made particularly valuable contributions to Conquer.

“Dave Vincent from Morbid Angel sings one song with me which I think heavy metal fans will love. We’ve known each other for a long time, since Sepultura’s early days. It was an honour. We also have a song called Unleash where I invited a friend of mine, Dave Peters from Throwdown, along, so there’s more from the hardcore scene there. I think they’re both meaningful guests.”

So the live circuit awaits a summer of Cavalera invasion - be it with the retro thrash novelty of Cavalera Conspiracy, or the latest chapter of lead-heavy grooves from Soulfly – yet Max expects the unexpected when he and his younger sibling hit the road.

“I think Iggor and I are attracted to chaos, or at least we both attract chaos. In our Sepultura days we had everything from riots to kidnappings going on around us, so it’s fun predicting what’s going to happen because when Max and Iggor get together you know it’s going to go down. There’s nothing I can do about it, it’s like a black hole! For the hour you have a free pass to do whatever you want – there’s no law, nothing matters. But I’ve just paid my insurance, so I think I’ll be okay.”