Sepultura’s career been full of incredible achievements. The band that helped put Brazilian metal on the map – and then paved the way for the sounds of global metal when they recorded with the Xavante tribe on 1996’s Roots – they remained a crucial force even following the departure of founders Max and Iggor Cavalera, with the likes of 2006’s conceptual Dante XXI and latest album Quadra (2020) proving they could still produce top-tier material.
But last year, they announced plans to call it a day. Drummer Eloy Casagrande left in February (later resurfacing in Slipknot), while the band recruited Greyson Nekrutman, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies, and embarked on a worldwide farewell tour the following month. We took your questions to vocalist Derrick Green and guitarist Andreas Kisser, as they reflect on the end of a 40-year journey.
Andreas: “You’ve said the answer! Quadra is an amazing album and why wait for something to happen outside of our control to finish the band? My personal experience with my wife dying from cancer two years ago has given life a different meaning to me, too.
We close out cycles in our life every day and it is a privilege to do that consciously. Being in a band you feel a lot of pressures, and sometimes it makes no sense artistically speaking. We do not want to be slaves to our avatars.”
Derrick: “You go through that cycle of creating an album, doing the promo, going on tour, and it can get repetitive. We’re now doing things we’ve never done before.
I was a big fan of Refused, and when they had their last album [1998’s The Shape Of Punk To Come, though they reformed in 2012 and have since recorded two more albums], I gave them a lot of respect for leaving on that epic album. For us it’s exciting, knowing we’re playing these places for the last time.”
his suggestions so we rebuilt it around him, but it was not too far from what we had planned already. He was keen to play the new stuff, but Dusted and Biotech Is Godzilla were cool to play for the first time in a while, and we will add more along the road.
We’ve done Mind War, False and even the Kaiowas jam that we brought back from the Chaos A.D. tour. Songs from [2013’s] The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart are very complicated, but eventually we would like to bring songs in from every album, because we are recording every show to build something cool for the live album.”
Derrick: “Greyson is definitely up for the challenge. Him having that drive to want to learn these songs is incredible for us, because it gives us that energy to do things that we haven’t done for a long time. It’s happening faster than I could imagine, and right now I can see him dropping videos practising songs to add to the set.”
Will we get another album or EP before the end comes?
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Andreas: “We have a live album idea to do 40 songs in 40 cities. Since Eloy left the band, we’re rethinking things from scratch. Greyson has come in with full power and a very positive attitude, and we’re growing fast.
“Every drummer from Iggor [Cavalera] to Jean [Dolabella] and Eloy has brought something unique. One of my dreams was to do something like Kiss’s Alive II where they have three sides live and the fourth studio. They ignore those songs live, which I never understood – I love that album! But maybe that could be an option for us to have three or four songs with Greyson.”
What are your plans for when Sepultura is done?
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Andreas: “I don’t know, and it feels great! I want to study acoustic guitar, and to create instructional material on the Sepultura music. I’ve done small things here and there, but not a complete overview of my guitar playing and writing. I will decide when the time comes, but right now it is time to celebrate the moment.”
Derrick: “I want to do a lot more with the TV show I’m working on, Highway To Health. I’ve also been interested in doing voiceover work in animation or commercials.
Musically, I’d like to do something outside of metal with more singing, but if somebody approaches with something I think is intriguing, I’m definitely open to that, because I never want to step away from music.”
Andreas: “Nah, we only talk to each other by contract. When the contract is done, we’re done! Ha ha! No, of course there are a lot of possibilities. I would love to work with Derrick outside of Sepultura. We have the idea for a reggae project on the cards, which we have a great name for! The comfort zone is the worst thing that can happen to an artist. It would be boring to stop Sepultura and do something else that is Sepultura-like.”
Why did you never get a permanent second guitarist?
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Andreas: “I didn’t see the reason why we had to. Derrick’s background was much more hardcore, and I told him that if he wanted to play Sepultura stuff, he had to learn three albums back to front.”
Derrick: “Kill ’Em All, Bonded By Blood, and Reign In Blood! And once I realised that, I thought, ‘OK, I’m gonna master vocals.’ Ha ha!”
Andreas: “Jimmy Page will use, like, 12 guitars in one song, but when he plays live he manages with four musicians. Iron Maiden got three guitarists and no one complained! The people in the moshpit at Sepultura shows are having the best time of their life, but there is a rhetoric from some people with Sepultura that there is something missing.
All these years since Max left, we get the same comments, but we are doing amazing stuff with other elements like orchestras or percussion groups.”
Do you think you will ever reunite with Max and Iggor?
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Andreas: “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.”
What do you think you will miss most about Sepultura?
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Andreas: “I don’t wanna think about that right now! You only miss things when you’ve lost them.”
Where did the idea for the song Ratamahatta come from?
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Andreas: “When we started touring outside of Brazil on Beneath The Remains in 1989, that’s when we saw Brazil from the outside, like astronauts see the planet from the Moon. You have a completely different perspective of your home and culture. The Arise tour took us to Japan and Australia for the first time, and it was an opening of our minds. When we came back we wrote Chaos A.D. which was Brazilian-ised, and that’s where I think Sepultura found a more original sound. Roots was the consequence. I think it’s still a great album today, and Ratamahatta is the highlight of the show, right?”
Derrick: “I think it was the breakthrough video too, using claymation. I remember seeing it for the first time and it not being at all what I would have expected from a heavy band. I felt as a fan of Sepultura it was really finding the personality of the band.”
Which band do you think is your true successor?
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Andreas: “Claustrofobia mixed the percussion stuff and also have this Brazilian influence. Crypta and Nervosa always mention Sepultura on the harder side of the music. We have so many different albums that inspired different bands in different ways, and that is always cool to hear.”
Derrick: “It’s been such a long time, 40 years, so there are many different generations that grew up listening to Sepultura, so their perspectives of the band can be very different.”
Where do you see metal 20 years from now?
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Andreas: “We have AI, so we’re all fucked! Derrick is actually a fan of AI…”
Derrick: “I am. But what’s so beautiful about that is it’s limitless and it could go in any direction.”
Andreas: “The roots of heavy metal will still be there. Black Sabbath and Metallica are our Beethoven and Mozart and will never leave.”