Max Cavalera’s CV is longer than your life story. Since co-founding Sepultura as a Belo Horizonte teen in 1984, the singer/guitarist has become one of extreme music’s most prolific veterans. He’s beloved not just for his anthem-dispensing stint with his original band, which he sadly and acrimoniously left in 1996, but also steering the ship in Soulfly, reuniting with his drummer brother Iggor in Cavalera Conspiracy, teaming with his son in Go Ahead And Die, and much, much more.
Max’s achieved so much that the only person who can truly, succinctly summarise his career is the man himself. So, we sat down with the maverick metalhead at a recent Soulfly show and got him to name his five greatest tracks. Read his choices below, and be sure to check out the expanded video version and a playlist of his picks underneath.
Sepultura – Arise (Arise, 1991)
“I have to start with my teenage years and a song called Arise. It’s really, to me, the prototype death/thrash song of all time, because it combines all the greatest elements of death metal and thrash metal into one song. I’ve always been very intrigued by those two types of music clashing. I find it mystifying how cool they melt together, how death metal and thrash metal, when blended together, is just pure power. Arise is the prototype, perfection of a death/thrash song.”
Sepultura – Roots Bloody Roots (Roots, 1996)
“I have to go for Roots Bloody Roots because it’s a stamp of metal. It’s a song, whenever we play it, it never gets old. It’s always huge, especially the chorus – it’s almost like a baby’s lullaby. It’s so simple, so catchy, and it sticks with you. We have to play it.”
Nailbomb – Cockroaches (Point Blank, 1994)
“The third one would be from Nailbomb, a project I did with Alex Newport from Fudge Tunnel back in the mid-90s. One of my favourite songs on [the project’s sole album, Point Blank] is Cockroaches. That’s a simple– again, simplicity, but it has a Black Sabbath kind of riff. I really love the groove of the song, the brutality, and there’s a really killer sample on it from Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer. Now, every time I watch that movie, I go right to the Nailbomb record.”
Soulfly – Eye For An Eye (Soulfly, 1998)
“The fourth song would be from Soulfly. The record was incredibly difficult to make, but incredibly rewarding. Soulfly was an album born from suffering, and the song Eye For An Eye was the very first song I wrote after I left Sepultura. It’s just really an exorcism: I’m exorcising all the demons on it and telling the fans, ‘The same Max is here. I haven’t changed anything, I’m the same guy, I’m just in a different band.’ Eye For An Eye is still today the closer of the Soulfly shows.”
Go Ahead And Die – Drug-O-Cop (Unhealthy Mechanisms, 2023)
“I’ve got to go with a project I did with my son, Igor Amadeus, and it’s a band called Go Ahead And Die. We just released our second record, Unhealthy Mechanisms, and there’s a song on it called Drug-O-Cop. It’s really cool because it’s really influenced by Dead Kennedys, talking shit about cops but with black humour. We even made a video for it, which is probably the most fun I’ve had making a video in my entire life. I dress up as a sheriff and roll around in a car with my son, who’s my deputy. We were doing crazy shit and it was fantastic!”
