Soulfly's Max Cavalera SharesHis Theory On The Dark Ages

Wed 23rd Nov, 2005 in Features

He is one of the original legends of metal, he has toured with almost every metal hero, he is the ex-lead vocalist and guitarist of Brazil’s proudest metal export, Sepultura. He is Max Cavalera, and since his departure from Sepultura in 1996, he has founded the part spiritual/part experimental-metal band, Soulfly.

But during the recording of Soulfly’s fifth album, Dark Ages, Cavalera was faced with some personal tragedies, with his eight-month old grandson, Moses and his good friend, Dimebag Darrell’s death. There is certainly something very melancholy about Dark Ages, and whether or not Cavalera has intentionally drawn inspiration from these tragedies, there is an obvious sadness about the album. “Well, there are options, it’s up to you.” Cavalera describes, “and when something like that happens, it’s a very difficult time. But for me music actually helps me with all that stuff. It serves as therapy and a great way of expressing a wide range of feelings from rage to sadness to aggression. So all that, it comes out in the album, and I use the music, Dark Ages’ music, to let these things out.”

Part of Cavalera’s calm and wise nature comes from being a veteran of the scene. But part of it may have something to do with his own personal beliefs, as Soulfly is known to many fans as a metal band founded on ‘spiritual beliefs’.

“For me spirituality is very present in my music – but it’s not Christian,” he rectifies, “I think there is a difference between being a Christian and being spiritual, and I’m more spiritual.” He clarifies, “I believe in God, but I don’t follow the church rule. And I think the church breaks their own rules anyway, and I decided not to be a part of that. But I am very spiritual and that comes from growing up in Brazil, and I like that and I believe it has helped me get through the hard times, and I’m thankful for it.”

Music has indeed played a big part in Cavalera’s life. He formed the iconic thrash/death metal band Sepultura, along with his brother Igor Cavalera, when he was still in his teens. Since his departure from his original band, Cavalera has used Soulfly to combine electronic beats with metal chords to create his own approach to music. “I don’t really care for style much – they’re just names. I make orthodox metal but in my own way. I make heavy metal different than people [are use to], and that’s fine for me, because we don’t really need a label.”

He questions, “Like how do you label things anyway? Led Zeppelin -is it rock’n’roll? Is it rock? Folk? It’s difficult because they did mix everything. I mix a lot of things in it. I think it’s coming from heavy metal, but I also like punk, hardcore, and dub music and all these things I use in my music and so it becomes very difficult to label.”

Being a producer as well as the principal songwriter of the band, Cavalera’s method to writing material is by using a drum machine and two guitars as the foundation of Soulfly’s songs. He used to carry around a four-track recorder, but this old-school recording process has now been superseded by compacts discs, due to the continued frustration of easily broken tapes. For a change of scenery and creative inspiration, Cavalera even travelled to Turkey, Serbia, Russia and France to record the majority of the record. “There was not really any reason why it had to be those towns, but that’s how these things work out. I kind of like it like that anyway.” He explains, “For me rock’n’roll is like the spirit, like not knowing what you’re doing, not at least 100%. But you go ahead and do it anyway, and then something comes out of it. So my recordings from these towns, from Turkey, Russia and Serbia, were very unpredictable. It was even a surprise for me, and it makes the record more unpredictable, to me and I’m sure for all the fans…maybe one day I’ll do some recordings in Australia. I’d like to in the future, so let’s hope.”

After all these years, it seems Cavalera hasn’t lost any of his passion for his art. He has been quoted to have said that “music is his life”, and by listening to him talk about music, it is apparent that this statement is true. For Cavalera, it is clear that it’s not about the money or the fame. Dark Ages may be an album originated on the grief of a tragedy, but behind its sadness lays an optimistic perspective on life -the same perspective Cavalera seems to possess when he talks about music. “I think the actual freedom that we achieve with music and that we give to people is a gift that money can’t buy. To me, being in music for a long time and being in bands you could have a lot of money, but you can’t buy this kind of feeling. Being live on the stage doing what you love with the fans singing songs, there is no money that can buy that.” He pauses, “The richest person in the world can’t even have that so for me that’s the gift of music and that I love that.”