Brazilian metal icons revisit early Sepultura recordings at Great American
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two brothers who founded the biggest metal band to ever surface from South America revisit their past when Max and Iggor Cavalera play the earliest music they recorded as Sepultura at the Great American Music Hall Sunday.
Guitarist/vocalist Max and drummer Iggor were only teens when they founded Sepultura in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte in 1984. While the group was initially inspired by the more traditional metal sounds of Black Sabbath and Motorhead, the Cavaleras took the band in a more extreme direction after Max discovered the blasphemous proto thrash-metal sound of British trio Venom.
The two musicians went on to discover acts from the emerging thrash and death metal scenes of the United State and Europe, emulating the furious sonic assault of rising bands like Celtic Frost, Megadeth, Exodus and Kreator on their earliest recordings. After their raw, self-released debut EP Bestial Devastation in 1985 (a split album with fellow Brazilian headbangers Overdose) and first proper full-length Morbid Visions the following year, Sepultura began to lean more towards the thrash end of the metal spectrum.
By the time the band issued Schizophrenia in 1987, Sepultura had settled into its classic line-up rounded out by guitarist Andreas Kisser and bass player Paulo Jr. and scored a deal with noted metal imprint Roadrunner Records. Their follow-up effort Beneath the Remains two years later would stand as a quantum leap forward in production and songwriting. A brutal musical assault that found the brothers forging their unique style, the album would be hailed as a thrash classic and helped introduce Sepultura to a far wider global audience.
The improved production and more focused songwriting showed the path forward on the band subsequent efforts, which would take even more dramatic sonic departures. Arise in 1991 mostly stuck to the death/thrash metal template of its predecessor -- many fans hail the recording as the group's finest hour -- but showed Sepultura branching out with elements of industrial and punk.
Chaos A.D. in 1993 introduced slower, harder-swinging tempos that would later lead the album to be celebrated as a pioneering groove-metal landmark. The politically charged global metal effort Roots in 1996 went even further afield, adding traditional Brazilian percussion with contributions from guest musician Carlinhos Brown while exploring the plight of indigenous people in their native country.
Unfortunately, the sudden death of Max Cavalera's stepson while the band was touring in England brought a head conflict within the band over the band being managed by the guitarist's wife. When the band demanded she be fired, Cavalera left in what would be one of the more acrimonious rock group splits of the decade.
Sepultura hired a new singer and soldiered on, while the estranged Cavalera would found his new band Soulfly, issuing a string of celebrated albums with a constantly rotating cast of support musicians. The guitarist would eventually mend his relationship with his brother Iggor, leading the pair to start Cavalera Conspiracy in 2007 with guitarist Mark Rizzo (Gojira guitarist and leader Joe Duplantier would play bass and guitar on the band's 2008 debut, Inflikted).
While Soulfly remains Max Cavalera's main outlet, Cavalera Conspiracy has still managed to put out three albums including it's most recent Napalm Records salvo Psychosis in 2017. Max and Iggor have offered their loyal fans a rare gift in 2017 with their Return To Roots Tour. Marking the 20th anniversary of the landmark Sepultura effort, the two principle forces behind those songs played the classic Roots album in its entirety along with additional Sepultura gems. The show was a raging sold-out success, with an especially crammed San Francisco concert at now defunct club Slim's featuring a guest appearance by local rock legend Mike Patton who reprised his vocals on the tune "Lookaway."
Five years later, the Cavalera brothers returned to San Francisco for another retrospective tour, playing the songs from the seminal albums Beneath The Remains and Arise for two blistering shows at the Great American Music Hall. While Max would turn his attention back to Soulfly for a new album (Totem) last year and more touring, this summer Cavalera Conspiracy released re-recordings of Sepultura's raw earliest recordings: the debut EP Bestial Devastation and the band's first proper full-length, Morbid Visions. For this tour, the brothers are joined by Max's son Igor Amadeus Cavalera on bass and lead guitarist Travis Stone (Pig Destroyer, Desolus).
For the current tour, the brothers are joined by influential South Bay death/grind institution Exhumed. Founded in 1990 by San Jose guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey when he was just 15 years old, the band went through a long gestation period of playing local shows and recording raw demos through the decade with an evolving line-up.
Drawing inspiration from UK and European death metal (Carcass and Entombed) and American grindcore (Repulsion and Terrorizer), Exhumed eventually releasing their proper debut album, the cartoonishly gruesome, over-the-top Gore Metal in 1998. Harvey would later criticize the album as "sloppy," but the recording served as a calling card that helped the band book tours across the U.S. and get invited to European metal festivals, paving the way toward better recorded and more sophisticated follow-up efforts Slaughtercult and Anatomy Is Destiny.
The band would release a collection of early recordings -- Platters of Splatter -- and the covers album Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated, a tongue-in-cheek nodded to Metallica's Garage Days Re-Revisited that featured versions of songs by the Cure, Led Zeppelin and GBH along with a number of early death metal favorites prior to Harvey putting the band on an extended hiatus in 2005. However he would reconvene the band in 2010 and returned to recording, releasing a string of acclaimed albums since issuing its initial comeback album All Guts, No Glory in 2011. Early-era bassist Ross Sewage (who also plays in costumed death/thrash band Ghoul, Ludicra and Impaled) returned to the group in 2015 and has played on all Exhumed releases since, including 2019's Horror.
The touring line-up also includes support from Phoenix-based band Incite, which features Max's stepson Richie Cavalera on vocals. Opening local all-star quintet Molten features a murderer's row of scene veterans including guitarists Chris Corona (Floating Goat, Hazzard's Cure, and Wild Eyes among others), Gary Goudreau (East Coast band End-time Illusion), drummer Damon Lockaby (Banquet) and Hell Fire bassist Bandala playing bass as well as keys and classical guitar (singer Brandon Bristol rounds out the band).
The band quickly gained a following with its brutal mix of thrash and death metal influences, garnering national press coverage just on the strength of their demo. Early in 2021, Molten self-released its punishing debut full-length Dystopian Syndrome to wide praise. Last year, Corona was sadly sidelined by a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis, with the San Francisco metal community rallying around him to raise funds to help cover his medical costs and lost work. While he has made some progress in his recovery from the disease, he will not be performing with the band Sunday.
Max and Igorr Cavalera: Morbid Devastation
Sunday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. $30-$35
Great American Music Hall
