Secluded in the outback
swamps of the Louisiana bayou in 1991, AcidBath's humble inception exploded
on the local level after they recorded "Hymns of the Needle Freak,"
produced by their then manager Keith Falgout. This self-promoted demo ultimately
lead to their singing with Rotten Records, which allowed them to work with
D.R.I.'s Spike Cassidy to create their acclaimed debut label release, "When
the Kite String Pops." Two years and three national tours later, Acid
Bath is ready to deliver their long awaited eleven song sophomore album
"Pagan Terrorism." This effort finds them returning to work with
Falgout, to produce such songs as Dead Girl, Bleed Me an Ocean, Graveflower,
Pagan Love Song and New Death Sensation, which fans of several continents
will be able to witness live as soon as October when a world wide tour
ensues. Acid Bath has an incredible diversity to their music that lends
them the ability to play with bands from almost any other genre, but it
would be ludicrous to categorize their sound; the result would be too limiting.
Furious, aggressive guitar buzz is supplied by Mike Sanchez and Sammy Duet.
Audie Pietre adds vile, low-end pulsations on bass to fill out the bottom.
Jimmy Kyle uses his characteristic springless snare as a channel to create
exhausting, tooth-grinding beats an doften times pushing rhythems. Dax
Riggs contributes the vocal element as if he were the satanic son of Jim
Morrison, with an occasional brutal scream added to the mix by Audie or
Sammy. Together, they fuse numerous musical styles that fall under the
category of loud or heavy creating an intoxicating gumbo that tempts one's
palate with hard-core, gothic, psychedelic-punk and grind. This innovative
blend is insanely exlosive, but creates a breathless intensity and exhilarting
flavor that is easy to swallow. Acid Bath's boundary-busting swamp-core
sound conquers what death metal has yet to encounter.
For more than twelve years,
Sepultura has beaten the odds, accepted and overcome challenges, and triumphed
over every obstacle thrown in their path. But in December of 1996, the
band who first emerged from Brazil over a decade earlier faced their greatest
challenge yet: the departure of frontman and co-founder Max Cavalera. The
remaining members of the band knew they had reached a crossroads."Throughout
this year-and-a-half, we thought about everything," says Andreas.
"We did, in fact, think about saying, screw everybody, screw music,
screw bands, screw everything.' But we didn't make any decisions during
the most turbulent time, because those decisions usually turn out to be
the wrong ones. We took things slow and took our time to think everything
through."Now, in 1998, Sepultura is back with an album as filled with
ferocity and power as anything they've previously done. AGAINST, produced
by Howard Benson and mixed by Bill Kennedy, takes Sepultura into territory
they've never explored before, and introduces the world to the band's new
singer, Derrick Green. Basing it all firmly on the foundation of the band's
six previous studio albums, yet incorporating new musical influences and
the broad new range of Green's vocals, Sepultura is re-launching themselves
with a whole new freshness and energy."We didn't even know if we would
use the name Sepultura," says Igor Cavalera about the band's evolution.
"We decided that we would write a few songs first, and if it didn't
sound like anything resembling Sepultura, then we would stop using the
name right away. But once we had a few songs, we saw that we were justified
in keeping the name. And the more we played, the more comfortable we felt.
Our only relief during this whole time was playing music."Music is
what literally saved Igor and Max Cavalera from an obscure existence in
Belo Horizonte, a small Brazilian city. The brothers formed Sepultura in
1984 with Paulo Pinto and original guitarist Jairo T. After a couple of
crude early releases (the Bestial Devastation EP and Morbid Visions album),
Andreas replaced Jairo and the band kicked themselves to a new level of
musicianship with the now classic Schizophrenia. That album, and a growing
underground fan base, persuaded Roadrunner Records to sign the fledgling
act. Sepultura's first worldwide release, Beneath The Remains, was voted
one of 1989's top metal albums by critics everywhere and was hailed as
a masterpiece of the genre.Three more albums, Arise (1991), Chaos A.D.
(1993), and the groundbreaking Roots (1996) found Sepultura incorporating
more and more different influences into their style, ranging from ancestral
Brazilian sounds to African roots music, creating a unique blend of genres
that, coupled with the band's near-legendary live show, made Sepultura
a million-selling act around the globe. But different views on the band's
business affairs led to a parting of the ways that even the band members'
strong bonds couldn't prevent."A lot of people really thought that
Sepultura was only Max, and we were only the musicians behind him,"
says Andreas. "But Sepultura was always everybody together, and everybody
contributed their ideas. We have the same attitude, the same music, and
the same message. The only thing different is that Derrick is here now."Born
in Cleveland, Derrick Green has been singing since he was 16, when he joined
the Midwest hardcore act Outface. He and the guitarist moved to New York
after six years together to form Overfiend. When Sepultura announced that
they were looking for a new vocalist, a Roadrunner A&R man sent them
an Overfiend demo and told them to check it out."We sent him a tape
of Choke' and asked him to put vocals over it," recalls Andreas. "We
liked it a lot, so we invited him to come to Brazil, because we were staying
there at the end of last year. So we got together, and right away, we were
pretty sure he was the man. Not just because of Derrick's technical abilities,
but because he's like us. He really believes in the same stuff, has the
same vibe--plus he really likes soccer!""I didn't know what direction
they wanted to go in, but I knew that if they wanted someone who was identical
to Max, it would have been totally ridiculous and I wouldn't have done
it," says Derrick. "I didn't want to do anything remotely similar
to that, because it's just not me. So it was really important for me to
meet them and find out what they were looking for."Once it was established
that Green was "the man," the band commenced recording, laying
down tracks in several different locations, including studios in Brazil
and, for one memorable song, Japan. "We recorded a song called Kamaitachi'
with Kodo, a Japanese percussion group," says Andreas. "We spent
four days in Japan and it was very cool to switch to something different
and use elements from a different musical culture. It's not as prevalent
as the other influences were on Roots, although the album artwork also
reflects a Japanese influence."For Derrick, the new man on the scene,
recording was an enjoyable experience. "There was a lot of pressure
at first--and it started to get to me for a little while. I could feel
it internally, physically. But after meeting the guys, they made it a totally
non-stressful situation. We listened to the songs, and it only took four
or five days to open up, get into the rhythm and begin communicating ideas
back and forth. It was a learning experience for myself and the test of
the band."Now that AGAINST is ready to be unleashed upon the world,
Sepultura will take to the road and do what they do best: bring their music
to audiences around the world. "We've grown a lot in the last year-and-a-half,"
says Paulo Pinto. "We learned to stick together more, and found out
a lot of what friendship is really about. When we go out on tour, that's
really gonna express itself onstage. We're very excited about getting out
and playing again."Having survived the most difficult period of their
careers, Sepultura has refocused on what playing music means to them, and
are proud to let AGAINST speak for them. "It's a good time to come
back to the idea of what Sepultura is," concludes Igor. "It's
not just me, or Andreas, or Paulo, or Derrick--it's the chemistry of four
people playing together."
"The hardest part
was realizing that I had to continue without Sepultura, and I had to find
the right people to do that," says Max Cavalera about the formation
of his new band, SOULFLY. "But the last thing I was gonna do was stop
playing music or give up."Max Cavalera's career has been defined by
his belief in never giving up. As co-founder (with his brother Igor) of
the groundbreaking Brazilian hard rock band Sepultura, Max defied convention
by writing and performing the kind of brutally heavy music that was popular
around the world-but regarded with distaste by the Brazilian music community.
Despite incredible odds, a lack of support at home, no contacts, and shaky
communication skills, Sepultura emerged from Brazil to become one of the
most internationally renowned heavy rock bands of the last decade. And
with albums like Chaos A.D. and Roots, the band pioneered a marriage of
heavy rock and world music that established Sepultura as one of the most
innovative metal bands ever.But change is the only constant in the universe,
and sure enough, differing opinions on music, business, and career goals
led to a parting of the ways between Max and the rest of Sepultura. Coming
on the heels of the devastating death of his beloved friend and stepson,
Dana Wells, the split admittedly traumatized Max even further. However,
the end of one era has given birth to another, as Max assembled SOULFLY
and found the new musicians and energy he was craving."Putting together
this new band really helped me to deal with these things," confesses
Max. "Without SOULFLY, it would have been ten times harder. To me,
music has always been the thing through which I release all my stress and
emotions. Everybody who's ever seen me live or heard anything I've written
knows that. So continuing with my work really helped me through these fucked-up,
hard times."The thing about these guys is that they have the attitude
that I wanted in a band," says Max," "which is to make music,
play with fire, and not worry about foolish things. These guys have that.
It feels great to go in the rehearsal room and get goosebumps about being
in a group again."The first man to enlist when Max began his search
in January '97 was Roy, formerly drummer with New York avant-core band
Thorn, plus a noted remixer and producer in his own right. Next was Marcello,
who Max knew very well already: he was a Sepultura roadie for years. The
final piece in the puzzle was Jackson, who played guitar in Max's favorite
Brazilian band, Chico Science and NACAO ZUMBI. Sadly, Chico Science himself,
had died-leaving the band's future in doubt. But the tragedy did provide
Jackson with the opportunity to join Max and complete the lineup of SOULFLY.
"He has his own style, his own character, and a lot of new ideas,"
says Max. "It kind of reminds me of the feeling I had when Andreas
joined Sepultura-that he took Sepultura to the next level. That's how I
feel about Jackson. Blended with what I was doing, it was the perfect combination."That
combination is fully in effect on SOULFLY's self-titled debut album. Fans
of the monstrously heavy sound that Max established in Sepultura won't
be disappointed, as the album displays all the aggression and power that
is Max's trademark. But while songs like "Eye For An Eye" (the
only song, according to Max, that directly addresses the breakup with Sepultura)
are straightforward engines of brutality, the record also continues Max's
determination to expand his musical vocabulary."There's a song called
'Bumba' (a Portuguese word that means 'big noise') that's co-produced by
Mario C., who's worked with the Beastie Boys, and it's the first time I've
explored the idea of mixing my music with sampling. It's something I've
wanted to do for a long time. I think this album will be even more different
in style than Roots, which gives you an idea of how experimental it is.
Of course, people are gonna hear a resemblance to Sepultura, because it's
my voice and I haven't changed my vocal style, and there's riffs and tribal
things in there that continue the types of things I've done in Sepultura,
but the album also goes beyond anything I've done before."In addition
to Mario C., Soulfly features Burton C. Bell, Dino Cazares and Christian
Olde Wolbers from Fear Factory, Fred Durst and DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit,
Chino from Deftones, Benji from Dub War, Eric Bobo from Cypress Hill and
Jorge DuPeixe and Gilmar Bola Oito also from Chico Science. Overseeing
the entire project is producer Ross Robinson, who collaborated with Sepultura
on Roots and made a name for himself producing bands like Korn and Limp
Bizkit.Besides assembling SOULFLY and recording the album, Max has kept
busy in other areas as well. In September, he gave an ardent address as
one of three keynote speakers (with Moby and Marilyn Manson) at New York's
CMJ New Music Marathon. Max's speech touched on his career, beliefs, and
commitment to heavy music in spite of music industry indifference and trendiness.
Similar spoken word appearances followed at the Crossing Border Festival
in Holland, where Max also jammed with Gil Scott Heron's band, and in Brussels,
Belgium. He's also guested on the new album by his good friends, the Deftones.
And in a weird twist of fate, Max has been asked to sing the jingle for
a Sprite soda commercial, to air early next year in Brazil. "What
I'm gonna do, they're probably not gonna accept. And if they do accept
it, that's great, 'cause I'm gonna do something really off the wall and
outrageous. For me, it's a way of going against the corporation, rather
than with it."With all this activity, Max nevertheless remains focused
on the one thing that has always meant the most to him: making music with
passion and integrity. And with the arrival of Soulfly, he's created possibly
the most emotionally-charged and personal album of his career."I believe
this album has been forged in tragedy," concludes Max. "It's
kind of weird, but true. There was a price for this record, and unfortunately,
it was a very high price: losing a really close friend and splitting with
people I played with for fifteen years. If Dana hadn't died and I had continued
with Sepultura, this might be a completely different record. So I think
everyone will listen and realize why this album is so intense and so personal."
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