Sepultura
It goes without saying that Sepultura are metal legends. Their long and well-respected career and collection of songs are testament to that fact. We had the absolute honour and privilege to talk with their long-time guitarist, Andreas Kisser, about their most recent album Kairos (their 12th overall), their new drummer Eloy Casagrande, music through the internet and about finally returning to Australia!
“We never tried to copy nothing from the past but Kairos talks about Sepultura and the 26 years of history, celebrating the moment of today, what we are now…”
If you haven’t already heard Kairos (released last July), then you are truly missing out. Sounding like something from the early 90’s, yet with a definite modern edge, it rumbles, screams and demands to be heard, preferably at high volumes. Andreas says of its ‘past and present’ sound, “We never tried to copy nothing from the past, but Kairos talks about Sepultura and the 26 years of history, celebrating the moment of today, what we are now, so naturally some stuff can resemble some old stuff. We are influenced by ourselves, we talked about our experiences, we have lyrics for our fans, our families, friends, labels, managers and all that were and are part of our history. There’s a little bit of everything that we did before plus some of the new feelings and ideas we have today.”
Amongst the more interesting songs on the album are ‘Mask’ and ‘Just One Fix’, the latter a cover of influential industrial-groove metal band Ministry. When asked of the choice of having ‘Just One Fix’ in the middle of the album sequence, Kisser says “Because Ministry was one of our big influences, especially in the early 90′s, they changed the way heavy music could be presented, with simpler riffs, drum loops and industrial sounds. I think our album ‘Chaos A.D.’ has a lot of Ministry in it and now we have the chance to pay tribute to this great band.”
The album also has a second cover song (as a bonus song at the end of the album), The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’. “The Prodigy is a band that we admire and respect a lot and I love them live, we never did anything like them so that was our challenge, to ‘Sepulturize’ them.”
The intentions were far different for ‘Mask’. “The song was written specially for people on the internet that don’t show their names or their faces and criticize everything they hear or see, they don’t show themselves but they own the truth. They are the majority of people who doesn’t have a life, they point their fingers to everybody but themselves, bunch of cowards.”
Kairos cover art
One of the key elements of Kairos’ powerful sound is the proficient drumming of Jean Dolabella, who announced he was leaving the band in November. Kairos was the second album Dolabella had played on, after joining the band during the touring cycle for ‘Dante XXI’ in 2006. There was a little confusion when the drummer told the band of his decision to leave, as Andreas explains. “…he didn’t know what he wanted really. I guess he didn’t have too much support from his house and family, so he decided to stay closer to them and do something else in music. Too bad he left the band with an unfinished job, we are still touring for Kairos and we have a lot to do this year. But he is an amazing musician, brought a lot of good stuff for Sepultura and I wish the best of luck in his new career… was all good, we talked a lot, since the beginning of 2011 and after the Machine Head tour in South America he left, we had time to prepare the change without too much hassle.”
“Eloy… did an audition and he was amazing, really powerful with great technique. He is a young guy but with some experience. He did a great tour with us last year and we are glad he’s with us now.”
The surprise of the departure of Dolabella was dwarfed by the shock of his replacement – 20-year-old São Paulo-native Eloy Casagrande, from Brazilian groups Gloria and Andre Matos. Kisser elaborates on how Casagrande came to be the new Sepultura drummer: “Eloy was a suggestion from many friends, I knew him for a while, saw him playing with Andre Matos and with his last band Gloria but didn’t know how he would be playing Sepultura stuff, so we did an audition and he was amazing, really powerful with great technique. He is a young guy but with some experience. He did a great tour with us last year and we are glad he’s with us now.” Of what he expects Eloy to bring to the band, Kisser says “Lots of energy and motivation, soon we will start writing some new material and let’s see what kind of ideas he can bring to the band.”
Casagrande’s first live shows with Sepultura were a mere 2 weeks after the announcement of him entering the band, inEurope, on the Thrashfest Classics Tour, with Exodus, Destruction, Heathen, and Mortal Sin. All of the bands played songs from their classic thrash albums – in Sepultura’s case, it was their 1989 breakthrough Beneath The Remains, 1991’s legendary Arise and 1993’s groundbreaking Chaos A.D. Andreas says of Thrashfest and Eloy’s introduction to the band’s live performances, “Well, Kairos talk(s) about Sepultura’s history and those three albums are one of the most important for us, they are a part of what we are talking about today, after all they never left us, we always play songs from these albums, we enjoy doing them and the crowd too. The tour was a great opportunity for us to play songs that we didn’t play for so long and was a great tour to present a new drummer. Eloy did an amazing job playing the old stuff, it was a great school for him and us as well, we had a great time, jamming with all the bands and having a lot of fun.”
Amongst the other shows the band played in 2011, was one with the Orquestra Experimental de Repertório in São Paulo. The band hopes to repeat the performance at some stage in the future (filmed as part of an upcoming documentary made by the band), as Andreas details. “The plan is to do a proper recording for the orchestra show, we did the show in a festival in São Paulobut we didn’t have the recording unit to capture everything. It was the first show and everything went really well, it worked out so great and it was very powerful. We had the chance to play songs that we never did before like ‘Inquisition Symphony’, ‘Ways of Faith’ and ‘Ludwig Van’, our version of Beethoven’s 9th (Symphony). The documentary is under way, we are filming everything that is happening with us, we have no release date yet.”
“I think is stupid to try to copy something that is not there anymore, we have to respect what we have, work with that and not be a slave from the past.”
Technology has increasingly become a part of music (whether as a help or a hindrance), but it does have its benefits for the band. Says Kisser of whether singer Derrick Green’s move to Prague, Czech Republic has caused any issues, “No, not at all. We do our practice inBraziland when we need him he comes down and all the rest is really easy to resolve through internet.” While on the subject of the internet, he goes on to say “I do not download music from the net, I have no patience but the internet is here to stay and we have to deal with that. The good thing about it is that today you have more chances to show your music without being dependent of a label, the channel is open for anyone and this is awesome, more freedom and less power to the labels. I think we are still on a transition phase, everything happened too fast so we are still trying to adapt to this new scenario.”
Without a doubt the question the band are asked the most is about the band’s relations with former bandmates Max and Igor Cavalera. While the interviewer didn’t dwell on the subject, Andreas was happy to add that while a reunion with the Cavaleras is not on the horizon, “I have an open channel to contact them which is really cool, something that was totally closed some years ago. Is nice to talk to them again without the pressure of working together.” Andreas is clearly happy with the band’s current situation, judging by the response to a question on whether Green would take up Max Cavalera’s rhythm guitar position. “No, not really and why? Just because Max played guitar? I think is stupid to try to copy something that is not there anymore, we have to respect what we have, work with that and not be a slave from the past. Derrick is not a thrash guitar player, he can play guitar but not Sepultura’s music, he’s using his abilities on percussion and he’s developing a really cool style on it.”
That percussive flavour the band have shown for the past two decades and beyond is one of the many styles the band have incorporated into their unique sound. So what other musical styles are there to expand to? According to Kisser, “Who knows? That’s why music is so great, we never know what can come up but we are still very much into the ‘Kairos’ feelings and we didn’t start discussing the next work.”
After waiting since November 2003, Aussie fans will finally get another chance to experience the band’s furious live show, as Andreas says, “I can’t believe is that long, I can’t wait to go back. We have plans to tour there in October, hopefully everything will work and we finally will be playing there, I love the place and I miss you all so much, amazing crowds, very energetic and fanatical.”
With heroes such as Sepultura, Aussie fans have every reason to be fanatical.
Sepultura is:
Andreas Kisser: guitars, vocals
Derrick Green: vocals
Paulo Xisto Jr.: bass
Eloy Casagrande: drums
Websites:
www.sepultura.com.br
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/sepultura/id918092
www.facebook.com/sepultura
twitter.com/sepulturacombr
sepultura.tanlup.com/