WHY OH WHY WON’T SEPULTURA JUST GET BACK TOGETHER?

Blabbermouth reports that brothers and Sepultura founding members Max and Igor Cavalera (vocals and drums, respectively) are collaborating on new music together for the first time in a decade, and that the results will be released as a new project – in other words, not as part of Max’s ongoing Soulfly project, nor as part of a reunion with Sepultura co-founders Andreas Kisser (guitars) and Paulo Jr. (bass), who are still touring the world as “Sepultura” with singer Derrick Green and drummer Jean Dolabella. Which begs the question: what the hell is holding up a full-on Sepultura reunion?

Look: I understand that there’s a lot of bad blood in the Sepultura camp; fuck, the band fired Max’s wife, Gloria – they HAD to know they were burning a bridge with Max. And I have nothing against Soulfly or the new incarnation of Sepultura, per se. They’ve both been hit and miss in my opinion, with Soulfly basically remaking the nu-metallic Roots over and over again and Sep just struggling to make something, anything as good as their classic line-up – but their most recent respective efforts, Soulfly’s Dark Ages and Sepultura’s Dante XXI, were both (mostly) hits (and Sepultura’s video for “Convicted in Life” was actually really, really cool).

But neither side has been able to touch the holy trinity of late 80’s/early 90’s Sepultura releases, Beneath the Remains, Arise, and Chaos A.D. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: except for maybe the title track, I don’t really care for Roots. Haters, start your hatin’.) And if the Cavalera Brothers are now speaking again – and collaborating on new music together! – for the first time in ten years, then, surely, Andreas and Paulo can kiss and make-up, too. Hell, it was Cavalera who told Revolver he thought the old band would get back together soon (they were heavily rumored to play this year’s Ozzfest).

I’m not asking anyone to take a giant artistic step backwards and become a nostalgia act, a la Anthrax. But I don’t think there’s any serious danger of that happening, anyways; the Cavaleras and the Sepulturas all seem to have too much juice left them. I just wish they’d use that juice to get back out there and show the kids how it’s really done.

-AR