Max Cavalera on Chaos A.D. Legacy: “We Showed There’s Another Way to Make Aggressive Music”
If your name happens to be Max Cavalera, you have a long and diverse career in extreme music to celebrate. From Sepultura to Nailbomb and Soulfly, the Brazilian musician has constantly been willing to reinvent the genres he plays. 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of Sepultura’s fifth album, Chaos A.D., which Cavalera discussed in a radio interview. In it, Cavalera revealed that he celebrates his major albums’ birthdays because of their significance to him (via Blabbermouth).
“Those albums, to me, they’re kind of like kids. I like to celebrate their birthdays. I almost feel like I need to buy a cake and have a real birthday party on the day that the thing came out.”
Cavalera also talked about anniversary tours, nothing that he’s spent much of the last decade touring on landmark Sepultura albums. He doesn’t say “yes” to a 30th anniversary tour, but he doesn’t say “no” either…
“Nah, I think we celebrate through the music, ’cause we’re doing all these cool tours of celebrating the music. Of course I’m not saying we’re gonna do a ‘Chaos A.D.’ one, but if it happens, it’ll be really cool. This year is also 25 years of [the debut album from] Soulfly, and those are two really close-to-my-heart records, both of them. ‘Chaos A.D.’ opens with [my son] Zyon’s heartbeat. It’s a very special record. It’s almost like a defining moment in metal, one of those records that kind of broke the mold, how metal can be. Because before ‘Chaos A.D.’ everything was super fast and aggressive, and I think with ‘Chaos A.D.’ we showed there’s another way to make aggressive music, that’s a little bit slower and more groove oriented, with stuff like ‘Territory’ and ‘Slave New World’ and ‘Refuse/Resist’.
“I’m super proud of those records — super proud. Let’s see what happens. I don’t have [anything] concrete yet. Right now I’m just celebrating them like everybody else — just enjoy that they exist in my life, and very happy that I got to be part of making records like that.”
