PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1996
BY NICK KREWEN
If there was ever a time that Brazilian metal rockers SEPULTURA have relied on the restorative power of music, it's now.
Just five weeks ago, DANA WELLS, stepson of singer, guitarist and lyricist MAX CAVALERA, son of his wife and manager GLORIA, and son-in-law of drummer and percussionist IGOR CAVALERA, died in a car accident.
The horrific news came upon the eve of the band's appearance at the Castle Donington Monsters Of Rock tour, and while Max and Gloria Cavalera flew back to the U.S., Sepultura carried on as a trio.
Although tempted to abandon further tour plans and mourn their loss, the brothers Cavalera and fellow Sepulturans PAULO JR. on bass and guitarist ANDREAS KISSER have decided a better tribute would be to carry on with the tour.
"It's been a struggle," says Max Cavalera from a tour stop in Pennsylvania Saturday morning.
"For me, however, I think it made me feel even stronger about continuing on tour. I had a really tight musical bond with my stepson -- Dana even co-wrote a few lines of the song `Attitude' on Roots -- and I really think he would have wanted us to continue on regardless."
Cavalera admits that the band's live performance of "Attitude" has a whole new meaning "both essentially and spiritually."
"That's what music is about," states Cavalera, 27. "Making a difference in people's lives, and healing."
Sepultura's hard-hitting sonic thunder has been a remedy on a number of unlikely fronts. In a musical genre that has taken its share of knocks after being uprooted by the arrival of grunge, Sepultura is considered to be one of the torchbearers of the new metal revival, and one of the few whose integrity has remained unquestioned over the dozen years and seven albums since their formation in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The band has also served as a role model for countless Brazilian and Latin American musicians whose world exists beyond the periphery of such notable jazz and pop ambassadors as MILTON NASCIMENTO and GILBERTO GIL.
"We consider ourselves the light at the end of the tunnel," says Cavalera, whose singing fluctuates between growls, screams and hoarse raps.
"There were many naysayers, especially in Brazil, who said we couldn't do it. They believed that as a rock band from a third world country we'd never make it on the international scene, the way BOB MARLEY did it with reggae in Jamaica.
"We just kept on working hard, and stayed true to our beliefs. Now we're finally getting some respect from Brazil."
Also factoring heavily into the equation is Sepultura's innovative nature. Their latest album, Roots, mixes traditional Brazilian rhythms with bone-crunching guitars, and features a range of collaborators varying from FAITH NO MORE's MIKE PATTON and HOUSE OF PAIN's DJ LETHAL to the nomadic Xavantes tribe of Brazilian Indians who live near the Bolivian border.
Still, Cavalera admits that the "death metal" tag from early albums with titles like Bestial Devastation and Beneath The Remains still haunts them.
"The label has been a problem," he admits. "You're kind of a victim of your early stuff, and the early stages of Sepultura we were working within that format. But the last five albums we've been finding our own sound, which people have been calling Tribal thrash or multicultural metal. I just call it Sepultura, although our relationship with Brazilian percussion and rhythms has grown."
Cavalera says the band's involvement with the Xavantes was foreshadowed by a track on their previous album Chaos A.D. called "Kaiowas", dedicated to another tribe of Brazilian rainforest natives who committed mass suicide as a protest against a government committed to uprooting them.
Encouraged by the response to the song, Sepultura decided to take it a step further on Roots and traveled to the Xavantes' remote jungle location for a three-day excursion.
"We were there for three days," says Cavalera. "Unfortunately, we couldn't bring our electric guitars because they have no electricity. But we brought our acoustics, and they wanted to hear our music. There were 500 people sitting on the grass, all freaking out. It was the greatest gig we ever did."
Another big difference in the new Sepultura sound is the positive message. Songs such as "Attitude", "Breed Apart" and "Born Stubborn" promote individuality and independence.
"Roots definitely moves us away from the politics of Chaos A.D.," says Cavalera. "Some of that album was inspired by a night I got arrested in Phoenix and realizing how screwed up the justice system was. I felt I had already explored many of those topics and didn't want to repeat myself.
"So I decided to focus on inner strength, and a real positive message. Even though the world's still f---d up, you gotta hold your own or people are gonna step on you."
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DISCOGRAPHY
1989 --Beneath The Remains
1990-- Schizophrenia
1991 -- Arise
1993-- Chaos A.D.
1996 --Roots
1997 --Blood-Rooted
1998 --Against
COLLABORATIONS
1994 -- Various Artists, Nativity In Black -- A Tribute To Black Sabbath
1996 -- Various Artists, Silencio = Muerte -- Red, Hot & Latin
©1996, 1999 Nick Krewen, Octopus Media Ink