Max Cavalera’s hair and beard are streaked with gray, but he’s aged exactly as well as Sepultura’s two breakout albums: “Beneath the Remains” and “Arise.” In mid-2022, he and brother Igor, aka “Iggor,” aka “Skullcrusher,” took to stages across North America to play both of those albums in their entirety. Even today, thirty plus years since their release, the songs - - and the Cavalera brothers - - are every bit as ferocious and energetic as they were in their youth.
Max and Igor co-founded Sepultura in 1984, but Max famously split off in 1996; Igor left ten years later in 2006. Both brothers have participated in numerous respectable post-Sepultura projects, including the Cavalera Conspiracy together, Killer Be Killed, Go Ahead and Die, Nailbomb, and most well-known, Max’s band Soulfly. There’s an incredible amount of great music to be found in the output of all of the above, but the Cavaleras’s greatest legacy may end up being the four world-changing Selpultura released from 1989 through 1996: “Beneath the Remains,” “Arise,” “Chaos A.D.,” and “Roots.”
Maybe it’s because the show was in Max Cavalera’s adopted hometown of Phoenix, AZ (Tempe, close enough), but Max was clearly having the time of his life playing the “Beneath” and “Arise” tunes with his brother and their excellent band. He did throw a little shade at one point, pointing to his bandmates and stating, “This is the real Sepultura!!” - - but that wasn’t the point. This was just a celebration of two timeless records.
All that said, with all respect to these classics, the highlight of the evening may have been when they diverted into an excerpt of “Territory,” from “Chaos A.D.” So. Much. Headbanging.
I can only hope that the success of this outing will lead to another Cavalera tour celebrating “Chaos A.D.” and “Roots.”
Cavalera setlist:
Beneath the Remains
Beneath the Remains
Inner Self
Stronger Than Hate
Mass Hypnosis
Sarcastic Existence
Slaves of Pain
Lobotomy
Primitive Future
Arise
Arise
Dead Embryonic Cells
Desperate Cry
Subtraction
Altered State
Infected Voice
Orgasmatron
(Motörhead cover)
Encore:
Troops of Doom
Escape to the Void
Arise / Beneath the Remains
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