Welcome to the world of Max Cavalera, a prominent figure in the realms of metal music and beyond. Born on August 4, 1969, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Cavalera’s journey through music has been marked by innovation, passion, and an unyielding commitment to his craft. As the founder and former lead vocalist/guitarist of Sepultura, Cavalera has left an indelible mark on the metal scene, pioneering a unique blend of thrash, groove, and tribal elements that continues to inspire generations of musicians worldwide.
Beyond his contributions to Sepultura, Max Cavalera has embarked on numerous musical ventures, including founding the band Soulfly and collaborating with artists across various genres. His distinctive growls, aggressive riffs, and thought-provoking lyrics have earned him a dedicated following and solidified his status as a metal icon. Offstage, Cavalera’s outspoken nature and insightful commentary on music, society, and spirituality offer further glimpses into the mind of a true artist. Explore the wisdom, wit, and raw energy encapsulated in Max Cavalera’s words, as we delve into a collection of his most memorable quotes.
I really love ‘Killchain’ – it’s got this groove, it’s the groove I always talk about in death metal and black metal, people try to discredit it but you cannot deny it. Max Cavalera
I think all my anger and hate comes out in the music; that should be the way you channel these things. It’s like, I don’t go out and beat people up, I do it with my guitar. Max Cavalera
We used to joke that we were more scared of the police than we were of the devil. You had to have I.D. with you all the time or else the police would throw you in jail. I got thrown in jail twice for not having I.D., and walking in there was like walking through the gates of hell. Max Cavalera
Yeah, I always had the habit of translating a lot of Black Sabbath records – that’s kinda like how I first learned English, translating records. Max Cavalera
A Clockwork Orange’ was one of my favorite movies as a teenager. I had a big poster on my wall in Brazil. Max Cavalera
I have lots of friends who stopped being into metal and just quit. Not for me, man. Max Cavalera
When we released ‘Chaos A.D’ it was really hard for a metal artist to survive. Everything was grunge. Everywhere you looked was grunge. Max Cavalera
The Patriotic Act allows the American government to snoop around anybody’s business at any time. Nobody has privacy anymore. Everybody can hack into anybody’s system and find out everything about that person’s life because it’s all on a computer. Max Cavalera
I always think of the ‘Schizophrenia’ album as being like the cover of the Scorpions’ ‘Blackout.’ It’s got this guy breaking out of the glass, but he’s got a straightjacket on. I think it’s a bit of ‘Blackout’ mixed with a little bit of ‘A Clockwork Orange.’ Max Cavalera
There were bands like Iron Maiden, but we wanted it heavier. We wanted to go radical, we wanted to go extreme. Max Cavalera
I always wanted to do a song with a violin; I always loved the sound of the instrument, especially for melodic stuff. Max Cavalera
I don’t really go to church every Sunday and that kind of stuff, but I do believe in a higher power and I do believe in God. Max Cavalera
A lot of times I like to listen to albums between midnight and three in the morning – it’s my favorite listening hours. I get to sit at my bed, put my headphones on and just let the music consume me. Max Cavalera
A lot of what we sing concerns the Brazilian way of life. The stuff I write is reality, everything I see. That’s the stuff I want to sing about. Max Cavalera
Roots’ was the first album on which I recorded a berimbau. After that, I recorded it a bunch for Soulfly and other projects. I really enjoy the instrument even though it’s only one string. It’s really unique-sounding. It’s very striking, and you know right away that it’s a berimbau – it’s one of a kind. Max Cavalera
I think Sepultura, I have to say ‘Refuse/Resist’ is one of my favorite riffs. It’s really energetic and I love the song. If you were to find a way to put the word ‘chaos’ into a song, it is the riff of ‘Refuse/Resist.’ It’s chaotic, catchy, and heavy. Max Cavalera
The heat doesn’t bother me as much as it does other people. I’m from Brazil, where it’s hot anyway. Max Cavalera
I’m growing up backwards. Max Cavalera
We never had rich girlfriends. All the chicks hated us. Max Cavalera
For me, the fun part is riffs, and making the riffs is what I… that’s my world. I’m born for that. And when it comes to lyrics, it’s an agonizing process. Max Cavalera
Chaos A.D’ is about chaos around the world. ‘Territory’ was about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Max Cavalera
Me and Iggor come from poor upbringings. We’re broke, never had any money. Max Cavalera
I liked Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Melvins. I didn’t really care much for Pearl Jam. Max Cavalera
I always love working with my peers. Max Cavalera
The vocals are aggressive not because I want to create an evil voice or anything like that, but because when I sing about angry things that’s the way it comes out of me. Max Cavalera
Being from Brazil, I missed out on a lot of American music, so I like to go back and check things out – music from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. So much of that stuff was groundbreaking. Max Cavalera
When Sepultura played in B, because of Iggor’s drumming, because of the way the songs are structured, it’s very different from Korn. So, it opens up a whole new world. Max Cavalera
I never think about retirement or anything like that. Max Cavalera
Schizophrenia’ was the first real production of the Cogumelo label. They put everything they had into it. The original album had a gatefold with a huge picture of us when you opened the album. Max Cavalera
Sepultura had a political album like Chaos A.D. that concerned itself with politics and war. I continued that in some areas with Soulfly. Max Cavalera
I see metal as really connected to tribalism. Like, even the way we dress and the way we love the music and are part of a movement, it’s like we’re part of a certain tribe, and we’re proud of that. Max Cavalera
We love the New York hardcore bands like Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All – the whole thing. Max Cavalera
Because of the fact that we grew up in a Third World country, we see how things are from the outside point of view. Max Cavalera
Guerillas’ uses a snippet of ‘Procreation of the Wicked’ by Celtic Frost because I always loved that song. Max Cavalera
When we did the ‘Roots’ tour with Cavalera Conspiracy, it was more flashy. It was supposed to be a big deal because it was a big album. Max Cavalera
I must have a good chemistry to play because I play every day with the same people. It has to be there. It’s essential for a band like Soulfly. Max Cavalera
Argentina has the best fans actually. They’re amazing over there. Just loud and passionate and they sleep outside the hotel. Max Cavalera
If you do it with passion – you just have to have passion for what you’re doing – and sometimes you’ve gotta go into these unknown territories and just see what happens. And don’t be scared of it, don’t be afraid – just go for it. Max Cavalera
I’m a huge Obituary fan. Max Cavalera
I think ‘Roots’ is a courageous record with some really cool stuff in it. Max Cavalera
I never let whatever – people or ideas or opinions – get in the way of something that is in your head, or is in your heart. If I feel it is right, I will go ahead and do it. And I think that’s been always right, right from the start. Max Cavalera
There’s a lot of modern stuff I really dig, like Melechesh or Italian death metal like Hour Of Penance and Bloodtruth. Max Cavalera
We normally use Peavey amplifiers, and I use an ESP guitar with two Boss pedals: a flanger and a big wah pedal. My sound is pretty much the sound that comes out of the Peavey with the gain all the way to the top so there’s a really heavy distortion sound that comes from the amplifier. Max Cavalera
If you face problems, face reality, even when it’s hard, even when what you’re saying is an ugly truth, sometimes you can wake up faster and do something to make things better. Max Cavalera
I think the older I get, the more psycho I get. Max Cavalera
I’m not good at updating gear. Max Cavalera
My only regret is maybe with Nailbomb. And it’s that we didn’t do more. Because that project had the capacity to offer a lot more. Max Cavalera
First and foremost: I’m a metal fan. I’m a musician, an artist, but I’m a complete fan and I’ve never grown out of the complete fan faze I had when I was 13 or 14 – that’s always stayed with me. I’m always trying to discover new bands. Max Cavalera
My dad had a guitar but it was acoustic, so I smashed a mirror and glued broken glass to it to make it look more metal. It looked ridiculous! Max Cavalera
My biggest breakthrough was discovering that I could write my own riffs. Max Cavalera
We were always broke and always complaining about something and music came and gave us a reason. That’s why we started Sepultura. Max Cavalera
Music is such a big landscape. There’s so much we can do with it. It’s endless. That’s what the cool thing about it is. Max Cavalera
We get to travel to Siberia, Japan, China, Australia, South America and even the little cities all around America. It’s probably my favorite thing about being in a band. Max Cavalera
I’m not much of a writing guy to start with. I don’t write diaries. Max Cavalera
Eye for an Eye’ is super-simple, super-catchy, but very effective. Max Cavalera
I think when things are unpredictable, they don’t turn out how you imagine. Max Cavalera
To me, if I retire tomorrow, what the hell am I gonna do? Sit around the house and do nothing? I would drive everybody crazy, including myself. I would go nuts – literally, I would go insane. Max Cavalera
I’m very proud of ‘Arise.’ Max Cavalera
I love history and I love watching history movies, stuff like ‘Ben Hur’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Doctor Zhivago.’ Max Cavalera
If I’m feeling down, I’ll play stuff to get charged up – even better to hear heavier stuff. Max Cavalera
I really love history. When I was a little kid in Brazil, it was my favorite subject in school. I always did really well in it. Max Cavalera
Unfortunately, I think metal bands don’t have too much to say in their lyrics, and never care about it. We just decided not to be like that. Max Cavalera
I really don’t like writing lyrics. It’s totally a mandatory thing. It’s like homework. Max Cavalera
We all have violence inside of us, but we try to channel it into what we do. Max Cavalera
We know Faith No More from back in Brazil; when they played Brazil, we’d hang out with them and became good friends. Max Cavalera
Knowing how other people wrote music is a great tool, which can be applied into your own musical mindset. Max Cavalera
My favorite instrument is a bemrimbau. I play that every night. Max Cavalera
I listen to a lot of metal. I’m like a teenager – I make playlists with, like, 200 bands on them. Max Cavalera
We were always big fans of Hellhammer, but when Celtic Frost came on with ‘Morbid Tales,’ to me it was a game-changer in the metal world. Max Cavalera
You only get so many shots in this life, and you gotta make it count. Max Cavalera
I think the first Soulfly album is one of the strongest records I’ve ever made. It was definitely the most difficult album to record. There was a lot of pressure and anger going on at the time. It felt like a therapy session in many ways, but that’s why I think it’s such a truthful album. It holds up. Max Cavalera
People think ‘Roots’ was planned but it wasn’t. I just had a couple of ideas and the name. Max Cavalera
As far as recording equipment, we use everything! We don’t rely too much on Pro Tools like other bands. Max Cavalera
There must be something wrong with me, something wrong with my head. Max Cavalera
I like to share my metal with other musicians. It’s very cool. Max Cavalera
Chaos A.D.’ starts normal, but then it breaks into all these crazy fragments. But the things that surprised people is what makes the album cool. Max Cavalera
Extreme times call for extreme music! Max Cavalera
There are a lot of things about religion, especially Catholic religion, that bug me. Max Cavalera
I don’t deny the influence from the first Korn record, which was something we listened to and liked a lot. I liked the rawness of it, and what Ross Robinson did on it, which was why we ended up recording with Ross. Max Cavalera
I get to express myself in my songs more than I can ever do in real life or in talking to somebody. I get to say the stuff I really want to say in the songs. Max Cavalera
We could easily have made ‘Arise II’ and plenty of fans would have been happy, and we probably would have been OK with that, too. But it was much more exciting coming up with fresh, new stuff like ‘Refuse/Resist’ which had this crazy, heavy groove on it and ‘Territory,’ which just had these tribal beats and catchy, weird riffs. Max Cavalera
We’re not an American band, or a European band. We’re a Brazilian band. Max Cavalera
I just try to make the best record I can make, without any ego or comparisons at all. I never sit there and tell myself it’s going to be a masterpiece or anything! Max Cavalera
I started to listen to music in ’80 or ’81, bands like Queen or Kiss. Then in ’83, when I first got into Slayer and Venom and stuff like that, they just blew my mind. Max Cavalera
Chemistry is so difficult to explain. It’s there or it’s not. And I notice with people it sometimes is there and then disappears with time. Max Cavalera
I’ve always tried to stay true to myself, do things that I like, that I believe are right. That people like it is cool. Max Cavalera
Life goes on, and we have to keep coming up with fresh ideas. Max Cavalera
We treated ‘Psychosis’ like a labor of love from the beginning, from the selection of riffs – I spent like a month just doing riffs for the record. Max Cavalera
The whole ‘Roots’ thing is a very confusing time in my life, because I don’t think I knew how to deal with the whole fame thing very well – especially in Brazil. We went to Brazil, and the record was massive – like real, real big; like Beatles big. And I remember I tried to go to the mall with my wife, and we got mobbed. Max Cavalera
Some people love ‘Roots;’ some people hate ‘Roots.’ Some people only like the old stuff. Some people want me to play like I did when I was 15. I can’t do that all the time. I try to bring a little bit of that into some stuff that I do, but I can’t just be that only. There’s much more to life than that. Max Cavalera
It’s hard to get at first. I think the first time you listen to ‘Chaos A.D.,’ you’re not sure exactly what you just heard. You’re just kind of confused. I don’t think people fell in love immediately with the album. It was a learning process. Max Cavalera
We did some shows – Soulfly played for the Marines twice and it was great meeting those guys. A lot of them are heavy metal fans and go to war areas like Iraq and Afghanistan and listen to their metal. I’m glad that my music has somehow helped them get through that at least a little bit. Max Cavalera
With ‘Psychosis’ we didn’t want to have any silence on the record so the whole record plays like this one song. We have noises and feedback and samplers and ambient stuff. Prurient did some stuff for the record which was great. Max Cavalera
Nailbomb was never really a big record. It’s big in the underground. It’s huge and it developed a big cult following. Max Cavalera
Doom was one of my favorite crusty punk bands. Max Cavalera
I don’t know if people know this, but I kind of got Fear Factory signed with Roadrunner. I really bugged Monte Conner back in the day when I heard the demo that had ‘Big God’ on it. Max Cavalera
Sepultura was really close to my heart, it was like my baby. Max Cavalera
I wanted to be a drummer but my brother Iggor was better at it, so I took up guitar instead. Max Cavalera
Music is never-ending, that’s what I love about it. Even after we’re dead, this music will still exist… that’s the best bit. That’s metal. Max Cavalera
The Soulfly logo was invented by a tattoo artist, Leo Zuleta; a lot of people don’t know that. Max Cavalera