Well boys and girls, it’s been a long time coming, but the brothers Cavalera - former Sepultura band mates Max (vocals/guitar) and Iggor (drums) - have made nice, called themselves Cavalera Conspiracy, and just released a new album which fuses old school death metal with a new school vibe.

 I recently chatted with Iggor about making sweet music with his brother again after more then a decade apart, and it soon became clear that it’s family first for this multi-tasking lad from Brazil.

“I’m really happy with how the album turned out - I don’t like really reading into a lot of people’s expectations [so] it’s quite surprising to see how much people are getting into this album and enjoying it.” Modest words from a man who in the 80’s and 90’s with a little band called Sepultura came to redefine death/thrash metal.

While the sacking of Max’s wife as Sepultura manager led to Max’s departure from the band back in 1996, fast forward to 2008 and Cavalera Conspiracy represents the restoration of the brothers’ relationship, personally and musically.

“More than anything, I just had a really good time working [and reconnecting] with Max again”. In fact, they were so relaxed in their approach to this new project that they just let it evolve naturally. “That was the idea behind what me and Max wanted to do. We never sat down and talked about how we wanted the album to sound or what it should be like. Max had some riffs and from those ideas we just worked on the album. We just wanted to let the music speak for itself “.

And that it does. With his politically charged lyrics Max sounds as pissed off as ever and Iggor’s drumming possesses the same tribal brutality we’ve all come to know and love.

That signature Cavalera sound is all over this album, which Iggor credits with “just knowing who you are” while being open to new ideas and musical influences. “That’s something we always did with Sepultura - growing up with Max, we always listened to many different styles of music, and that’s good because you learn a lot, you grow faster as a musician, instead of being just locked into one style of music.

It [doesn’t] necessarily mean you need to like everything but you can definitely absorb something about it. [Lately] Max has been listening to a lot of dub artists, and even with Mixhell, my other project, I do a lot of more electronic music which is very different to what I’m doing with Cavalera Conspiracy, and all that exchange of ideas is very important – experimenting. We just enjoy working together and I think that really translates into the Max and Iggor vibe”.

Iggor was also keen to be involved with the art direction for the album, designing the logo with his wife (the other half of Mixhell) and collaborating with French art collective Surface to Air for the album artwork and band’s videos.

“The logo was something I said to Max I wanted to do - so [me and my wife] were trying out something that had the double ‘C’ on it but everything was kinda looking like Coco Chanel and we were like ‘Shit, this can’t be!’, so then we made it more like the Black Flag kinda like with the bars – and we finally found something we liked - I really love the logo because it’s very minimal. I mean I like both, I come from the background where you know, we’d make logos that people couldn’t read because they were [so] complicated and I think those are brilliant, but it became too much, now I’m more into the vibe of having something really simple”.

And with the band about to start touring in Europe in May, Iggor is looking forward to the dual role of drummer and DJ, often doing both in the same night. “It’s a lot of fun, because I get to play to different crowds. You know with Cavalera Conspiracy we have such a huge following from Sepultura that I know a lot of people are gonna go see it and I know the crowd, but with Mixhell it’s a completely different situation where you go into a club and some nights people don’t even know who you are, they’re just there to dance to your music - so it’s quite challenging to make people react where I think with Cavalera [Conspiracy] it’s easier because people already know what it is they’re going to hear”. 

After Europe and the US the band should be arriving on our shores sometime around August or September. “We had some friends who played in Australia - the guys from LCD Soundsystem - and they told us how amazing it was to tour there so we’re really looking forward to coming there again. In Europe we’re going to be playing with Cavalera Conspiracy and then afterwards going to a different club for a different crowd and do Mixhell on the same night”, something Iggor is keen to do in Australia.
And when it comes to live performance, all you need is love baby. “We really enjoy ourselves, we have fun, we sit around in the dressing room and then go play a show, there’s no big mystery or big rituals. I’m really happy because I do Cavalera Conspiracy with Max, with my brother, and then I do Mixhell with my wife, so I’m really happy to be with my family on tour”.