SOULFLY's Max Cavalera: "I Do Hate A Lot Of 'Religion' But People Like Christ - Yeah They Inspire Me"
March 9, 2006, 18 years ago
musicOHM.com (www.musicomh.com) has issued the following report from Tom Day:
Heavy metal music legends don't come much grander in stature than Max Cavalera, a founding member of the immensely influential SEPULTURA, and currently the central figure in the the more diverse but equally successful SOULFLY.
musicOMH.com caught up with the Brazilian thrasher in London to discuss the themes behind the band's fifth opus Dark Ages, the "colours" of their music and what can only be described as punk theology.
Given his credentials, Max Cavalera is a considerably less imposing individual than one might expect. Perched on the end of the hotel bed in which his jet-lagged eldest son is recuperating from a 16-hour flight, he explains how the unique way in which he views Soulfly's back catalogue:
"Well, this sounds a little bit crazy, but I kind of think all of my albums have colours. Soulfly 1 was green; Primitive was yellow or red; Three was like earth - brown; and Prophecy was gold. Dark Ages is black, you know - it's the dark one."At this point Max does "scary" necro metal hands, and then cracks up at his own pose before continuing:
"When I was working on Dark Ages I set an entire tone for the entire record on purpose. I wanted darker lyrics, darker music, darker everything... but all still in the Soulfly way."Dark Ages may appear apocalyptic (Michael Whelan's Gulf War-inspired artwork) and sometimes nihilistic (furious battle hymns such as 'Fuel My Hate'), but Max still chose to make space for positivity in his creation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recital of Psalm 91 in his native Portuguese.
"I find passages of the Psalms as well as many other parts of the Bible to be really apocalyptic and exciting... I think it's a very punk thing to not do clichés and what is expected. So, to dedicate the Soulfly albums to God - in my eyes that's a punk thing to do 'coz nobody else is doing it. It's really easy to be all like, 'Oooh I'm evil' with an inverted cross and all - anybody can say that.""At the same time though, I got really frustrated with people trying to connect me to religion, especially in America where they tried to stereotype me as this 'Christian' guy, and I'm like: 'What?! Are you f**king crazy?!' I do hate a lot of 'religion' but people like Christ - yeah they inspire me. I mean if you look at Christ He was hanging around with the lowlifes, prostitutes and the losers you know, not going around with those high society motherf**kers you see trying to sell Jesus today!"
To read the entire interview head here.
