Continuing our look at Brazilian music and their biggest bands, today we focus on speed metal giants, Sepultura.
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Widely regarded as one of the most influential heavy metal bands around, Sepultura are ensconced in the psyche of metal fans everywhere. Hailing from Belo Horizonte, they were formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera. The band was a major force in the death metal and thrash metal genres during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments drawing influence from nu metal,hardcore punk and industrial metal.
They’ve sold 30 million albums worldwide with their most successful albums being Arise (1991), Chaos A.D. (1993), and Roots (1996). The Chaos A.D. album is widely revered as their best ever album, with influential music website AllMusic describing it as “one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time.”
They grew up as metal fans listening to the likes of Motorhead, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne. However, it was when they first heard the sound of British heavy metal band, Venom, that their influences changed. As Igor Cavalera put it, “I remember the first time I listened to Venom, it was on a friend’s borrowed tape. It was similar to Motörhead, only a lot heavier. I remember someone saying: it’s the devil’s Motörhead! After we got acquainted with Venom, we stopped listening to Iron Maiden and all that lighter stuff.”
MTV described Sepultura as “the most successful Brazilian heavy metal band in history” and “perhaps the most important heavy metal band of the ’90s.” In 1993, Robert Baird of Phoenix New Times wrote that the band played “machine-gun-tempo mayhem” and that the members “love to attack organized religion and repressive government.”
The band itself has had numerous line-up changes with founding member Max Cavalera now fronting his own metal band, Soulfly. If you fancy checking out Soulfly, they play Whelan’s of Dublin on July 11th and tickets are available here.
They are not for everyone’s pallet, but there is no denying that they have been major players on the heavy metal scene for 30 years now and there is no sign of them stopping.
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