Sepultura Essay, Research Paper

Life may be easier for them all now, but it never used to be. Max Cavelera, his brother Igor, Andreas Kisser and Paulo Jr. will never forget that.

Max and Igor were born in Belo Horizonte into a relitively affluent family, with a father who worked at the Italian embassy. They spent most of their early childhood in

Sao Paulo. They were living in a typical middle class setting, when in 1979, the Cavelera’s comfortable lifestyle collapsed. Max and Igor’s father died of a terribly sudden heart attack. He was not prepared to die, and did’nt have a will, so the only thing the family got was a small contribution from the embassy. Since the ammbasodor provided everything, the Cavelera’s lost the good life. The Family needed any money they could get, so Max and Igor went to work right away. The boys made ice-cream in the house, put it in boxes and sold it around the neighbourhood. The Cavelera’s mother dodn’t know what to do with her boys, and finaly decided to send them to a millitary school. From her point of view, it was the worst thing she ever did, but for any Sepultura fan it was the best thing that ever happened, as millitary school got the brothers into Metal Music, and taught them how to be rebelious. Soon the name Trops De Choque started appearing in their books where their homework should have been. It meant Shock Troops, and was the name of the band the boys wished they were in. Then the name SEPULTURA appeared. It is a Portugese word, meaning Grave. At millitary school, the Cavelera’s met the man who would become Sepultura’s first singer, Wagner Lamounier.

Later, the brothers were moved to a religious school called Dom Cabral, theywere only there for a year, and they were always in trouble. But the Brothers were less than worried about their lack of acidemic acheivement, now they had a band and were having heaps of fun making noise, rather than hanging around the dangerous streets. The first Sepultura gig took place in Belo Horizonte in December 1984. They Played terribly, Max’s Guitar was way out of tune, not even one note was slightly in. At the time of their first show Sepultura were still without a Bass Guitar, they neither knew nor cared. Eventually they wised up to their need for a Bassist, enlisting Roberto ‘The Cat’ (how he came to be nicknamed ‘The Cat’ is unknown). They began rehearsing in The Cat’s garage, but this arrangement was short lived, as Paulo Jr was Destined to enter the frame. Returning from his school holidays, he heard a Sepultura Rehersal tape…And hated it, but still a friend persuaded him to come down and see the band play in a local garage.. he was greatly amused by Igor’s incredibly basic drum kit, which utilized plant stands and a broom, still, Paulo ended up replacing Roberto, mainly due to the fact that he actually owned a bass, and didn’t have to borrow one for each rehearsal. The new Sepultura line up continued to gig and slowly gain experience. Although when relations with Wagner collapsed, Max surprised the others with a decision. One day, out of the blue Max just thought “Im gonna sing”. Wagner came to practice, all excited, but Max just grabed his (Wagner’s) bag, threw it on the floor and said “You better go now, you’re fired.”, Wagner was very displeased, and it was a bad split, but a fateful one, Sepultura wouldn’t have been the same without Max doing vocals. Next to go was their increasingly blues obsesed guitarist Jairo T, who was replaced by Andreas Kisser, This completing the Sepultura line up.

Eventualy Sepultura were offered a record deal from Cogumelo Records. The label paid for them to record a demo track, ‘Necromancer’. After this, Sepultura could’t wait to put the rest of their songs down. They did, and the result was 1985’s ‘Beastial Devistation’ – Sepultura’s half of a split LP with Overdose.

Then, in 1986, Sepultura recorded their Debut album ‘Morbid Visions’, Then a year later Sepultura released their third album, ‘Schizophrenia’ .

Now that Sepultura were doing over twenty gigs a year, Cogumelo could no longer hold them. Max sent copies of Schizophrenia to various labels and radio stations in the States. The feedback was so positive that max knew he had to go to New York and push his band. But how?

In March 1988 luck was on Max’s side, he had a friend who worked for Pan Am Airways who gave him a free ticket, and in exchange, Max gave him a heap of Sepultura videos to sell.But he had to pretend to be a Pan Am employee.

During the two days in America, Max stayed at a ‘dump’ in Manhattan, but he didn’t care, he was just glad to be in America. He went to all the major record labels, but nobody really responded enthusisticaly, so he came home a little bummed out, doubting that anyone would sign Sepultura. These doubts continued for about a month, until the voice that was set to change their lives got on the phone, that voice was Monte Conner from Roadrunner Records, He wanted more details on the band because he wanted to sign them!

They signed and returned the contract through the post, then holed up in Paulo’s house for days on end, intensively writing material for what eventually became ‘Beneath the remains’. They recorded it in Rio De Janeiro and it took Europe by storm. In September the group arrived in Europe for the first time. Supporting German thrashers Sodom,

they hacked and slashed their way through fifty-two gigs, leaving jaws on the floor to be scraped up . A rampage through America followed, to almost unanimous acclaim. Sepultura had arived. It was 1991 before they recorded the follow up to beneath the remains. ‘Arise’ is generaly seen as a transitional disc, with some good songs. A while after they recorded ‘Arise’ Max met his wife and manager-to-be Gloria Bujnowski. The Arise tour never seemed to end. Sepultura toured with Ozzy Osbourne, and then Ministry. The album went on to sell over two million copies worldwide. In 1993 Sepultura recorded their next album, Chaos A.D. Chaos saw Sepultura really let loose, and it had lethal results. The first single, ‘Territory’ infiltrated the U.K. top seventy-five for the first time at number 66. The album hit the national charts at number 11. These acheivements were momintarily clouded by the first few incidents of the Chaos.. era. Returning home from a Rage Against The Machine gig in Phoenix (where they now lived) Max, Gloria and two friends were shot at in the street, simply because they had long hair and tattooes. When Max retaliated, he and his party were, amazingly, arrested. It was nothing but terittorial stupidity.

Sepultura spent much of 1995 writing and recording Roots. The title being a referance to our roots, and not forgeting them, remembering where you come from, as, once you’ve lost those roots, that’s it, you’re not yourself anymore. This album was Sepultura’s heaviest album ever. This time they enlisted Brazil’s Xavante tribeto chant on the acoustic, percusive song ‘Itsari’. Max personaly called the tribal culture center, and explained the concept to the lady who worked there. She had all the necesarry equiptment, which was good, but, when you think about it, where do you get power in the jungle? They ended up using car batteries, but they could only record stuff, not play it back. This mission silenced critics, who said that Sepultura had turned their backs on their homeland. But, unfortunately, just before Roots was published, the rock world was shocked to learn that Igor, Andreas and Paulo had accused Max’s wife and band manager Gloria Cavelera of stealing money (which she hadn’t) from the band and fired her as the bands manager.

after this inccident, Max was not happy, so it was with a heavy heart that Max walked away from the only band he had ever played in, the band he co-founded.Now Igor, Andreas and Paulo continue to play under the name Sepultura, with their new lead singer Derrick Green. Without Max, Sepultura is never going to be the same again.