Quick, name the biggest-selling musical act that's ever emerged from
Brazil. Antonio Carlos Jobim? Nice try. Milton Nascimento? Nope. Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and so on? Not even close. It's actually a
Heavy Metal band named Sepultura.
Sepultura
note Portuguese for "grave" - the name comes from the Motörhead song "Dancing On Your Grave" are a metal band from Belo Horizonte that's been kicking around since 1984 and is
one of the few Brazilian acts that's even more popular to the north in the USA. They've been active in quite a few subgenres of metal but they're most famous as one of the most important
Groove Metal bands.
The band was formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, who drew influences at first from popular eighties metal and rock bands like
Iron Maiden,
Motörhead,
AC/DC,
Judas Priest and
Van Halen, but later on expanded into more extreme metal acts like
Venom,
Metallica,
Exodus and
Sodom. After some lineup difficulties, Sepultura obtained a record contract and released their debut
Morbid Visions in 1986. Visions remains the only pure
Death Metal album the band ever released before their sound started evolving.
Lead guitarist Jairo Guedes lost interest in death metal soon afterwards and quit, replaced by Andreas Kisser. Not only did this create Sepultura's "classic lineup", but it also changed their sound as Kisser brought in more influences apart from death metal. With
Schizophrenia, the band switched to a hybrid of
Thrash Metal and
Death Metal that earned them critical acclaim. Also around this time they began making waves in the USA, moving to metal label Roadrunner Records and touring the hell out of
Schizophrenia and
Beneath the Remains.
Recorded in the USA, their 1991 album
Arise increased their popularity and showed the band's first exploration of other genres while still keeping their thrash/death sound. The real change came with
Chaos A.D. two years later. On Chaos, Sepultura ditched the thrash/death fusion and instead dove headfirst into
Groove Metal, combining Igor's groove-laden rhythms with churning riffs and a
genre stew that included
Industrial Metal,
Hardcore Punk and Brazilian percussion. Thanks to Andy Wallace's heavy production and several successful singles ("Refuse/Resist", "Territory", "Slave New World"),
Chaos became the band's breakthrough album, earning both commercial and critical success. Their similarly-acclaimed followup
Roots was yet another change in sound (
Nu Metal this time) that also placed emphasis on Brazilian percussion (supplied by Carlinhos Brown) and featured a collaboration with members of the Brazilian Xavante Indian tribe, as well as appearances by
Jonathan Davis,
DJ Lethal, and
Mike Patton.
Max Cavalera left the band shortly after the album's release in 1996, for still unclear reasons, and instead formed his own band,
Soulfly. He was replaced by Derrick Green. The new Sepultura lineup predictably created a
Broken Base and carried on with modestly acclaimed but poorer-selling albums like
Against,
Nation,
Roorback and the
Concept Album Dante XXI. Igor himself left the band in 2006.
Max and Igor later got back together to form a new band named Cavalera Conspiracy which has caused an even more
Broken Base as fans are now divided as to which band is the real Sepultura and which is the
Evil Knockoff which is further confounded by the fact that Sepultura's music is almost unanimously agreed upon by fans to have improved in recent years.
Current Lineup:
- Paulo Jr. - bass, backing vocals (1985-present)
- Andreas Kisser - lead guitar, backing vocals (1987-present)
- Derrick Green - lead vocals (1997-present)
- Eloy Casagrande – drums, percussion (2011-present)
Former Members:
- Igor Cavalera – drums, percussion (1984–2006)
- Max Cavalera – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, berimbau (1985–1997), lead guitar, backing vocals (1984–1985)
- Cassio – rhythm guitar (1984)
- Wagner Lamounier – lead vocals (1984–1985)
- Roberto Raffan – bass (1984)
- Beto Pinga – drums (1984)
- Roberto UFO – rhythm guitar (1984)
- Julio Cesar Vieira Franco – lead guitar (1985)
- Jairo Guedes – lead guitar (1985–1987)
- Jean Dolabella – drums, percussion (2006–2011)
Touring Members:
- Silvio Golfetti – lead guitar (1991)
- Guilherme Martin – drums, percussion (2005)
- Roy Mayorga – drums, percussion (2006)
- Amilcar Christófaro – drums (2011)
- Kevin Foley – drums, percussion (2013)
- Brandon Cagle – rhythm guitar (2018–present)
Discography:
- Bestial Devastation EP (1985) - split EP with Brazilian band Overdose.
- Morbid Visions (1986)
- Schizophrenia (1987)
- Beneath the Remains (1989)
- Arise (1991)
- Chaos A.D. (1993)
- Roots (1996)
- The Roots of Sepultura (1996) - compilation of unreleased tracks, B-sides, alternate mixes, demos and live recordings.
- Blood-Rooted (1997) - another compilation of more unreleased tracks, B-sides, remixes and live recordings.
- Against (1998) - the first album featuring Derrick Green
- Nation (2001)
- Revolusongs EP (2003) - an EP of Cover Versions.
- Roorback (2003)
- Dante XXI (2006)
- A-Lex (2009)
- Kairos (2011)
- The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart (2013)
- Machine Messiah (2017)
Tropes: