SOULFLY's MAX CAVALERA Says 'Savages' Is 'A Great Combination' Of 'Extreme' And 'Groove'

The Rock Pit recently conducted an interview with Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SEPULTURA). A couple of excerps from the chat follow below.

The Rock Pit: I wanted to get straight into [SOULFLY's] upcoming album, "Savages". I have been listening to a preview of it and I must say this sounds like a really big album for SOULFLY. It has a lot of the elements from previous albums. Tell us a bit about the idea behind this album.

Max: "Savages" is definitely a surprising album for us in that it's the ninth album for SOULFLY and the first album with Terry Date producing the album. He's a great producer. It's the first album that my son plays drums on it. Zyon did a great job and we have some real nice guests like Neil [Fallon] from CLUTCH, Jamie [Hanks] from I DECLARE WAR and Mitch [Harris] from NAPALM DEATH are on the record. I really like the record. I think half of it is extreme like "Enslaved" was and the other half is really super groovy like early SOULFLY stuff like "Prophecy" and "Soulfly 1". Stuff like "Bloodshed" and "Masters Of Savagery" and "Spiral" are killer groove songs, so I think it's a great combination of this extreme and groove together which makes "Savages" a very powerful record.

The Rock Pit: Terry Date, who you have worked with before, you decided to work with him again; this time he produced the album. Why did you decide to work with him?

Max: Yeah, I worked with him on "Around The Fur", the DEFTONES album from 1997, I believe, and I met Terry at that time and became good friends with him. He used to come to SOULFLY and sing "Policia" all the time and he mixed two of my other records, "Dark Ages" and "Conquer", I believe, and we kept the friendship going through the years. I always said, "One day I'm going to record a whole record with you and you are going to produce." When the time came for this one, I called him up and said, "Are you ready to do this, man?" and he was ready, and it was the best choice possible because I love the sound of the record. I think Terry did an amazing job on the sound. The drums sound fantastic, the guitars sound fantastic and it was such a pleasure working with Terry. He's such a good guy, such a mellow guy in the studio, that made everyone at ease and gave everyone good confidence to make the best record possible. So I love working with Terry. I would definitely work with him again in the future.

The Rock Pit: One of the things that I have noticed with SOULFLY over the years is that each album is different, especially after [guitarist] Marc Rizzo joined the band. How much of an impact has he had with the changes over the years?

Max: Yeah, Marc is a big part of it. He's been with us since 2004 and he's a really killer guitar player. He adds his own real guitar accent and, of course, shredding, because he's an amazing shredder. He's just a great guy, but I think part of the motivation of SOULFLY going forward comes with the idea that Marc's in the band and we do a lot of things together. A lot of times I will do a riff and Marc will grab my riff and make it better, like update my riff. Make it a little cooler, a little more exciting, and that's a great way to work when you can do it like that with a guy in the band who can do that. We have a system that really works and he loves being in SOULFLY; he's one guy I don't want to change in the band. That's why he's been with us since 2004 and I don't think we are going to change for a long time. I hope he stays with me for a long time, because I think we have some kind of magic together that's really killer. I love the fact that he's in the band and that he does so much for SOULFLY.

Read the entire interview at The Rock Pit.