SE: When you got back together with Igor, was it like it was in the old days? Did you have the magic back right away?

MAX CAVALERA: Very much. Playing with Igor to me is like something that never lost its magic. It’s there all the time. We can spend 10 years without doing it. When we get back to it, it’s right back; it never goes away. It was really easy on the writing side of it too. I was pretty inspired when I was writing Inflicted and really inspired to write with him again. It was like “I’m writing with my brother again!”, and that’s badass. We heard from all kind of people, from James Hetfield (Metallica) to Dave Grohl (The Foo Fighters), saying how cool it was that the brothers were back again. When you hear people from other bands commenting on it, it’s great. That gave me a boost too. When it was time to go back into the studio and write Blunt Force Trauma, I was even more excited. It was like I turned myself into a Red Bull, full of energy, and said, “Let’s do this!” Blunt Force Trauma was written in this super-hype condition, a lot of fast songs, super thrash influenced. It also has a groove that we had inside of us from the early Sepultura days, with songs like Desperate Cry, Dead Embryonic Cells, and Murder. There is a Max and Igor groove that is really contagious, and I wanted to have that back in Cavalera Conspiracy with the fast stuff.

"I Think That Time Will Speak For Itself, When The Songs From Blunt Force Trauma Will Eventually Become Classics."

SE: To this day people are still in astonishment that you and Igor have reunited, even three years after the reunion. Are you still overwhelmed by the positive reaction?

MAX CAVALERA: It’s really good. I think that the band grew up a lot. It started as a Max and Igor project, and now it’s really like a band with Mac (Rizzo/guitar) and Johnny (Chow/bass). It’s turning into a real band, and that’s what we wanted anyway. I wanted two bands. I wanted to have Soulfly and Cavalera, that I could switch my time between, and that’s what exactly what I’m doing.

SE: Have you given any serious thought to bringing in Igor for Soulfly?

MAX CAVALERA: I don’t really think it would work. He would be great and destroy those songs. I like Cavalera; it’s our own personal thing. We created it together from the beginning. We split everything together, from artwork to t-shirt designs, Igor and me. It’s cool like that, you know?

SE: There are so many metal elements in Blunt Force Trauma, from early death metal to groove metal. Did this unfold in the studio, or did you walk in with a template and say, “I want the album to sound like this”?

MAX CAVALERA: I wrote the first half by myself, and felt I was going into one direction, which was the fast sort of thrash influence. A lot of stuff happened in the studio with everybody together; that’s when the magic happens. When you are in a room and everyone starts jamming, and a song gets built piece by piece until you have a full song, everyone is excited, like Warlord. That’s was one of those songs that just came out, and it blew me away. Every morning we would go into the studio and start off the day with Warlord to get us excited. That’s how it became the first song on the record, because we played it every day.

SE: Looking back on Blunt Force Trauma, how did that album compare, in your view, with your back catalog?

MAX CAVALERA: I think it goes toe-to-toe with everything I have done in the past. I think that time will speak for itself, when the songs from Blunt Force Trauma will eventually become classics like Warlord, Genghis Khan, and Thrasher. When this album slows down, and the new one comes in, that’s when you can really measure how good this album was.

SE: Speaking of Genghis Khan, you took a different lyrical approach with that track.

MAX CAVALERA: Yeah, I was trying to tell the history of the man. It was a movie, I think called Mongol. It was really violent and cool. It told the whole story. I made the lyrics based on the movie, and it was really like a biography on Genghis Khan. It was fun to do. I never really did history things like that before. It was cool to go into history.

MAX CAVALERA: I probably would do it again, because I had fun doing it. There is a little bit of research involved, but it’s fun.

"I Threw Water In Their Faces And Was Like “Fu*k You, Mother Fu*ker!.”

MAX CAVALERA: (Long pause) People have the idea that I am hard to find, and I’m hard to reach. That is half-true, because I do spend a lot of time on the bus. I get off the bus for sound check. So if someone wants to meet me, they can. I’m not like the president; I’m reachable. But, I do like the kind of mysteriousness that I keep.

SE: Do you have any last words?

MAX CAVALERA: Thank you to all the fans. This tour is going great. It has been amazing, even the California shows.

SE: Even without Igor? (Igor missed his flight due to visa issues for the first dates on the tour.)

MAX CAVALERA: (Laughs) Yeah, the ones we had to do with Greg Hall of Sacred Reich, and my kids played drums. They saved the night. It was funny. I forced them to play, and they were scared. I’m glad they did those shows; it was real good for them. They did L.A. and San Francisco. San Francisco didn’t like them as much as L.A., but I told them there were going to be days like that. I told them of my story when I opened for Black Sabbath in Finland. The crowd was all old, fat bikers, and they were like “Fuck you, we want Ozzy!” I threw water in their faces and was like “Fuck you, mother fucker!” (laughs).