How many people would love to receive “retirement” as a 40th birthday present? Well, Sepultura are living your fantasy. The Brazilian extreme metal masters are currently out on the road to mark two seismic occasions: four decades of banging and thrashing, and their break-up in a year or so’s time.
Needless to say, it’s a time of heavy reflection for fans and band members alike. So, ahead of Sepultura’s monster London gig a couple of weeks ago, Metal Hammer sat down with guitarist Andreas Kisser and singer Derrick Green, getting them to distil their career into just five standout tracks. They somehow did it, and this is what they picked…
1. Inner Self (Beneath The Remains, 1989)
Andreas: “Beneath The Remains was the first album that we did with Roadrunner and Inner Self was our first video clip that we did in Brazil, because of the demand. We were caught off-guard, because Roadrunner contacted us asking for a video clip! We didn’t expect that. We did it in Brazil with some friends, it’s very homemade, and it was great! It was airing on Headbanger’s Ball and stuff. Beneath The Remains created an impact that not even Roadrunner believed [could happen].”
2. Territory (Chaos A.D., 1993)
Andreas: “Territory is one of our biggest songs. I think it represents the Brazilian vibes that we were bringing to the music more intensely. I think the opening, the drum part that Iggor [Cavalera] created, is a fantastic mixture of heavy hardcore metal and Brazilian rhythm.”
Derrick: “I think it had the strongest impact because there were elements of hardcore there that I’d never heard from Sepultura. It was very different from Arise, from Beneath The Remains. That album really drew me in, and a lot of my friends at the time, when it did come out. It drew a lot of attention, especially lyrically. I feel that it was stronger because it was talking about social issues.”
3. Roots Bloody Roots (Roots, 1996)
Andreas: “It has to be here, right? Ha ha! It’s the album where we exploded in the Brazilian direction with the Xavante tribe [featured on Itsári] and Carlinhos Brown [guest vocals on Ratamahatta]. The song that opens the album really represents that: the lyrics, where we come from, the way we portray the world as Brazilians. We weren’t scared to bring those elements to the music. Working with [producer] Ross Robinson, he always stimulated us to make mistakes. When we made a mistake, he’d be happy, because we’d be breaking boundaries.”
4. Kairos (Kairos, 2011)
Andreas: “Kairos, I think, represented a new chapter in Sepultura’s career. We did Roorback and Dante XXI, and then A-Lex while changing drummers. It was a very difficult period of our career. I remember – me, Derrick and one of our managers – we went for this dinner with Markus Staiger, who at the time owned Nuclear Blast. He said, very straight to us, ‘Dude, you guys are Sepultura! Not Pink Floyd! Don’t do 12-minute songs and concepts,’ because we were coming from that world. For us, it was eye-opening. We went a little raw.”
5. Guardians Of Earth (Quadra, 2020)
Derrick: “When Andreas sent me the [guitar] part, it really clicked with me fast. I visualised everything without even talking to him. With the whole intro, I was just imagining thew rainforest. And I always wanted to hear Andreas playing more acoustic, because it’s something that he’s always been doing and it could be put into the music of Sepultura because it’s a strong part of his personality. I was just like, ‘This is exactly the direction we have to be going!’”
See the extended versions of Andreas and Derrick’s answers in the video on Metal Hammer’s Youtube channel below:
