EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | Max Cavalera Talks to us about 'Angel Dust'

Faith No More's masterpiece Angel Dust celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. And we have been working hard to bring you some exciting articles.

The record is of course an important part in the evolution of the metal genre with many artists citing the music as a huge influence.
We reached out to some of these musicians and Mike Patton's friend Max Cavalera was delighted to talk to us about his relationship with Faith No More and their innovative fourth album. 

The Cavalera brothers and members of FNM have shared a long friendship which Max tells us began when they "shared a crazy escapade" in 1991 at the Brazilian festival Rock In Rio II, he continues "We all liked FNM and simply met them for a dinner.  We were fans of each other's bands." 

Max remembers Bill Gould wearing a Sepultura shirt in the video for Falling To Pieces which helped to bring the band to the forefront of the metal scene, "We thought it was cool he wore our shirt because that video was played all day."

He also recalls with glee one particlurly amusing event which almost ended in a night in the slammer for FNM, "Gloria and I took Zyon to a FNM concert when he was 7 days old. It ended with the police trying to arrest Mike and Billie for burglary outside our Phoenix house at 3:00am."
Gloria (Max's wife) goes into more detail of these events on her blog. Faith No More!! You Are Under Arrest!!

Max lists both Angel Dust and Introduce Yourself as his favourite Faith No More albums, his favourite songs are Kindergarten, Land Of Sunshine and A Small Victory. We asked him if Angel Dust had been influential in his songwriting, "Yes, the main influence was the Refuse Resist riff. I was listening to Angel Dust a lot when I wrote it."

Angel Dust was of course voted the 'most influential album of all time' by Kerrang! in 2003. Definitely a bold statement and Max agrees on it's importance, "It's definitely an amazing record with many different styles." 

Sepultura's magnificent album Roots (an influential album in its own right) features on this list too which Max is particularly proud of, "....because it was a unique idea.  I had always wanted to blend the roots of my Brazilian culture with Metal music." 

But he doesn't believe in living in the past, " It [the 90's] was definitely an exciting era but I think it is still continuing. There is exciting music today too."

Moving on to more recent events we asked Max what it was like sharing the stage with FNM again in 2014 at Hyde Park Calling, "It was great show with sick bands. It was the day Brazil beat Colombia." He is of course referring to Black Sabbath and the now sadly departed Lemmy and Chris Cornell. We asked him if he thinks the time of rock icons has passed? "I think there will always be new icons appearing. Just like before Ozzy there was the Beatles."

Max and Iggor have been on the road with live shows in celebration of Roots. He says of the Return To Roots Tour, "We had an amazing time and the shows were packed. It was something we wanted to give back to the fans." And commenting on that amazing moment that Patton joined the brothers in SF to perform Lookaway, "It took so long [to happen] because we are all on different sides of the planet. It was one of the coolest live collaborations we have done." 

Finally we asked if it is a collaboration that might happen again, "There are no plans now but anything is possible!"

Rhino Records have released a vinyl boxset of the early Roadrunner Sepultura albums that feature both Cavalera brothers. The guys talk in detail about this great collection.

Max and Iggor are currently hard at work in the studio in Phoenix, Arizona recording the fourth Cavalera Conspiracy album. Set to be released in the Fall of 2017 on Napalm Records, Max and Iggor have now left a message to their fans and the worldwide metal community with a first teaser and greetings from the studio.