SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser has shared candid thoughts about the possibility of a reunion with the Cavalera brothers, Max and Igor, ahead of the band’s final show in 2026. According to Kisser, the brothers “apparently” have no interest in participating—and he admits he shares the same sentiment.
In a recent interview with 100segredo, Kisser stated (via Mundo Metal): “I don’t know, man, and what for, dude? It’s over. Why do we have to come back? It doesn’t make sense. Man, to bring someone in, to see which song they’re going to play… the dressing room, what time they’re going to arrive? Will there be rehearsal or not? Do they want to play this one? Do they not want to, are they going to play it or not? First of all, I have absolutely no desire to play with them again, you know? And SEPULTURA is in a different moment. I see them playing, anyway… I’m not going to get into that because it’s just my opinion. But, man, we’re doing something so cool. With people who are worthwhile, with people you look in the eye and trust — with people who don’t have ulterior motives, who respect what SEPULTURA is today.”
Kisser emphasized the band’s focus on the present and the people who currently make up SEPULTURA: “And that’s what I like, working in the present. We’re going to do our last show next year. And it seems like they don’t want to participate, and that’s fine, okay. We’re going to celebrate, we want to celebrate with people who want to be there, who are part of what Sepultura is—not what Sepultura was. And I don’t understand this pressure of ‘because others do it, we have to do it too.’ Our moment has passed, man. It was what it was. Max left in ’96 and Igor left in 2006. That’s a 10-year difference… Until he said: ‘this isn’t for me anymore, I’m leaving,’ and so on. Okay. And we adapted and lived in the present, working with the remaining elements and new elements that arrived. And that’s what SEPULTURA is, as I said here, it’s about creating SEPULTURA every day, a new SEPULTURA.”
The guitarist also criticized Max Cavalera’s current guitar skills, suggesting that there has been little musical or technical evolution: “Watching him play is actually pitiful, man. You know? It’s stuck in time. There’s no musical or technical evolution. So much so that it’s doing things we wrote 30 years ago. And not even that well, right? Anyway. And there are still people who like it, who think it’s relevant for you to keep playing at being a band, you know? Instead of being yourself, doing your own thing today and leaving the past where it belongs, in the past. And learning from it. We’re always learning something.”
Despite the tension with the Cavalera brothers, Kisser expressed his wish to include other past members in SEPULTURA’s final show: “I would really like them to participate in this last show, you know? Not only them, but all the members, Jairo [Guedz, guitar], Eloy [Casagrande, drums], even Roy Mayorga who joined after Igor left. Silvio Golfetti, who when I broke my arm, he went there and toured with us, Jean Patton, who when Patricia passed away, he replaced me in Europe. Amilcar Cristófaro, who also participated when Jean got injured, Eloy, and Bruno Valverde [drums], man, a super important group of people who were part of this story of keeping SEPULTURA alive and relevant to this day, 42 years later.”
In a conversation on Full Metal Jackie‘s radio show earlier this year, founding SEPULTURA guitarist and vocalist Max Cavalera was asked to share his thoughts on the band he helped create — a group that shaped his early musical journey — coming to an end.
Max, who in recent years has been performing SEPULTURA-focused sets alongside his brother, Igor, responded: “To me, I feel — and I’m not saying that just for myself — I think a lot of fans feel that me and Igor kind of carry the spirit of SEPULTURA with us on everything that we do. And I don’t know — they still call it SEPULTURA, but everybody knows that it’s not the same and it’s never gonna be the same. And I don’t have nothing to do with what they’re doing, with the disbanding of the band. Me and Igor, we have our own path, we are on our own thing, we are revisiting those old material on our own time.
“And the way we did them was the way we always did — it was from our heart,” he continued. “For us, it’s really special to preserve that. I think it’s kind of like that young heart, the teenage heart that lives inside of you. I kind of like keep that really sacred. And no matter what happens in in the business or the politics of music, I try not to let that affect my young mind and soul that I carry with me all the time. So I feel like that when talk about SEPULTURA. It was a special band of a special time and we celebrate that — I get a chance to celebrate that with Igor, regardless of what the other guys are doing.”
Max Cavalera left SEPULTURA in 1996 after the rest of the band split with his wife Gloria as their manager. His brother Igor stuck around with the group for another 10 years before leaving SEPULTURA and re-teaming with Max in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.
SEPULTURA began its farewell tour on March 1, 2024, at Arena Hall in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The sold-out concert marked the band’s first performance with drummer Greyson Nekrutman, formerly of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.
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