Before SOULFLY’s debut album ever hit shelves, Max Cavalera and Chino Moreno gave it a send-off unlike any other. In a late-’90s ritual that blurred the line between spiritual homage and metal mythology, the two frontmen buried the album’s master tapes on Native American land—hoping to charge the music with what Cavalera calls “Indigenous power.”
The story surfaced in a recent interview with AlternativeNation.net, where Cavalera recounted the surreal moment at Indigo Ranch, the California studio where SOULFLY’s first record was born. “We knew there was a burial ground there—like, Indian burial ground from 300 years ago,” he said. “So, me and Chino from the DEFTONES, we dug big holes, put the tapes there. We closed it, let it spend the night. The next day, dug them up. It was cool. It was kind of crazy, but fun at the same time.”
The gesture wasn’t just symbolic. Cavalera, whose music often draws from the Indigenous sounds of his native Brazil, saw the act as a spiritual offering—an attempt to connect the album’s energy to the land itself. “I wanted to capture the essence of the land, of the Indigenous power,” he explained.
Evidence of the ritual lives on in the album’s liner notes, where a photo of Moreno holding a shovel has long puzzled fans. “That’s why he has a shovel,” Cavalera clarified. “People are still like, ‘Why is he holding a shovel in a picture?’ That’s why. Because we’re digging holes in Indigo Ranch, in the Malibu hills.”
Moreno’s involvement with SOULFLY didn’t end there. He contributed guest vocals to the track “First Commandment,” a fiery collaboration that followed Cavalera’s own appearance on DEFTONES’ Around the Fur, where he screamed the now-iconic phrase “soul fly!” on the track “Headup”—a moment that would later inspire the name of his new band.
The connection between the two artists runs deeper than guest spots. Cavalera was profoundly influenced by DEFTONES’ 1995 debut Adrenaline, produced by Ross Robinson. So impressed was he by Robinson’s raw sonic approach that he tapped the producer to helm both SEPULTURA’s Roots and SOULFLY’s first album.
SOULFLY released their latest studio album, Chama, on October 24 via Nuclear Blast Records.
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