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ANDREAS KISSER Says CHUCK BILLY’s SEPULTURA Audition Tape Was ‘Interesting’

Manos Spanos
David E. Gehlke of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser. A few excerpts from the chat follow below. DeadRhetoric.com: Since you're working with Ross [Robinson] again, it makes one think of the first time you recorded with him, which is when down-tuning became really big with bands like KORN and the DEFTONES doing it. Max [Cavalera] was always a big proponent of it; were you as well? Kisser: At the beginning, not much. I was skeptical of the low tuning because bands like KORN or the DEFTONES, they don't have the fast pace of SEPULTURA's music. I was concerned to lose that kind of fast ability and the picking, the heavy picking on sloppy, low strings. But there are so many possibilities of using heavier-gauge strings, which give that kind of tension, and you don't lose that ability to play fast. "Trauma Of War", the song that opens the [new SEPULTURA] album, it's in low tuning, but it's a very fast song, but we don't lose that kind of ability. I learned how to do deal with that, and you open a lot of worlds in music, but yeah, at the beginning I was a little skeptical. DeadRhetoric.com: Your very first meeting with Derrick, what do you remember the most about it? Kisser: It was great. He came down from the States to Brazil because we were holding auditions with different people in Brazil. Derrick came down after the demo and he did "Choke". I have "Choke" with so many different singers [including Marc Grewe of MORGOTH; Phil Demmel of MACHINE HEAD and VIO-LENCE; Jason "Gong" Jones of DROWNING POOL; and Jorge Rosado of MERAUDER) some day I'll release it with all the different versions. Even Chuck Billy from TESTAMENT, he did a tryout. It was interesting the way he sang "Choke" and stuff. It would be cool to put it out some day. Derrick was for the future, though. We weren't looking for somebody similar to Max, or trying to replace him with a clone. Different visuals different attitude we liked Derrick we felt he could really grow up and be into simple terms is it, which he did. His vocals are great, he's very diverse, he can do melodic stuff and aggressive shit, and he hardly loses his voice. He's very professional and he takes care of his voice on tour and everything. He's great. He's a guy who is also very intelligent. We talk a lot about different movies, documentaries, books, and we do lyrics together. We come up with song titles, concepts, and everything. He's a great partner in that respect. DeadRhetoric.com: Personality-wise with Derrick, did you guys connect fairly quickly? Kisser: I think it was different for him. He came to Brazil, replacing Max Cavalera, which was very hard in the beginning — being black as well in such a racist society everywhere in the world, not only in America. It's great that he was able to face all this with great courage and great professionalism. SEPULTURA as well, with somebody like him in the band, and we said what we always said, that we're for justice and equality, and respect. We live that; we not only say that for the lyrical purposes. We really are what we are. He was the best choice for us. He's a guy who could understand the SEPULTURA way of living, of hard touring everywhere and we can survive in a bus together without wanting to kill each other and stuff. [laughs] We have the same type of ideas and conversations. I think Derrick was the perfect guy for us, and it shows. DeadRhetoric.com: The big vocalist search in 1997 and '98, was your head spinning from all the submissions? Kisser: Oh yeah, definitely. Right after Max left at the end of '96, back in January and February of '97, me, Igor [Cavalera, drums], and Paulo [Xisto Pinto Jr., bass] got together and started writing new stuff. We didn't want to play any old stuff. We didn't want try people out on something like "Refuse/Resist". That would be too easy, so we wanted to see the new guy singing something he never heard before; we wanted to see his input and his ideas and his possibilities with the vocals. We took eight to nine months just as a trio. We had the idea of staying as a trio, me being the singer and I even took vocal classes and tried to do demos, but I sing like crap. [laughs] I was the first singer of SEPULTURA that received a "no." [laughs] DeadRhetoric.com: I've seen and heard you do backup vocals — you don't have a bad voice. Kisser: I can use my voice fairly well, I can scream, but to be a singer and to embrace it, it's much more than having a good voice. You have to embrace something different. I am a guitar player. I didn't want to lose my guitar playing time just to embrace something that I am not. I don't want to force the situation. The trio time was great — we didn't do any live shows or anything, but we were practicing and trying out stuff, putting our heads in place, without making any big decisions with the turmoil that was going on. We resolved everything with Max, we signed all the papers, he's out, he didn't want anything to do with SEPULTURA. He left, and we started looking for a new singer. Then when Derrick came at the beginning of '98, he moved out to Brazil, and we started our journey. You can read the entire interview at DeadRhetoric.com.
06 min read

KISSER Has ‘No Regrets’ About SEPULTURA’s Split With MAX CAVALERA

Panagiotis Karagiannidis
Guitar World magazine's January 2014 issue includes a "Dear Guitar Hero" feature on SEPULTURA's Andreas Kisser, who discusses the band's lengthy new album title, filling in for ANTHRAX's Scott Ian during the "Big Four"'s European tour dates, and his experience auditioning for METALLICA as James Hetfleld's temporary replacement (on guitar only) while James recovered from being burned onstage back in 1992.
05 min read

MAX CAVALERA: SEPULTURA Was ‘Taken Hostage’ By ANDREAS KISSER

Manos Spanos
Thomas Stanley Orwat Jr. of RockMusicStar recently conducted an interview with Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, SEPULTURA, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. RockMusicStar: You have recently written an autobiography. When will it be released? Max: Yes, it's coming out in February in America. It's called "My Bloody Roots", and it's out in Brazil already and Poland, and it's going to come out in America in February. I've been working on this book for the last three years. I did thousands of interviews, and Dave Grohl [FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA] did the introduction of the book. He wrote a really cool introduction; it's really funny. It's a great book; it's got a lot of cool people in it, like Mike Patton [FAITH NO MORE], David Vincent [MORBID ANGEL], Sharon Osbourne. It's an amazing book. It's gonna tell my whole story. It's gonna tell about the split; I finally tell the truth about why I left SEPULTURA. All the stuff that happened, all the tragedies that happened, and then there's some funny stuff, like puking on Eddie Vedder [PEARL JAM], and shit that happened in my career and my life. They're all crazy stuff. Everything's gonna be in the book, and it's going to be great for people to read that. RockMusicStar: Wow, I can't wait. That's awesome. How is it doing in Brazil? Max: It's doing really good, man. It's gonna probably make the best-selling list of the Brazilian books, and we're very excited about that. People in Brazil are very excited, they are reading the shit out of it. I get a lot of comments on Facebook, from my wife, she does Facebook, and gets a lot of people talking about how much they love the book, and has really, really great reviews. A lot of people especially like the part when I talk about the split from SEPULTURA, because I really explains my side of the story, about how I really felt, and why I left my own band. And a lot of people, after they read that, they will understand. And, for them, it makes sense that I did what I did, that I left SEPULTURA. They would have done the same. After they read it, they understand why I did it, and it makes sense after you read what I said about the split, you'd think that it was the rational thing to do, for me, was to leave them, you know. Even though it was my own band from the beginning, it was kind of like, all of my integrity, you know, and that's why I decided to leave. It's going to be great. It tells all of those stories, and puts kind of a final stamp on the whole "SEPULTURA split" shit, and talks about SOULFLY and how it was created, and how cool SOULFLY was building over the years, and the cool people I worked with. Sean Lennon is in the book, Corey Taylor [SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR] is in the book, all talking about how it was to work with me, and I think it's going to be great. I can't wait for people in America to read it. It's going to come out through a company called Jawbone. They're going to distribute the book in America. RockMusicStar: I always wondered about the SEPULTURA thing. I always thought to myself, I mean, I don't know the all the little nuances about the spilt. That's why I'm looking forward to reading your book, but, I always wondered why you didn't just fire everyone from SEPULTURA, keep the name, and find replacements.
06 min read

SEPULTURA’s ANDREAS KISSER: Having DAVE LOMBARDO Guest On New Album Was ‘An Honor’

Manos Spanos
The Rock Pit recently conducted an interview with guitarist Andreas Kisser of Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The Rock Pit: Ross Robinson produced the new album ["The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart"] and the last time you worked with him was on the "Roots"album. How was it working with him again? Andreas: It was amazing! We love Ross. He's a great guy and a great producer. When we worked on "Roots", it was one of the most important albums in our career, not only forSEPULTURA but also for Ross himself. It was great to see him after so many years and when we had the opportunity to work together again, he understands SEPULTURA so much. He's very spiritual, very organic. He didn't want the album to sound like a machine — no click on the drums, none of the Pro Tools. The concept of the album also warranted it in the recording, just to be sure that the balance that we had without being attached to the technical stuff that we have to be. Even on "Roots", we used all that digital equipment but now he brought his own experience and can add different atmospheres and it keeps the music alive. We always try to bring the SEPULTURA sound that we have on stage live into the studio and I think with Ross, we kind of managed to achieve that finally. The Rock Pit: How much of an influence did he have on the album? Was there some "Roots"thing going or any nostalgia? Andreas: No. I mean, Ross worked with us on the last stage. We wrote the music in the studio here in Sao Paulo; me and Eloy [Casagrande, drums] wrote the music together. The drums and the guitars were really the base of everything and then Derrick [Green, vocals] came in and brought vocal lines and Paulo [Xisto Pinto Jr., bass] with bass lines and then at the last stage, of course, Ross came. We went into the studio in Venice Beach [California] where we recorded the album and we gave the songs to him and then he came with suggestions and he was crucial. He made a big difference especially on finding the sound and the right atmosphere for the songs. It was really a group effort that you hear on the album and there's something that we respect about that; it's amazing. It's a different process when a new person comes in to complete that. The Rock Pit: For the drumming, you had a new guy Eloy Casagrande, which is his first album with you guys and he did a fantastic job. How was it recording with him? Andreas: He's great, man! Like I said, he has lots of experience, he has a great heart and is dedicated and professional; he was ready. Being in SEPULTURA from his side is a dream and it shows. It's great to have somebody who wants to be there more than anything else. His drumming is fantastic; I think he really stepped up. He never did something like that before, that type of music so extreme. Ross was also great to push ourselves to break that music, to really do like we do in live performing. We really had a great time with Ross. He really understood the way we wanted to record, without the drum click and everything. He was amazing; [he] did an amazing job. The Rock Pit: I noticed that Dave Lombardo does a guest spot on "Obsessed", which is another great song on the album. How did his appearance come about? Andreas: Yeah, that was something really cool. It wasn't planned at all. Ross' studio in Venice Beach is a beautiful place and Dave Lombardo was there on Venice Beach having a good time with his kids and dogs, and he called Ross and said, "Hey, I'm around. What's going on?" andRoss invited him to the studio and said, "SEPULTURA is here. Do you wanna jam?" and he says, "Yeah, why not?" and then he was there. We spent a few hours with that and we put together a two-man drumset and Lombardo was thinking, "OK, let's start jamming," and that was inspired by the song that we wanted to have something special there. Dave is such a great guy; he's one of our biggest idols. SLAYER has been such a big influence on SEPULTURAand to have him on the album is an honor and a privilege. The way it happened was even better. It was not like that kind of bureaucracy and all that kind of crap. It happened so naturally that it's even better. Read the entire interview at The Rock Pit.
05 min read

SEPULTURA: North American Tour Canceled Due To Visa Issues

Manos Spanos
Due to a delay in the visa process, Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA have had to cancel their previously announced North American tour with UNEARTH, KATAKLYSM, DARK SERMON and ANCIIENTS. Attempts to make new arrangements for this time frame were not fruitful and the camp has determined to reschedule the tour for May 2014. All tickets will be refunded. SEPULTURA's new album, "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart", was released on October 25 via Nuclear Blast Records. Although it was inspired by Fritz Lang's classic 1927 movie "Metropolis", "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" is not a concept album or a soundtrack like its precedessors "Dante XXI" (based on "The Divine Comedy") and "A-Lex" (based on "A Clockwork Orange"). "The Mediator Between The Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" was tracked over a 40-day period at producer Ross Robinson's (KORN, LIMP BIZKIT, SLIPKNOT) studio in Venice, California and was mixed and mastered by co-producer Steve Evetts, who previously worked with SEPULTURA on the "Nation" (2001), "Revolusongs" (2002) and "Roorback" (2003) albums, in addition to having collaborated with Ross on a number of other projects in the past.
01 min read

SEPULTURA: Entire ‘Mediator Between Head And Hands’ Album Available For Streaming

Manos Spanos
"The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart", the new album from Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA, is available for streaming in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below. The CD will be released on October 25 via Nuclear Blast Records. SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser recently gave the Brazilian newspaper Diario de Pernambuco a track-by-track breakdown of "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart". Check it out below. "Intro" Andreas: "Actually, the intro is the demo we did just before we went to the studio, with all the songs played at the same time! It's like you are listening to all the songs that you will hear separately on the album at once. It sounds so great, noisy and powerful and it was a result of an accident that I had on my computer. Each song had its track so when I accidentally played the tracks together they came strong and beautiful so I decided to show the guys and they all liked it!" "Trauma Of War" Andreas: "This will be the first song on the album and is one of the fastest and most brutal songs we ever did. The performance of our drummer, Eloy [Casagrande], is fantastic, it gave such an energy to the song that the guitars, bass and vocals had to top that level of brutality, for sure our strongest opener so far. I wrote the lyrics inspired by friends that went to war and came back with some kind of trauma, some kind of disturbance that they have to live with for the rest of their lives." "The Vatican" Andreas: "An ironic tribute to the conclave that elected Argentinian Pope Francis I as the successor of Benedict XVI. This track has some death metal influences. The lyric tells the story of how the Vatican was created, filled with blood, orgy, murders, corruption, adultery. It's one of the most evil and perverse lyrics I ever wrote." "Impending Doom" Andreas: "Song with a very slowed tempo, with heavy picks and a low-tuned rhythm. Its nickname was 'Puxada', because of the guitar's riff characteristic. This track is very heavy. The lyrics are Derrick's [Green, vocals]. And it talks about cursed inheritances that are left from generation to generation. What world we are going to leave for ours heirs?" "Manipulation Of Tragedy" Andreas: "Another of Derrick's lyric. Talks about collective manipulation through a culture of fear, creating tragic and drastic situations in order to justify certain decisions made by the governors, legitimizing some limitations to the society. The manufactured consent. The song was born from Eloy's double-bass drumming rhythm. It sounds very SEPULTURA, with influence from several periods of the band." "Tsunami" Andreas: "Derrick wrote the lyrics for it, part inspired by the natural phenomena and part by the 'tsunami' of information we receive nowadays through the worldwide web and the media in general. A tsunami is the most powerful force of nature, stronger than any earthquake, tornado or a storm. It simply destroys everything in its path. The result is total destruction but also total cleanup, a new beginning." "The Bliss Of Ignorants" Andreas: "Derrick's lyric. It's about the illusion created in society that we are free to do whatever we want, but, in fact, it is not like that. Freedom is limited and part of the society lives under ignorance, euphoric, without awareness of everything that surrounds us. The song opens with percussive drum, low tuning and groovy sound. Its nickname was 'Brasuca'. It's kind of a mix of 'Roots' and 'Chaos A.D.' rhythm. Ross [Robinson, producer] influenced us to explore more this Brazilian side. With participation of percussionist Fred Ortiz (BEASTIE BOYS' former drummer who plays with Derrick in MAXIMUM HEDRUM)." "Grief" Andreas: "It is a song that starts with clean guitars in a way that we never attempted before, I think it was our biggest challenge on this album and it came out amazing. I wrote the song inspired by a tragic incident that happened in Brazil in January 2013. More than 200 kids died in a fire inside a night club. The place didn't have the proper emergency exits and most of the people died asphyxiated, it was horrible. The small town at the south of the country, where most of the people were from, was in total grief. I wrote this song to honor the victims and their families." "The Age Of The Atheist"
07 min read

Video: SEPULTURA Members Join KORN On Stage To Perform ‘Roots Bloody Roots’

Manos Spanos
SEPULTURA members Derrick Green (vocals) and Andreas Kisser (guitar) joined KORN on stage last night (Saturday, October 19) to perform SEPULTURA's classic song "Roots Blooody Roots". Professionally filmed video footage of their appearance can be seen below (Note: Skip to around 47-minute mark.) Green wrote on Facebook afterwards: "What a cool surprise tonight rocking out 'Roots Bloody Roots' with KORN!! Too much fun!!" KORN singer Jonathan Davis was featured as a guest on the track "Lookaway" — along withMike Patton of FAITH NO MORE — on SEPULTURA's 1996 album "Roots". Speaking to ARTISTdirect, former SEPULTURA frontman Max Cavalera stated about the recording sessions for "Lookaway": "Mike Patton was on the song, and Jonathan's a hugeFAITH NO MORE fan. He was actually freaking out that Patton was there. He was really nervous, which was actually kind of funny. He kept chewing on his hair the whole time he was in the studio. [Producer] Ross Robinson teased him at one point and told him to calm down. [laughs]" He continued: "'Lookaway' came out of a jam. It's a really heavy riff. Patton started singing this Indian chant, and it gave me goosebumps in the studio when he did that. It was so intense. He showed up in the studio with a Samsonite briefcase. I was like, 'Mike, what's up with the briefcase?' He said, 'It's what I need to record.' It had an echo pedal inside for his voice and a bottle of wine. He opened the wine and we drank it. At one point, the three of us were on the floor of the studio going crazy and making weird noises and sounds! Jonathantook it to another level. He's singing about people with a fear of pussy, which is a crazy concept. It came out as a really cool, obscure song on 'Roots'."
02 min read

DERRICK GREEN: SEPULTURA ‘Has The Right To Keep The Name And Continue On’

Manos Spanos
Live-Metal.net recently conducted an interview with vocalist Derrick Green of Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Live-Metal.net: Is that at all surprising to you that it's taken so long for fans to accept you into the band, even after seven albums, 10-15 years, or whatever it's been. And is it still a challenge every day to win back these older fans? Derrick Green: It's not really that surprising. A lot of times in the world of metal when you're a fanatical fan of a band that you really enjoy, it's hard to see certain changes happen. There have been a lot of changes in bands that I have loved in the past and they made changes happen. But being an artist, I understand a little bit more that those changes were inevitable sometimes. It's just life. It's just constantly changing, and it's just something that you have to deal with. As an adult and as a human being, those things are going to happen. When you look at life that way and there are changes that happen for a reason, you can kind of get beyond living in the past. But instead a lot of people do, and I do the same because there are things I'm going to always love. But I love from that time period — that time period when I discovered SEPULTURA and "Arise", and I had a cassette tape that a friend gave to me and it was amazing. And I cherish it, and it can never be replaced. It can never go back truly to that time. It would be silly to even think that. For me, I think the challenge for us is the fact that we love what we do. We never walk away from this band, we have always stuck to it and we always stayed focused on creating new music. And music that we wanted to do. Everything was a process, and we knew that it would take time to evolve, to know each other, to get to do it together, to create music together. We needed that time to bond, and I think it was all a process of evolving for us. And we wanted to get better with each album, and I think we've been doing that since we've been together. And for us, that's always been our goal, to really focus on music and leave all the other stuff behind. A consequence of just focusing and doing what we do and the drive and not giving up has brought a lot of new fans that have never seen SEPULTURA in any period of "Chaos A.D." or "Roots" or "Beneath The Remains". So we have those new fans that truly appreciate what we've been doing since I've been in the band. And then they go back and listen to old stuff, and they have an understanding, but they're not really kind of dwelling on the past. And then there's the old fans that we brought back who had lost touch with the band and are not really feeling the changes. But they still have that hope and that glimmer, and they still like good music. So I think that we're able to produce some good music that people are interested in hearing, so it's great to see that mix. And I know that we'll never be completely bringing back all the old fans, but that's never been my goal. Our whole goal has really just been to create and write great music.
08 min read