Back in July, Max Cavalera expressed his interest in doing a Sepultura reunion in an interview with PyroMusic.net, but blamed guitarist Andreas Kisser’s “greed” for preventing anything from happening. But now Cavalera appears to be focusing the blame on another remaining Sepultura member: bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr.
In a recent interview with SonicExcess.com, Max said the following in response to rumors that he was joining Sepultura at the upcoming Rock In Rio festival:
“I have not heard anything about that, as far as trying to get Sepultura back together. I did call Andreas, and I had a real good talk with him. It sounded like he wanted to do it, and I had Igor onboard for the reunion. I think the only person preventing it is Paulo. I don’t know why, but I think Paulo is really against the reunion. People should ask him why he is so against it, because I think it would be a great think for the fans to see the original line-up. Sepultura was one of the most important bands in the metal scene, and it would have been really cool to do it. I don’t need a reunion, because Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy are doing great, but I would like to do it for the fans to show them we had this kick ass band. We can do it again, but people should ask Paulo why it doesn’t appeal to him.”
So before it was Andreas preventing the reunion, but now it’s Paulo? Though from what we’ve read in a recent interview he did with Revolver.com, Cavalera seems to simply not like Paulo. When asked about his involvement in Sepultura’s writing, Max said that “I give credit to the guys. Igor came up with a lot of the original beats, like to ‘Territory.’ As we got better, he played better. The only musician that didn’t improve much at the time was Paulo. I think the first album he recorded for was Roots. Everything else was me and Andreas doing the bass because he couldn’t really play that good. But we were friends, so we were like, ‘Yeah you can stay in the band, we won’t kick you out. When we play, we’ll just turn you really down so nobody hears.’” Ouch!
Whatever the reason may be or whoever is to blame, one thing is for sure: a reunion of the classic Sepultura lineup will not happen. Andreas and Paulo are still keeping themselves busy as Sepultura without the Cavalera brothers. They recently sign a new recording deal with Nuclear Blast and will embark on a North American tour this Spring. Plus, Max is busy with Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy with his brother Igor, so as he even points out, he doesn’t need to do a Sepultura reunion. Though I’m sure the current Sepultura performing Arise in its entirety on December 11 in Sao Paulo, Brazil isn’t exactly pleasing the Cavalera brothers.
