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Max Cavalera
Max Cavalera
Birth name Massimiliano Antonio Cavalera
Alternative name Max Possessed
Born August 4, 1969 in
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Age 54
Nationality American
Zodiac sign Leo
Height 5'8½" (1.74 m)
Weight 185 lb (84 kg)
Siblings Igor
Spouse Gloria Cavalera
Children Zyon, Igor II, Richie (adopted), Jason and Roxanne
Active since 1984
Occupations musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist
Common peripherals Vocals, four-string rhythm guitar, berimbau, sitar
Bands Sepultura, Nailbomb, Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, Killer Be Killed
Genres Groove metal, thrash metal, death metal, alternative metal, heavy metal, world, industrial metal, black metal
Labels Roadrunner, Cogumelo, Nuclear Blast, Napalm

Max Cavalera (birth name Massimiliano Antonio Cavalera) is the Soulfly frontman since the band formed in 1997. Cavalera was born on August 4, 1969 and he is 54 years old. He sings, writes songs, and plays rhythm guitar, as well as occasional instruments like berimbau and sitar. He was formerly the member of Sepultura from 1984–1996, and Nailbomb, which only existed briefly in the mid-90's. He is the current member of Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy (since 2007), and Killer Be Killed (since 2011).

In all, Cavalera released eleven albums with Soulfly, six with Sepultura, four with Cavalera Conspiracy, one with Nailbomb, and one with Killer Be Killed.

Career with Soulfly[]

Soulfly was formed in 1997 after recruiting with guitarist Jackson Bandeira, bassist Marcelo Dias, and drummer Roy Mayorga, a year after quitting Sepultura due to dispute between him and guitarist Andreas Kisser for planning a funeral of Cavalera's stepson Dana Wells, and of trying to fire Sepultura's manager and Max's wife Gloria.

Soon after the band formed, he began writing songs for their first album, and then had trouble recording it due to pain of his stepson's death. The album went on to be released in April 1998, eponymously titled Soulfly. He invited several guests for their debut album, including Burton C. Bell, Dino Cazares and Christian Olde Wolbers from Fear Factory, Fred Durst and DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit, Chino Moreno from Deftones, and Jorge do Peixe and Gilmar Bola Oito from Chico Science & Nação Zumbi.

Following the 1998 Ozzfest and world tour in support of Soulfly's debut album, Cavalera, bandmates, and guests Corey Taylor from Slipknot/Stone Sour, Sean Lennon (son of famous musician John Lennon), Chino Moreno of Deftones, Tom Araya of Slayer, and others together would write and record their second Soulfly album, Primitive. Two years later, he would solely produce the Soulfly album for the first time, 3, before three members around him left the band. He would form the new line-up consisting of guitarist Marc Rizzo, bassist Bobby Burns, and drummer Joe Nuñez. Soulfly proceeded to record and release the fourth album Prophecy.

When writing for the fifth album got underway in December 2004, Max was rocked by two consecutive deaths, a long-time friend Dimebag "Darrell" Abbott and grandson Moses. Those deaths inspired him to write and produce the dark-laden album Dark Ages, released in early October 2005. After the album cover for Dark Ages was revealed, Cavalera liked the color variety of album covers of the first five albums, "Well, this sounds a little bit crazy, but I kind of think all of my albums have colors. Soulfly 1 was green; Primitive was yellow or red; Three was like earth - brown; and Prophecy was gold. Dark Ages is black, you know - it's the dark one."

He would wait for almost three years until their next album, Conquer, was released, because he and other bandmates were doing many projects outside the band, including 10-year anniversary of Roots tour and the formation of Cavalera Conspiracy with his brother Igor in 2007 and releasing their first album.

He would co-produce and release Soulfly albums Omen and Enslaved in 2010 and 2012, respectively. After featuring his three sons (Zyon Cavalera, Igor II and Richie) in one of the songs ("Revengeance") from Enslaved, Max hired Zyon to be the full-time drummer starting with the ninth album, Savages, which was released just 18 months after their previous album. In 2015 the tenth Soulfly album, Archangel, was released, featuring a tribute song for metalheads and marked the storypoint of his metal career ("We Sold Our Souls to Metal") and a song that features two other sons (Igor II and Richie) in addition to Zyon ("Mother of Dragons"), as well as young grandson Roki offending Max by saying 'Please exit the music business, punk!' on Napalm Death cover and bonus track "You Suffer".

For the next couple years, Max Cavalera embarked on Return to Roots tour and another where they performed Nailbomb's Point Blank in entirety. Their eleventh album, Ritual, showcased the return of tribal sounds to mark 20 years of Soulfly's debut album, as heard in its title track and "Blood on the Street".

Instruments he plays[]

Maxcav

Cavalera singing and playing guitar at the same time

He mainly plays rhythm guitar having just four-strings while singing at the same time, which he does in every Soulfly song except for instrumental tracks and some bonus tracks. He occasionally plays sitar too, especially in later albums like Prophecy, Dark Ages, and Omen. Berimbau is sparingly played, like it is employed several times in Primitive album, such as at the beginning of the first track "Back to the Primitive". "I Will Refuse", bonus track of the album 3, is the only song where Cavalera played the bass, while the 3 standard track "Brasil" is the only song where he played percussion. He performed several more, one-time specialized peripherals — talk box on "No Hope = No Fear", agogô on "Fire", chains on "Prejudice" and "Chains", bassoon on "L.O.T.M.", and trumpet on "Bethlehem's Blood".

There are a few Soulfly songs where Max Cavalera is literally not involved in performance, such as "Karmageddon", "Wings", and some of the Soulfly-titled tracks.


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