Big Day Out 2012: Cavalera Conspiracy

Cavalera Conspiracy. Photo / Supplied

Max Cavalera and his brother Iggor didn't speak to each other for 10 years after Brazilian metal legends Sepultura splintered into two camps.

Max, the band's co-founder, leader and roaring voice, called it quits in 1996 when his band mates wanted to fire their manager who also happened to be his wife, Gloria.

Iggor meanwhile carried on as Sepultura's drummer before leaving in 2006.

"I hated those 10 years we didn't speak," says Max on the phone from his home in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has lived since the early 1990s, "and it was really hard on our family, my mum and our sister."

But out of the blue in 2006 he got a call from Iggor. "It took me by surprise. He was like, 'I want to be your brother again ... and I want you to meet my kid'."

Iggor flew to Phoenix to met with his brother and at a Soulfly show the pair teamed up to play some Sepultura songs. "The crowd went completely nuts," remembers Max, "and at that moment, when I saw the crowd's reaction to him and I on stage together, I knew we had to play together again."

And so Cavalera Conspiracy was formed.

"It came from that musical bond we have that never went away, even after 10 years. And when I play with Iggor it is the best of the brothers and we try to recreate our best period of our life which was the thrash years," he says of Sepultura's 80s period when they recorded albums like Beneath the Remains.

The last time Max played the Big Day Out was in 1999 with Soulfly, which has a more experimental, world metal sound compared to Cavalera Conspiracy's full-throttle metal and punk attack. Or, as Max puts it, "Cavalera Conspiracy is more to the point".

Back then Soulfly whipped up a mind-blowing mid-afternoon metal onslaught - and with Cavalera Conspiracy playing their own songs, and many Sepultura tracks (including, fingers crossed, 1987's metal massacre Troops of Doom), it should be one hell of an afternoon set.

The Cavalera brothers formed Sepultura in 1984 in their hometown of Belo Horizonte when Max was 14 and Iggor 13 - and throughout the 80s and 90s, with classic albums like 1989's ... Remains and Roots from 1996 they became one of the biggest and most influential metal bands around.

"We were there at Sepultura's creation, and part of those classic albums, so for me it's perfect that [Cavalera Conspiracy] play those songs. It's the closest you're going to get to the real thing, you know."

As Cavalera Conspiracy they released debut album Inflikted in 2008 and late last year followed it up with the aptly named Blunt Force Trauma.

"Inflikted was really well received by fans so we thought the best thing to do was give them a second dose of Cavalera - only stronger, harder, and more aggressive."

While songs like Torture and Target are thrash-inspired, there are more groove-orientated songs such as Killing Inside and I Speak Hate, and then there's mighty metal opener Warlord.

"I think we achieved what we wanted: to make a more brutal more aggressive record," he chuckles. "But there's some music in there too. It's not just brutal."

LOWDOWN

What: Brutal and bruising band fronted by Brazilian metal legend
Where and when: Big Day Out Stage, 2.45pm
Listen to: Inflikted (2008), Blunt Force Trauma (2011).

-TimeOut