biosepultura

Sepultura from Belo Horizonte, Brazil formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera. They were the first and really only metal band to make it out of the southern hemisphere and became stars of the metal genre. After a few primitive releases (Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions) on the Cogumelo label, Sepultura signed up to Roadrunner and cleaned up their sound with the arrival of guitarist Andreas Kisser. Sepultura established as top act in the death / thrash genre with albums like Beneath the Remains and Arise.

Then Sepultura started experimenting with Brazilian influences on Chaos A.D. and their mighty successful Roots album. But then frontman Max Cavalera left the band and in stepped Derrick Green. After Against, Nation and Roorback Igor Cavalera left too. The fans has been divided on Sepultura ever since Max left in the mid 90's. Their popularity might have declined but they have kept releasing albums like Dante XXI, A-Lex, Kairos, The Mediator between Head and Hands must be the Heart and Machine Messiah.

THE COGUMELO YEARS (1984-1986)

Sepultura was formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984, the sixth largest city in Brazil. The band was formed by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera. They chose the name Sepultura which is the Portuguese word for "Grave". Sepultura tried out a lot of members during this period and people like Cássio, Roberto Raffan, Beto Pinga, Roberto UFO and Julio Cesar Vieira Franco came and left.

The first established lineup was Max on guitar, Igor on drums, Wagner Lamounier on vocals and Paulo Jr. on bass. In the beginning the guys took influences from Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Discharge, Venom, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Later they got more influenced by Exodus, Megadeth, Exciter and Celtic Frost. In March of 1985 Wagner Lamounier left the band and formed the pioneering black metal band Sarcófago. After his departure Max took over the vocals and Jairo Guedes joined the band as a lead guitarist. At this time the band wore nazi shirts and anarchist symbols to get some attention.

About a year after the bands formation they signed a deal with the Brazilian label Cogumelo Records. Later that year they released Bestial Devastation, A split EP with the band Overdose. The self-financed EP was recorded in just two days. It was a very primitive recording, their initial sound was a raw mixture between death, black and thrash metal.

In 1986 Sepultura recorded and released their full-length debut Morbid Visions. It was a continuation of the sound they had on Bestial Devastation, but with a slightly better sound. It contained their first hit "Troops of Doom", which gained some media attention. In 1986 the band relocted to São Paolo.

THE ROADRUNNER YEARS (1987-1992)

In early 1987, Jairo Guedes left Sepultura and Andreas Kisser was chosen as the bands new guitarist. This was a great choice because with some help of his guitar play the bands sound evolved quite a bit. The new lineup recorded Schizophrenia in 1987. The album reflected a stylistic change towards a more thrash metal-oriented sound, while still keeping the death metal elements of Morbid Visions. Schizophrenia was an improvement in production and performance, and became a minor critical sensation across Europe and America as a much sought-after import. The band gained some attention from Roadrunner Records who signed them and released Schizophrenia internationally.

Now on a new label Sepultura was ready to take on the world and in 1989 they released Beneath the Remains. The album was produced in Rio De Janeiro with some help of producer genious Scott Burns. The album was a huge success and magazines all over the world hailed Sepultura as the next big thing in metal. In 1989, Sepultura did their first gig in North America, opening up for King Diamond in New York City. They also recorded their first video, for the song Inner Self.

In 1990 Sepultura moved from Brazil to Phoenix, Arizona. In order to establish themselves further. In 1991 Sepultura played in front of 100.000 people at the Rock in Rio II festival. Sepultura then went to Tampa to record Arise. Dead Embryonic Cells became a hit single from the record and the track Arise was banned from MTV because of it's apocalyptic religious imagery. Sepultura made it to the Billboard top 200 for the first time, reaching the 119th place. In 1992 Sepultura toured first with Helmet and Ministry and then Ozzy Osbourne and Alice in Chains.

NEW INFLUENCES (1992-1996)

Sepultura released their sixth studio album in 1993. It was titled Chaos A.D. and it was a departure from their death / thrash sound. Instead they added influences of groove, hardcore and industrial sounds. It was also the first time that Sepultura really started experimenting with tribal sounds from Brazil. The album might have been a disappointment for some thrash fans but the album scored high points just about everywhere. In 1994 Max and Igor started the side-project Nailbomb and they released the album titled Point Blank, which was an even more industrial sounding effort. But Nailbomb disbanded soon afterwards and Sepultura started to work on their sixth album: Roots.

Roots was a huge deal and it sold tons of copies worldwide. It was an even slower and more grinding record than Chaos A.D. On Roots their thrash sound was completely wiped out and some fans were furious that Sepultura took influences from NU-Metal band Korn. It was indeed a sad day for the fans of thrash and death metal, but Sepultura had never been more popular than now, so it is easy to understand why they kept this popular new formula.

In 1996, Dana Wells died, he was the son of Sepultura's manager and Max Cavalera's wife Gloria Bujnowski, this led to tension between Max Cavalera and Andreas Kisser. Igor Cavalera was also dragged into the dispute. Which ended up in Max Cavalera leaving the band in early 1997.

THE DERRICK GREEN ERA (1997-2017)

Sepultura held some auditions to find Max replacement, Chuck Billy of Testament and Phil Demmel of Machine Head / Vio-Lence tried out. But Sepultura chose vocalist Derrick Green. The band released Against in 1998 but it sold considerably fewer copies than Max Cavalera' new band Soulfly. In 2001 Sepultura released their 8th studio album titled Nation, which was their last record on Roadrunner Records.

In 2002 they released the cover EP Revolusongs which featured Sepultura versions of songs by bands like Exodus, Hellhammer and Metallica. In 2003 the album Roorback was released.

In 2006 Sepultura released their tenth studio album Dante XXI and after the release of the album original member and drummer Igor Cavalera left Sepultura to form Cavalera Conspiracy with his brother Max. There were talks of a reunited Sepultura with Kisser and the Cavalera brothers back in the lineup again, but that didn't happen. Jean Dolabella was recruited to play the drums.

In 2009 Sepultura released A-Lex, which was the first album without any of the Cavalera brothers. With bassist Paulo Jr. as the bands only original member left in the lineup.

In 2010 Sepultura signed up to Nuclear Blast and released Kairos in 2011. In 2011 new drummer Eloy Casagrande joined Sepultura.

In 2013 Sepultura released The Mediator between Head and Hands must be the Heart. In early 2017 Sepultura released Machine Messiah.