I know there are those of you who will class this as something tantamount to heresy, but I think Sepultura are much better off without Max Cavalera. Let me explain…
Having heard the new Sepultura album, Machine Messiah, and thinking back to the last album (which was the first Sepultura album I ever bought), I’ve come to the conclusion that Max Cavalera was what was stopping me liking them.
As a qualifier, I don’t like Soulfly either. For me, the only places that the Killer Be Killed album fell down was when dear old Max opened his gob. He disrupted the rhythm of the song, damaging the flow it had. He’s also very limited in what he can do (in my opinion). He can do the heavily accented “shouty-growl” thing, and that’s about it. There’s no light and shade or variation of the kind someone like Alissa White-Gluz, his replacement, Derrick Green or Robb Flynn can produce. For me, he’s a one-trick pony whose trick has worn out it’s welcome.
He also seems to be the only person on the planet who has a negative story about meeting Lemmy for the first time (Cavalera was being a pissed-up twat while Lemmy was playing the fruit machine, so he poured his drink over him).
I remember hearing Sepultura for the first time back in the late 80’s. I remember thinking it was OK until the vocals came in, then my enjoyment kind of stopped. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of growled vocals back then. Being around near the beginning of Thrash, I was used to “clean” vocals in my Metal. Machine Head were another band around at the time that I wasn’t a fan of, but warmed to later, so much so that I’ve loved their last two albums.
So there it is then. I don’t like Max Cavalera as a musician or as a singer. Sepultura are so much better with Derrick Green fronting them. Plus Andreas Kisser is a top bloke (interviewed him at Bloodstock a few years ago) and an excellent guitarist.
So here’s the question: Which musician do you dislike that everyone else seems to worship?
Put your answers in the Comments (along with reasons – let’s not just make it a slanging match), and we’ll see what happens.
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