The name (ne brand) Cavalera carries a certain amount of cachet in my mind, despite spreading himself as thin as the dreadlocks Max finally chopped off last year. With the brothers (Max and Igor senior) being founding members of probably one of Thrash’s most important bands Sepultura, or in the power metal tribalism of Soulfly, or the nihilism of Nailbomb with Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport or the myriad of other bands that Max has lent his fearsome growl and dirty guitar over the previous twenty years or so, Max is an essential part of heavy metal’s nomenclature. The overall quality of some of the output may not have lived up to some of his back catalogue of work (I mean let’s be honest he would be hard pushed to come close to say the brooding nastiness of Sepultura’s ‘Beneath The Remains’ or ‘Arise’) but Max Cavalera is rightly lauded and celebrated as a central protagonist in creating genre defining pieces of work.
Max Cavalera (in his heart of hearts) knows that he may be forever chasing his tail to try and top or at least compete with his past. I know this because a few years ago I sat with Max whilst working for another magazine in the incongruous surroundings of a posh boutique hotel in Mayfair as a mess of punk thrash paraphilia and dreadlocks, spilt himself into a tiny antique chair as we spent a few hours discussing everything under the sun whilst the teetotal Max plied me with beers as I attempted to keep the fanboy inside me from exploding in his face. Still, he cut a massively impressive figure that seemed, certainly in my eyes, attempting to try and recreate his illustrious past with every passing side project or supergroup-based venture. And so, to Go Ahead And Die which is a collaboration between Max and his son youngest son Igor (who also plies his trade as a frontman of Hailing Magic) and drummer Zach Coleman who plays with Black Curse and KHEMMIS, to form this latest iteration of brand Cavalera.
So how does it sound? Well, it sounds like it was derived and created from a playbook for mid to late 80’s doom, thrash and punk. It has a dirty, grimy, oily feel, like a sewer workers hands after an eight-hour shift at the foot of shit mountain eating a ham sandwich. It has an unfinished and visceral feel to it, part old school thrash, part punk, part grind. The fast bits are all super dirty blast beats, layered with huge riffs and vocals (these are split between Max and Igor for the duration) that wouldn’t know how to spell Pro Tools, let along use them to finesse the dirt encrusted riffs that rain down here like a diarrhoea affected dog caught in an outdoor clothes dryer in a 50 miles per hour wind. It sounds unfinished and honest. I know that’s what the band were going for, the antithesis of say a studio album, polished to within an inch of its life. If they were going for that DIY, punk ethic (and they most certainly were) then they have achieved that feat in absolute spades. It reminds me of two things. It reminds me of the first time I listened to Doom’s ‘War Crimes’ EP and also (closely followed) by Carcass’s ‘Reek of Putrefaction’.
Whilst the songs were horribly beautiful and savage slabs of wonderfulness, the songs were barely audible such was the piss poor and rank amateur nature of their production and recording techniques. But again, that was part of the charm I believe and listening to these albums today, it sounds plausible that the bands had just set up a rank average tape recorder in the middle of their rehearsal rooms and pressed play/record, in the same way you’d record the top 10 chart countdown on a Sunday evening of the radio (well I did). Anyway, you get the point, the dank, non-compressed audio spill, is a deliberate approach that the band have gone for, but this is all for nowt if the songs weren’t strong enough as you’d just have a collection of shit songs that sound terrible.
But the songs are strong enough and it represents all the best bits from Cavalera’s illustrious past (by that I mean from my perspective ((because I am writing this review)) early Sepultura and Nailbomb). Straightforward, from the heart, chugging, punk inflected metal stonkers that are refreshingly to the point. Igor sounds indistinguishable from his more experienced Dad and that’s a compliment considering the company he is in. In looking to his past, and obviously involving his family, Cavalera may have stumbled (again) on the alchemy behind another worthy, enjoyable, and highly competent collection of songs. It’s not reinventing the wheel in any shape or form, it trades on past glories and steals a method of production that has aimed this very squarely at a fanbase of a few very specific genre, so, in that sense, it may feel a little calculated, but fuck that…who cares? When the songs are this good if matters not a jot.
(9/10 Nick Griffiths)
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