What is Max Cavalera's favorite Sepultura song? It may surprise you that it's not off the Brazilian metal group's biggest album, Roots, nor is it culled from their 1989 breakout Beneath the Remains.
It's actually the title track to 1991's Arise, Cavalera informs Revolver, having previously told the outlet that his favorite Soulfly song — his primary band since departing the Sepultura lineup in 1996 — is "Eye for an Eye" from the eponymous 1998 debut.
Speaking about the stirring title track which opens Sepultura's groundbreaking Arise, Cavalera explains, "That's my favorite. That's my favorite track, especially the main riff. I remember writing that and going, 'Oh, yeah, this is sick,' because it's like… And I think it's a big influence by [Metallica's] "Blackened," if I'm not mistaken. It's same kind of idea, but we made it thrashier and just more energetic. But I think it's cool."
And what's so cool about it?
"That, to me, is like the prototype of a death-thrash song," he boats,"It's perfect. There's nothing you can add to make it better. And if you take anything out of it, it ruins it. It's like it's perfect the way it is. So, I'm very proud of that one."
Sepultura, "Arise"
Over the last 30-plus years, Sepultura have only played one song live more than "Arise" and it's the Chaos A.D. mosh monster "Refuse/Resist," according to the last.fm breakdown of the band's all-time touring stats.
READ MORE: Why Max Cavalera's Guitars Only Have Four Strings on Them
In an interview with Loudwire last year, Cavalera spoke about learning English by translating rock and metal lyrics, which had a profound impact on his own songwriting and, in particular, a crucial lyric in "Arise."
"One record I translated that was very influential was U2’s War. I love Bono’s lyrics — he’s a great lyricist, especially in that old U2 era of October, War and Joshua Tree. War was an anti-war record, and I turned that into some of the “Beneath the Remains” lyrics. Stuff like “who has won / who has died / beneath the remains” was very much from the U2 War record. The famous line from U2's "New Year's Day" was “Under a blood red sky” and I took that — “Under a pale grey sky we shall arise.” I love that you can borrow from other artists. People borrow my stuff all the time," he recalled.
“Roots Bloody Roots” comes from [U2's] “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and [Black Sabbath's] “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” Cavalera added, exclaiming, "I wonder if U2 got it from Sabbath!
Soulfly just wrapped up a massive North American tour in support of their latest album, Totem and Sepultura are set to embark on a co-headlining run with Kreator starting on May 12. See those upcoming dates here.
