ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The first three albums that Brazilian band Sepultura released in the 1980s have become classics — seminal records in the thrash metal and death metal genres.
But brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, who formed the band, never thought the albums quite achieved what they intended, Max Cavalera said.
“We love those records, but we never felt like they had the full vision had for them when we made them," Cavalera said in a recent phone call.
Tickets, starting at $37.50 for two, remain available at the Archer website or at the door at 939 Hamilton St., Allentown.www.archermusichall.com
"We always thought the songs were great, but they were poorly recorded because of the conditions. We didn’t have any money and we didn’t have time — the studios were expensive — and nobody really knew what to do with this kind of music, so we kind of had to do it on our own.
“So because of that, the albums suffered from bad production and kind of bury a lot of the riffs and bury really the songs themselves."
Now, nearly 40 years after the release of Sepultura's 1985 debut EP "Bestial Devastation" — and after many machinations of bands between the brothers — the Cavaleras have given themselves a second chance to make a first impression.
The brothers, now performing as Cavalera, have re-recorded that debut disc, as well as its 1986 full-length debut "Morbid Visions" and 1987's "Schizophrenia."
And it's taking the music back to fans in a tour that stops tonight, March 8, at Allentown's new Archer music hall — the first national act to perform at the venue.
Also on the bill will be thrash metal act Dead Heat and death metal band Necrot.
Tickets, starting at $37.50 for two, remain availableat the Archer website or at the door at 939 Hamilton St., Allentown.
'Kind of crazy, 35 years later'
“It was kind of, like, to me, putting a brand-new engine in an old car," Max Cavalera said in a call from Lincoln, Nebraska, on a day off on the tour, where he said, “it’s freezing.”
"It’s awesome — you have this old car that, on the outside, looks beat up and old, and you have a brand-new engine that’s just running, like, amazing. So that’s kind of what we did.
"And I think the secret of it is that we really didn’t mess with the songwriting — we left everything exactly how it was.
"We didn’t try to clean anything up — it’s still dirty. And you could even argue that it is really more aggressive than the original. Like it’s more pissed off than the original."Max Cavalera
"And we didn’t try to clean anything up — it’s still dirty. And you could even argue that it is really more aggressive than the original. Like it’s more pissed off than the original," he said with a hearty laugh.
"Which is kind of crazy, 35 years later. But that was the intention going into this re-recording — we really wanted to show the power of the songs for the fans — new and old fans.
“And so it’s cool — I love the originals, they have a charm of their own, but to me, the real vision we had for the songs are in the re-recordings. That’s how we envisioned them."
Setlists from the tour show a 15-song set of Sepultura songs exclusively from those albums — except for the night's closing song.
That means no songs from the albums with which the group had its biggest success in the United States — 1993's "Chaos A.D." and 1996's "Roots," both charted in the U.S. Top 40 and reached gold record sales.
Nor any songs from 2001's "Nation," which peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. Independent chart or 2017's "Machine Messiah" at No. 11.
'A bunch of mixed feelings'
Starting with those early albums, Sepultura released 15 albums, with its fourth disc, 1991's "Arise," the first to chart in the United States, hitting No. 119.
But Max Cavalera, the group's vocalist and rhythm guitarist, left the group in 1997 to form the heavy metal band Soulfly. Igor Cavalera also left the band, in 2006.
The brothers reunited in 2007 to form the band Inflikted, then changed the name to Cavalera Conspiracy. Under that name, they released four albums, all of which reached the lower levels of Billboard's Top 200 albums in the United States.
"It’s an hour and a half of, I jokingly call it, nostalgic brutality. But it’s pretty much what it feels like."Max Cavalera
Cavalera Conspiracy's latest disc was 2017's "Psychosis."
In 2022, they adopted the name Cavalera to re-record the Sepultura albums.
A version of Sepultura continues to perform without the Cavalera brothers, and released a new album, "Quadra," in 2020.
A publicist said Max Cavalera would not take questions about that version of the band.
But Max Cavalera said the revival of the Sepultura songs on this tour has been great.
“Dude, the tour has been amazing," he said. "We’re playing better than ever, but also the crowds’ reaction is incredible.
“It’s a cool package with Dead Heat and Necrot. The fans are really loving it.
"It’s like a bunch of mixed feelings — a lot of nostalgia, a lot of people love the old stuff. And we have a real powerful setlist.
"It’s an hour and a half of, I jokingly call it, 'nostalgic brutality.' But it’s pretty much what it feels like."
