Sepultura

Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band that began as a death and thrash metal group in 1984, though their current sound is often described as groove metal or metalcore. Their name means "grave" in the Portuguese language, which they chose after Max Cavalera, one of the founding members, was translating the lyrics of the Motörhead song "Dancing On Your Grave". Max tells this story in the video Third World Chaos.

Biography

Sepultura was formed in Belo Horizonte in 1982 by Max Cavalera (guitars and vocals), his younger brother Igor Cavalera (drums), Paulo Pinto (bass) and Jairo Guedes (guitars). Sepultura signed to Cogumelo Records after a few years of performing. Their first EP was Bestial Devastation, a split with Overdose's album on the flipside. Their first LP was Morbid Visions (1986 in music), which included the moderate hit "Troops of Doom" that attracted the band some attention. After Morbid Visions, Jairo Guedes left the band for another death metal venture and Sao Paulo based guitarist Andreas Kisser replaced him. Their second full-length album was Schizophrenia, which was a critical success that led to a contract with Roadrunner Records.

With Roadrunner distributing Schizophrenia worldwide, Sepultura reached new audiences of metal fans, cemented by 1989's Beneath the Remains (1989 in music), which was followed by a long European tour. By the time they released 1991's Arise (1991 in music), Sepultura were located in Phoenix, Arizona and had become one of the most critically-praised metal bands of the 1990s, in spite of a lack of mainstream success. Chaos A.D. (1993 in music) was another hit within metal communities, and also helped form the groove metal genre. They continued with this on 1996's Roots, in which the band further innovated by experimenting with elements from the music of Brazil's indigenous peoples and traditional thrash metal. In addition, Roots has a distinct Nu-metal influence, and in turn, has influenced many nu-metal artists as well.

At the height of Sepultura's fame, however, a series of events broke the band apart. First, just before the band were due to play at the 1996 Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, lead singer Max Cavalera's wife (and the band's manager), Gloria, was hit by the death of her teenage son in a car crash. Max and Gloria left the rest of the band to go back to America, and the band performed as a trio for the first time.

It was rumoured that there was some intra-band tension throughout the latter half of 1996, and at the end of a successful tour of Britain later that year, at Brixton Academy on 16th December 1996, the band told Max they would not renew Gloria's management contract. Max Cavalera left the band, and subsequently formed a new band, Soulfly. The others announced that they would continue under the Sepultura name and were searching for a replacement.

A recording of Max's last show with the band was later released as a live album, 2002's (2002 in music) (Under A Pale Grey Sky) by their former record label Roadrunner Records, against the wishes of the band. Derrick Green from Cleveland wound up filling the frontman spot, and the band released Against in 1998 (1998 in music). Against was commercially less successful than its two predecessors, as was the follow-up Nation. These releases saw Sepultura move away from their previous approach of the thrash metal sound - a process already in motion in such releases as Roots, and aided by Max's departure - and this led to widespread criticism from the band's original fanbase. Subsequent releases have had a positive effect in returning praise to the band, but opinion is divided on their new direction.

After recording Revolusongs, an EP full of covers in 2002 (2002 in music) the band released the album Roorback in 2003 (2003 in music) which garnered a lot of positive reviews.
In November 2005 (2005 in music) the live Double-DVD and Double-CD Live in São Paulo was released. This was the first official live album from the band.
The release of 'Live In Sao Paulo' marked the first involvement of the new 'Sepularmy' street team in promotion of the bands music. The Sepularmy is unrelated to the bands record label SPV and its members are motivated purely by the desire to share the bands music with as many people as possible. The army is expected to be involved in the promotion of all the bands releases and endevours for the foreseeable future and anyone is welcome to register and help out.
A new album, called Dante XXI was released on March 14, 2006 (2006 in music). It based around Dante's The Divine Comedy. This album has been considered to be the band's best effort with Derrick Green and also carries some thrash influence. Although some areas of the media have criticized the album, fans have received it well.
On June 12, 2006, Igor Cavalera announced his departure from Sepultura due to "artistic incompatibility". [1] Prior to this announcement, Igor took a break from the band to spend time with his new wife and witness the birth of his fourth son. During this time, former Soulfly drummer Roy Mayorga filled in on the drums on the European tour with In Flames. Jean Dolabella (ex-Udora) was announced as the new permanent drummer on July 11, 2006 [2], following Roy Mayorga's decision to join Stone Sour as a full-time member.

Band members

Current members

*Derrick Green - Vocals/Guitar
*Andreas Kisser - Guitar
*Paulo Jr. - Bass
*Jean Dolabella - Drums

Former members

*Max Cavalera - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar (1984-1996), now with Soulfly
*Igor Cavalera - Drums (1984-2006)
*Jairo Guedes - Guitar (1984-1986)
*Roy Mayorga - Drums (2006)

Sepularmy

The Sepularmy was set up in 2005 by Sepultura fans to help promote the band. In the past, the band had suffered from poor promotion from various record labels. After the split from Roadrunner Records, the band suffered a loss in popularity, and as a result, got less exposure.
Their aim is to help spread the word about Sepultura, and to promote the band in various ways. Methods include producing flyers that fans can print out and distribute in local venues and music shops, and posting on Internet forums to help reach potential fans.
The army is currently concentrating on promoting the new album, Dante XXI.

Discography

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