{"id":301449,"date":"2026-02-16T21:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/301449\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:22:12","slug":"sepulturas-beneath-the-remains-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/301449\/","title":{"rendered":"Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sepultura<\/a> made their debut album, Morbid Visions, in 1986, heavy metal had already begun to take root in Brazil. The country\u2019s military dictatorship had come to an end, and Kiss<\/a> had played in 1983, followed by Rock In Rio in 1985<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t all imports, mind; speed-metal act Stress released Brazil\u2019s first metal album in 1982 and a number of cities began fermenting their own scenes.<\/p>\n

Sepultura\u2019s home of Belo Horizonte in the southeast was no exception, the thrashtastic offerings of San Francisco\u2019s Bay Area<\/a> and beyond inspiring a bands to create faster, nastier music that could express their hatred towards a system that had failed them.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, this increasing profile also attracted unwanted attention from the local authorities \u2013 \u201cI was more scared of the police than the Devil,\u201d as frontman Max Cavalera<\/a> put it in a 2016 interview with Hammer.<\/p>\n

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Still, they persevered, learning their craft in a city few north of the equator would have heard of, playing on equipment that barely functioned, away from metal\u2019s power bases of Europe and North America. And somehow, it worked.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s take on crossover thrash\/death metal came to the attention of music journalists including Don Kaye, whose articles on the band caught the eye of the man who would give Sepultura their break.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon had this regular column called \u2018Deathvine\u2019, where he\u2019d write about bands that were very cool and not getting attention,\u201d explains Monte Conner, who signed Sepultura to Roadrunner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did something on bands from Brazil, with Sepultura being one of the leads there. That was our first taste of the band. Then shortly after, Morbid Visions came out, meaning we were in from day one. But even then, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As the man responsible for signing Sepultura (as well as fellow legends Type O Negative<\/a> and Slipknot<\/a>), you would be forgiven for thinking Monte had Nostradamus levels of prescience for unearthing future metal sensations. But in 1988, neither label nor band even closely resembled the behemoths they would become.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest band we had at the time was King Diamond<\/a>, who had just released Abigail,\u201d Monte remembers. \u201cI was the fifth member of staff in Roadrunner US, and a few days after I joined someone quit, giving me the opportunity to start working with bands I\u2019d got into as a college radio DJ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Sepultura weren\u2019t his first signing, they put his talents to the test. \u201cMax was the only guy in the band who could really speak English at the time,\u201d Monte recalls.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn fact, the whole time I was communicating with the band during the signing process, it was through a friend of theirs called Lino. In order to speak, they\u2019d go to Lino\u2019s house and we\u2019d talk through him, to go over anything they didn\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max eventually flew out to the US to iron out the final details of the deal. \u201cHe got a free Pan Am flight from a friend and came in his best suit \u2013 he didn\u2019t want to draw negative attention!\u201d recalls Monte.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Max\n<\/p>\n

Max Cavalera: thankfully, the suit wasn\u2019t a regular thing (Image credit: Frank White)<\/p>\n

Next, they needed a record that could show exactly what this unknown band could do. Scott Burns was still a rookie when he agreed to come onboard as producer. Even so, he had begun to rack up some notable credits in metal\u2019s underground, engineering Death\u2019s Leprosy<\/a> and producing Obituary\u2019s Slowly We Rot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Obituary guys turned me on to [Sepultura\u2019s second record] Schizophrenia, so I was happy to work on anything,\u201d he says. \u201c[At the time] nobody was really interested; they were too death metal and nobody wanted to work for basically no money in Brazil over Christmas. I was in college, so I didn\u2019t give a crap! It was nice to get away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both beautiful and dangerous, the Rio of the late 80s was unlike anything Scott and Sepultura were used to. Scott\u2019s initial experiences illustrate just how deep the rot went. \u201cRoadrunner had given me $500 for food and travel in Brazil. I\u2019d brought along drumheads, amplifiers and everything with me, as I\u2019d heard the band didn\u2019t have much in the way of equipment,\u201d explains Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out the customs guys were all on the take; they wanted a couple of thousand to take all this stuff in. We ended up arguing with this customs guy for two hours, until he let us in for $300 or so, meaning afterwards we were pretty much broke again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott and Sepultura worked on the album at night, so as not to interfere with Nas Nuvens studio\u2019s work with Samba acts during the day. This freed time up for them to see the sights and enjoy cheap drinks by the beach, making parts of the trip more The Hangover than City Of God \u2013 though Scott did have his room burgled during one beach-crawl.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Sepultura produced their finest record yet, their sound now matching the band\u2019s talent. \u201cIt\u2019s the sound of a great band playing live,\u201d Scott enthuses. \u201cBeneath The Remains captured a moment and said, \u2018This is Sepultura\u2019. I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeneath The Remains is a real thrash record,\u201d Max told us. \u201cI love the way the acoustic, clean guitar opens the title track before Iggor<\/a>\u2019s toms crash in. From that moment, it\u2019s relentless thrash. Inner Self, Mass Hypnosis, Stronger Than Hate and Sarcastic Existence \u2013 those are all thrash metal anthems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beneath The Remains landed them international tours with thrash<\/a> legends such as Sodom<\/a>. On Halloween 1989, they played a Roadrunner-curated showcase at the Ritz in New York, headlined by King Diamond with support from Sacred Reich<\/a>. Sacred Reich\u2019s manager, Gloria Bujnowski (later Cavalera) was in attendance, and had previously turned down Monte\u2019s offer to manage Sepultura.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been approached a couple times to represent some of the Roadrunner bands that didn\u2019t have a manager,\u201d explains Gloria. \u201cThe show started and they were really good, but the very first thought that came into my head was, \u2018This band are going to get ripped off\u2019 \u2013 I don\u2019t know why!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloria organised some basics to make tour life easier, ranging from towels and water onstage to the kinds of things you\u2019d never expect a band to go without \u2013 \u201cThey had one pick!\u201d she exclaims.<\/p>\n

She clearly left an impression, as Max later wrote to Gloria, expressing his interest in taking her on as manager (\u201cI still have it today,\u201d she declares). The third time of asking turned out to be the charm. \u201cWe started talking on the phone; I worked out a deal with them where I\u2019d do a year for free with the band, see if things worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Iggor\n<\/p>\n

Iggor Cavalera: Max\u2019s little brother and a drumming powerhouse (Image credit: Frank White)<\/p>\n

Still working as Max\u2019s manager some 30 years later, Gloria has steered her husband\u2019s career through its peaks and troughs, and helped the band preach their gospel far and wide. \u201cI was always looking to new places to go; Czechoslovakia, Belgrade.<\/p>\n

People would say, \u2018Why go there? There\u2019s no scene.\u2019 But the way I saw it, there couldn\u2019t be a scene if we weren\u2019t going anywhere there were potential fans. It got to the point where the label sent us a letter saying we needed to get off the road; Sepultura had been playing for almost two years straight and they wanted a new record\u2026 we just laughed and carried on touring!\u201d<\/p>\n

While themes of nonconformity, war and alienation weren\u2019t new to thrash, few bands before Sepultura made it all sound so personal. Beneath The Remains also proved to be a stepping stone for one of the greatest runs of albums in metal history, Sepultura climbing higher with 1991\u2019s commercial breakthrough Arise, before redefining their sound on both Chaos A.D. and Roots, as they leant into groove and proto-nu metal stylings. They were also the first metal band that proved you didn\u2019t need to hail from Europe or North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is about giving kids hope,\u201d nods Gloria. \u201cWe have an ear for kids whose parents don\u2019t understand them; they\u2019ve got to have somebody and I think metal can offer that. Sepultura were one of the first bands to tour Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, just after the Moscow Peace Festival. It was about giving the kids there a chance to feel the same way kids in America felt; feeling free rather than just seeing oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening the floodgates to metal from around the world had the benefit of helping Roadrunner become a metal household name. \u201cEverything changed once Sepultura broke,\u201d admits Monte. \u201cWith both Sepultura and King Diamond, now Roadrunner was a destination for bands. That led to all the successes we enjoyed in the 90s \u2013 everything from Type O Negative, Deicide<\/a> and Life Of Agony<\/a> all the way to Slipknot and even Nickelback<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, nobody said everything about globalisation had to be good.<\/p>\n

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