“This is the first record I’ve made with Iggor since Sepultura split up,” says Cavalera, “and it’s pretty exciting. We’re going back to a metal-punk style—fast thrashy stuff with solos in crazy places and a really aggressive sound.”

Would you say you’re a thrash-metal player with a Brazilian background, or a Brazilian player with a metal background?
I’m both! The thrash era includes all the bands that came up after Iron Maiden’s style of metal—like Metallica and Sepultura. We were under the influence of punk and metal, and that’s why we played faster. And like the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and Bad Brains, we also had something heavy and truthful to say—not just all the devil, dragons, and wizards stuff. But, because Iggor and I grew up in Brazil, we grew up playing samba and Latin percussion, and we understood that playing fast all the time can become boring. We also realized that if a band has some cool kind of rock groove—like Napalm Death had—then it doesn’t have to play fast all the time. For example, if you put a breakdown into a fast song—something with a bit more of a groove—the other parts of the song are automatically more interesting because of the contrasts. You need variations in a song—fast, slow, and mid tempo. Iggor has a powerful rock style, but he also has a feel that lets you know he’s definitely from Brazil. So it’s totally natural for us to play between the lines of thrash and Latin. We never force the stylistic hybrid, though—that can sound stupid. On Inflikted, you will hear the grooves, but you won’t be able to pinpoint the samba beats so readily. The beats are well blended and camouflaged.

What initially inspired you to blend Latin and world beats with metal music? 
The first time I’d ever heard this world music thing, I couldn’t listen to it. I thought it was boring. But on Graceland, Paul Simon was able to take South African instruments and place them within his great songs and arrangements so that you could hear both things—the songs and the musical hybrid—without anything sounding calculated. I really like Paul Simon’s style. People might think he’s so far away from what I do, but in terms of ideas, we’re pretty similar. I also like to record in weird places like he does. I’ve gone to Serbia and Egypt to record music with the locals. People don’t expect to hear those types of influences in a metal band.

How did you approach the recording of the new record?
It’s all hardcore music made by instruments, and it’s all recorded analog. No digital stuff. No Pro Tools. We would never let an engineer and a computer assemble a lead from a few played notes so it becomes something artificial. We didn’t even use click tracks. Our grooves might go out of time once in a while, but that has such beauty in it. It’s how Led Zeppelin was—tight, but loose. They weren’t following a machine—they were following other humans, with all the mistakes included. I love accidents in the studio, and I tried to get as many of them on the new record as possible.

Your guitar only has four strings. Why did you start playing that way?
A long time ago, my top two strings broke, and I had a really lazy roadie. I thought we should replace the strings, of course, and he pointed out that I never used them, so why bother replacing them? He said I was better off spending the money on beer! It sounded good to me, so I never put the strings back. I got used to the idea, and I decided to keep it that way—for 25 years now. My style is so riff heavy that I really only need four strings to do what I do. In fact, my ESP Signature model guitars get shipped to me from the factory with four strings. They must think there’s something wrong with me. My relationship with guitars is weird and dysfunctional—like love and hate. One minute, I’ll beat the crap out of them and have no respect, and then, later on, I’ll be hugging them. It’s kind of the same with amps. I’ll use Peaveys, Mesa/Boogies—whatever is there that works. I tend to be very basic, and I’m not picky.

Is there anything special you have to do to the setup of your 4-string guitar to keep it from going out of tune?
No. The missing strings don’t affect the tuning. I use a .013 set—putting on only the four bottom strings, of course—and we usually go with a Black Sabbath-style D tuning. Sometimes, we’re in B, and, sometimes, we even use standard tuning. However I tune, I don’t notice any problems.

Are your ESP signature guitars modified in any way?
The only modification I wanted was a single Volume knob. I don’t like guitars with five or six knobs where you can’t even figure out what they’re for—it looks like one control is for the microwave, and another is for the DVD player. I like to have room between the bridge and the tailpiece, because I play there, too. The strings make a sound like a keyboard or a piano, and they just ring when you touch them. I love that. My roadie calls it “Evil Crickets,” because the sound reminds him of the crickets in the jungle at home. You can hear a good example of the Evil Crickets on “Hearts of Darkness” from Inflikted. People hear the song, and they have no idea a guitar is making that sound. You’re actually the first person I’ve ever told about this—everyone thinks it’s a sample. I even detune the guitar, and hit the pick around that area in order to use the sound as a “stand in” for the missing top strings. It’s more like a soundscape—or a psycho sound effect—because you can’t actually play chords or harmony down there. It’s just finding a new use for the guitar, and getting something out of the ordinary.

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