“We didn’t like how metal was made in Europe or in America. It was too polished. They were talking about dragons and castles”: Iggor Cavalera explains Sepultura’s ‘Satanic’ early albums

Sepultura in 1991 — (Image credit: Niels van Iperen/Getty Images)

Founding Sepultura drummer Iggor Cavalera has discussed the band’s early fascination with Satanism.

Cavalera, who started Sepultura with his brother Max in 1984, says during an interview with podcast White Centipede Noise that the Brazilians shared a Satanic streak with several other artists in the country’s 80s metal scene.

He explains that it wasn’t about worshipping the Devil himself as much as it was about “attacking the [Catholic] Church”, which had strong political power in South America at the time.

“The church is controlling everything in South America,” he adds (via Blabbermouth), “and they’re involved in politics, and as we all know, they’re the most evil thing. They came in and they really raped the land with the colonisation and everything. So for us to go against the church, it was an act of rebellion.”

The drummer later emphasises that neither nor his bandmates have ever been true “Satan worshippers”.

“That wasn’t our thing,” he continues. “Of course, I study a lot of, like, the dark side of things, I read a lot of books, but I was never… ’Cause I believe they’re all the creation of the same thing – the evil and the good and Satan, in my opinion, is also a creation of the church. So for us to worship that, it was almost like, ‘Oh, how come you don’t accept Jesus, but you accept that one, which is kind of like… they’re the yin-yang.’”

Iggor adds that Satanism let the Brazilian scene differentiate itself from the themes of metal in North America and in Europe. “We didn’t like how metal was made in Europe or in America, ’cause it was too polished,” he says. “And they were talking about dragons and slaying castles. And we’re like, ‘That's not our reality.’”

Iggor left Sepultura in 2006, 10 years after Max quit the band due to disputes over the role of their manager (and Max’s wife), Gloria Cavalera. The brothers reconnected shortly after Iggor’s exit and started the collaborative project Cavalera Conspiracy.

In recent years, the Cavaleras have re-recorded Sepultura’s first EP, 1985’s Bestial Devastation, and their first two albums: 1986’s Morbid Visions and 1987’s Schizophrenia.

The brothers have been playing early Sepultura material on the road. They will perform songs from the band’s landmark 1993 album, Chaos A.D., together when they support Slayer at the thrashers’ only North America show of the year in September.

Sepultura continue to perform without the Cavaleras and are currently in the middle of their farewell tour, which is set to extend into 2026.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.