Max Cavalera is a metal multi-hyphenate whose massive catalog spans thrash, nu-metal, groove-metal, death-metal, industrial-metal and more. However, the Brazilian musician began his career in the thrash-metal realm, and Sepultura classics like Beneath the Remains and Arise give Cavalera the undying authority to speak on thrash's mighty canon.
In a new interview with Sobre La Dosis, Cavalera was asked to pick his three favorite thrash records ever, and while many of us would've gone with obligatory albums by bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, Cavalera didn't mention a single album by any of the Big Four thrash titans. Instead, he selected a trio of works that he described as "three inspirational thrash records that helped shape all [the] stuff I did [in] that era," meaning the 1980s when Sepultura were cutting their teeth in the speed metal world.
"I went a little bit old school," Cavalera said of his choices. "The first one is from Canada, Sacrifice's Forward to Termination. Amazing record. I played it so much when I was a teenager in Brazil. Also Nuclear Assault's Survive. Danny Lilker, the man. Yes! Danny on the bass. Nuclear Assault [were] amazing.
"They played with us in Brazil. It was great. The singer, John Connelly, had to borrow my guitar, and he played, and it was full of blood. And he gave it back to me. And the whole guitar was full of blood. But I loved the show. And it was cool to have his blood on my guitar.
"And the last one is Dark Angel with Darkness Descends. It's the perfect death-thrash record, but it's more on the thrash side of things. Very, very amazing drums from Gene Hoglan. And I love Dark Angel; I love the power and the brutality of the riffs."
See Cavalera speak his picks below.
