Max Cavalera is a metal lifer. Since co-founding Sepultura in the early Eighties, the Brazilian musician has played in half-a-dozen bands and has never stopped touring year-round. And of all the projects he's ever been involved in — Soulfly, Nailbomb, Killer Be Killed, etc. — heavy has always remained the constant descriptor of his output.
But even a real-deal metalhead like Cavalera can't only listen to headbanging music, so we asked him to pick his favorite non-metal records — the ones he listens to when his ears and his neck need a break.
The first record he selected was Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for the 1988 Martin Scorses film, the Last Temptation of Christ.
"I'm not a huge Peter Gabriel fan, but I like this instrumental soundtrack thing he did," Cavalera says. "He went to North Africa and recorded with an ensemble of North African musicians. And it's a very cool story. I love the story, and I always wanted to do something like that at some point in my career."
"Another one that's very close is Paul Simon's Graceland," he adds. "Which is the same theory, the same vibe. He went to South Africa and recorded, I think it was ... I saw a documentary. It was him and his producer with a backpack just totally boondocking. He just showed up and went in all these fucked-up South African studios, with really poor, fucked-up gear.
"But he recorded a lot of cool shit and brought that to America. And then he built the songs from those jams. And I love that kind of backpacking, giving zero fucks about what's going to happen, adventure side of things."
Listen to tracks from Cavalera's two favorite non-metal albums below.
