Go Ahead And Die: The Desert Sessions Explored

“Some fathers and sons will go on hunting trips or back packing, we holed up in the cabin and wrote an extreme record. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Igor Cavalera‘s depiction of his gratitude warms the heart. Coming off the back of a stint with his father, Max, in the Arizonan desert writing the debut GO AHEAD AND DIE record; the two are surprisingly energetic. Maybe that’s because for them, the studio process wasn’t a bone grinding crawl to the finish line. Instead, it was a father/son bonding session surrounded by classic death metal riffs and coffee.

GO AHEAD AND DIE finds the two at opposite ends of their careers. Igor is at the very precipice of his – Max‘s legendary status is already written in stone. In fact, it has been since 1989. Since then, the Brazilian metal lord has borrowed his patented growl and riff work to multiple projects. So much so that, you do start to wonder when exactly he sleeps. He’s fully aware of the accolades that surround him, and at this point, it now allows him to just have fun.

“My career is set in stone but I don’t care about that, I wanna have fun,” he says “I had a dream chance to do an album with my son. And it was an unbelievable experience, I loved it man. I think the more you do, the more you learn. You learn about yourself, other people, you get more influences, there’s always something new to encounter.”

You’d think that Max‘s headspace for new experiences would be full. He revolutionised 90’s metal with SEPULTURA, cannoned himself into a 21st century punch in SOULFLY, and recaptured heavy metal magic thanks to CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. But that’s not the case. GO AHEAD AND DIE attack drug misuse, ease of access to firearms, the abuse of children, and the weak structure of political systems. Max went into the record knowing the lyrical content would benefit from a young worldview. He and his son are open about Igor often taking the reigns.

“I think like I’ve got to confess that I hate writing lyrics. My whole life – it’s been a struggle.” Max confesses. “Guitar riffs, I can do all day long with a big smile on my face. When it comes to lyrics – the smile goes away. Igor was a great help, and it’s so cool to say: I’m learning from my son. A lot of the time, I would drift into crazy areas and he would pull me back into the vision of the project.”

The sense of pride Igor takes in steering the GO AHEAD AND DIE ship echoes from his voice. “We as kids got raised with the mindset that people should be equal.” He states “It’s a protest record that’s meant to unify people, so we wanted to get that across while still being angry and still being driven.”

Sadly, these aren’t new issues for Max to be tackling. He was berating political/social injustice all the way back in 1993 on SEPULTURA‘s classic Chaos A.D. It bothers him that he still needs to write about these topics 28 years later, but equally: it motivates him to stay in the fight for change. “That’s kind of like the point of the album.” He explains “Just a big fuck you to the things we don’t like. It’s a raw x-ray of things like George Floyd and the senseless killing of people in general. And that goes back to my Brazilian days – it’s not just an American thing, it’s a world problem.”

Both Max and Igor decided early on that this project wasn’t something they could go half in on. They wanted to live and breathe this record. Igor made the decision early to leave his house in Florida and make the drive to Arizona, this was never going to be an album created over the internet. Referred to as ‘the desert sessions’ they and drummer Zach Coleman would head into the studio at sunrise, and leave at sunset. It was an intense, sweaty atmosphere – but it was vital to the record’s classic death metal punch.

Air conditioning was at a minimum, Coleman didn’t play to a click track, if you were a fly on the wall – you could have been convinced it was 1997. The full throttled atmosphere didn’t end there though. Max and Igor would finish the days graft and retreat back home, next on the agenda? Watching school horror films on VHS. Even in a world before the pandemic, the experience would have been a shift from the norm. But add in the events surrounding the globe at the time, and Igor felt like he was experiencing a totally different reality.

“In a weird, subconscious way; watching the VHS tapes, out in the desert, with no neighbours, and it’s really quiet, it hit me a little bit.” He reveals “It’s funny to write such an angry record in such a peaceful environment. But that’s what I needed to create it. Had I gone to LA or NY it probably would have been much more stressful and fast paced.”

Max adds “We were as isolated as you can get. Jack Nicholson in The Shining vibe [laughs]. We turned that into some kind of a ritual; listen to music early, get inspired, go jam in a hot room.  At night time we would tune into these classic black and white VHS films, and that was perfect because that was the time to shut off, not think about anything else. Just watch these bizarre, old school classics. To me it felt like a summer camp.”

When you give it some thought, Igor was always going to have some form of musical connection with his father. But GO AHEAD AND DIE goes past common ground, and puts on display Igor and Max‘s ability to create art. It’s something they’re both immensely proud of.

“All in all; from the writing, to the hanging out, to the recording, post production, album artwork, stuff like this, it’s been super enjoyable.” Claims Igor “This is a one of a kind thing, the process was great, so fun to work on. As soon as we got that first song [Into The Slaughterline] done we were convinced. When we finished it we were both like: ‘Wow! I think we can do this! This is really cool’, I’m incredibly proud.”

When Max adds his comment of “This is a whole new level of father and son relationship, it was really great. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” It almost feels like a juxtaposition against the Cavalera character we thought we knew. A man renowned for such a strong, visceral output being so openly touched by an experience is a fitting sentiment on a record that was recorded so intimately. With Max‘s laundry list of projects, he’s unable to commit himself to more GO AHEAD AND DIE material further down the line. But maybe he doesn’t need to, a ‘one and done’ style would fit the GO AHEAD AND DIE persona. Whatever happens, the desert sessions will live in infamy, and no one can take that experience away from them.

Go Ahead And Die is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

Like GO AHEAD AND DIE on Facebook.