HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Inflikted – Cavalera Conspiracy
At one o’clock in the morning on Sunday, 22nd June 2008, thousands of eager fans crammed in front of the mainstage of France’s Hellfest to see the reunion of the Cavalera brothers. For just over an hour, Max and Igor led the gathered throng through a fiercely violent set packed with metal classics. Circle pits erupted, crowd surfers spilled over the barrier and by the time they were joined by ZUUL FX frontman Steeve Petit for a climactic rendition of Roots, Bloody Roots, the show was unquestionably a triumph. This was only one of many dates on a worldwide tour that saw them play together for the first time in twelve years. It was a big, emotional return to form and a landmark moment for the brothers. They’d fallen out following the tragic death of Max’s stepson Dana Wells in 1996 and gone their separate ways. Their feud finally ended in January of 2006 and they’d formed CAVALERA CONSPIRACY together. It was wonderful to see them back together, but there was one glaring issue hanging over it. We can’t speak for every date they played, but the fans at Hellfest were chanting for SEPULTURA.
Now, just so that this is absolutely clear, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY are not SEPULTURA. The latter are an active band with their own identity and they deserve respect. But in the eyes of many fans, Max was the voice of SEPULTURA and the band had diminished when he left. To have him finally reunite with his estranged brother and make music was interpreted by some folks like the legitimate version of the band was returning, even if they were calling themselves CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. The fact they were playing Territory, Refuse/Resist, Inner Self and many other SEPULTURA classics only reinforced this. Max and Igor never referred to their new band as SEPULTURA, but their fanbase did, and the genuine group must have been annoyed.
As gossip spread in the magazines and arguments raged on message boards, it was easy to overlook how good the first CAVALERA CONSPIRACY album was. It’s a raging slab of unfiltered headbanging, and despite the happy reunion that led to its creation, Inflikted was utterly furious. Max was reportedly watching Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, City Of God, and La Haine on regular rotation while writing it, and the bitter cynicism of those celluloid influences worked their way into the music. It took the classic SEPULTURA blueprint but injected it with a significant dose of punk.
But despite all the press they attracted and the goodwill from fans, Inflikted wasn’t a best seller. It did reasonably well, but a decade of expectation weighed heavily on it and it wasn’t the gargantuan commercial success that was hoped for. We can only guess at the reasons why it wasn’t a bigger hit, but the fact it sounded very similar to Max’s work in SOULFLY couldn’t have helped. Inflikted is terrific, but if you were to scratch the band name off the cover, write SOULFLY in the gap and play it to a casual fan, they wouldn’t notice anything was amiss. The songs on Inflikted are punchy, aggressive and catchy, but many ignored them, they were more interested in the older material. The live shows were unmissable, but the album was treated more like a nice bonus instead of the main course.
This is a shame because Inflikted is good. The opening title track is an instant earworm that’s perfectly engineered to trigger mosh carnage, and the ensuing Sanctuary and Terrorise are unrestrained thrashers. Igor’s drum work is as focused and frenetic as ever, while guitarist (and frequent Cavalera collaborator) Marc Rizzo dishes out riffs like a man possessed. And while he keeps a comparatively low profile, GOJIRA’s Joe Duplantier handles the bass parts admirably.
Elsewhere, Black Ark sees a third Cavalera join the fray as Max’s stepson Richie joins him on vocals, and Ultra-Violent moderately slows things down into a pounding, mid-tempo groove. Notably, this is the one track with a writing credit for Duplantier and you can hear that reliable GOJIRA stomp come through. The cornerstone of the album however is Bloodbrawl, where the brothers rip open the scars of their estrangement and show them off to the world. In just shy of six minutes, it throttles from broken-hearted anger into a more optimistic outlook, then finishes with a sombre outro. It’s a song that covers the bitterness of a family feud and laments the years that were lost. This one track is CAVALERA CONSPIRACY wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and one can only imagine the soul-searching that went into writing it.
While it was wonderful to see the brothers back together again though, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY were always going to be a part-time project. When the tour finished, Max returned to SOULFLY and Igor focused on his DJ work. Since then, they’ve reunited sporadically and recorded three more albums. However, their last few tours have focused on playing SEPULTURA classics and they’ve all but ignored the CAVALERA CONSPIRACY material.
SEPULTURA meanwhile have not been idle and they’ve carved out a formidable body of work. Andreas Kisser and co would have been understandably aggrieved when headbangers started chanting their band name for a rival act, but they’ve won a lot of fans back these past few years. Their last few albums have been tremendous and they’ve clawed their way back up the festival line-ups. It’s been one of the longest, slowest comebacks in metal history, but it’s been worth it.
And while it would be great to see the fences mended, the two sides have maintained a respectful distance of late. At the time of writing, there’s nothing to suggest that Max, Igor, Andreas Kisser and Paulo Jr will ever play as a unit again, but that’s okay. The 2023 incarnation SEPULTURA is awesome, and the 2023 version of CAVALERA CONSPIRACY is…well, lost in the shuffle. They’re no longer Max’s only side-project, he’s got GO AHEAD AND DIE and KILLER BE KILLED to keep him busy, as well as his main band.
That being said, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY still have a legacy to be proud of. If they’d wrapped up the Inflikted tour and never recorded or toured again, you could still make a case for it being the most important thing the brothers ever did. The Cavalera boys may be rock stars, but they are also human beings and they didn’t speak to one another for over a decade. Inflikted saw what was once thought impossible; the two of them playing together again. The back of the CD has a photo of their arms outstretched and their hands clasped together. It’s heart-warming.
Inflikted was originally released March 25 2003 via Roadrunner Records.
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