During an appearance on the “Brutally Delicious” podcast, original BURIAL drummer Igor Cavalera talked about the influence of his former band, especially the classic 1996 album “Roots”has had on modern metal bands like GOJIRA. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We know the guys [in GOJIRA]. We are friends with them. I can just see a huge influence on the things we’ve done. And I consider that to be a very revolutionary thing. Because at the time, I don’t even remember all this stuff with metal bands going back to their roots. Even Norwegian bands doing Viking stuff didn’t exist back then. Later it became, ‘Oh, shit. We can look back to our past and bring some of those things that make a lot of sense to the music we make today. And that’s something we did. And sometimes I find myself very, very proud of that. Because it’s one of the legacies, I think, of ‘Roots’.
“Some look ‘Roots’ like our best-selling record, which is good, but I like to watch ‘Roots’ the other way, where we were trying things that, at the time, were very risky,” he continued. “It wasn’t the typical thing that all metal bands did. We were pushing the boundaries of things that could go completely wrong. It was a risk at the time. We didn’t know how it would turn out. By doing the thing with the [Brazilian] Xavante tribe, recording with them and bringing all these elements, it could go completely wrong. We didn’t know that at the time. It was just that we had this instinctive feeling that it was the right thing to do. And see a band like GOJIRA doing it today is totally linked to the work we did 30 years ago… And we are one hundred percent very proud of it. Not only GOJIRA, but there’s a lot of people coming back to the ideas… There’s a lot of black metal bands these days that are doing a lot of things with their roots, especially with the Native American roots, and those things at the time, they were not common. So I’m really proud of that, that we kind of kickstarted that idea, and today it’s kind of become a thing.”
Last year, GOJIRA guitarist/singer Joseph Duplantier Told Cuartel Del Metal that it was “a compliment” when people compare the band’s song “Amazon” at BURIALit is “Roots” album. “There’s no shame here,” he said. “And we ripped them off, but we didn’t do it on purpose. But we realized it right after. We were, like, ‘Oh, that looks like BURIAL. Ahhh, whatever. It’s a tribute to BURIAL – what about that? This is Brazil. This is the Amazon. It’s tribal.”
“Roots”with 1993 “Announcement of Chaos”is considered BURIALthe most commercially successful release, having been certified gold in 2005 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for US shipments over 500,000 copies.
Last July, the former BURIAL leader Max Cavalerawho is igor‘s brother, was requested by Pamela Calderon from Chile iRock on the criticisms of some BURIAL fans that the “Roots” LP was “not metal enough”. Max said: “I don’t think they gave the record a real chance. For me, ‘Roots’ is a very heavy disc. I think some things like “Hetero”, ‘Spit’, ‘Ambush’ and ‘The threatened species’ was so heavy and it’s fast and it’s brutal. I think it’s because he was tagged… He became very popular; it has become trendy. Some people have associated it with “nu metal”. I do not think so ‘Roots’ is a ‘bare metal’ record. In fact, I think it’s very opposite – it’s really more caveman. It’s simpler – simpler but lower riffs. Very heavy percussion.”
He continued: “In itself, in its essence, for me it’s a special record for sure. I won’t say it’s my favorite because it’s like choosing your children; it’s not I don’t want to choose between BURIAL recordings; I like everything. But to me, ‘Roots’ looks like… It’s an idea. He was born at the right time. And it was just a crazy idea that I had in mind, to record with Brazilian Indians and bring that to metal. And I think it was very ambitious and very brave. Because few people do that in their career; few people play everything and make a record with crazy ideas like that. Because so many things can go wrong. A lot of bands like to play it safe: “We’re just making this record for the fans, and we’re good at it. And we’re just not that kind of group. We like to push the limits. We like to move forward. And we never really tried to make the same record. For me, it was an exciting record.”
Cavalera added: “I was very passionate about the idea of the record – going to the tribe; using all the tribal elements, the percussion. The ‘Brazilianness’ of the record is amazing. And the record feels amazing to me. The mix that Andy Wallace fact is really, really great. The videos were really cool. The ‘Attitude’ video with the Graces; the ‘Bloody Roots Roots’ video in Salvador; the ‘Ratamahatta’ [clip] with the dolls. Yes, it was a phase of our life. It ended up being kinda crazy ’cause that was the end of my run with BURIAL. But I’m proud of this record. And it’s a big record. Many famous people like this record very much, like Dave Grohl, and so many people like that. The NOOSE guys they love it ‘Roots’.
“I understand some old school metalheads; they just want ‘Arise’. They want me to play ‘Arise’ for all my life – just keep doing ‘Arise’, ‘Arise’, ‘Arise’ all the time,” Max said. “[‘Arise’ and ‘Beneath The Remains’] are awesome, but there are different things you can do. ‘Chaos AD’ is tall. ‘Roots’ is tall. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. It was the record we wanted to make at the time. And I think now that I practice playing it live [for an upcoming tour]I understand ‘Roots’ more now than before. And I think it’s a very complex record; it’s a very strange record that’s very unorthodox and very cool to listen to. If you listen to the whole album, it has a very different dynamic which is really, really great.”
In 1996, Max got out BURIAL after the rest of the band split up with Maxthe wife of Gloria as their manager.
igor left BURIAL in June 2006 due to “artistic differences”. His departure from the band came five months after announcing he was taking a break from BURIALto spend time with his second wife and their son (born January 2006).
The stream BURIAL programming – with the guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. next to Derrick Green singing and Eloy Casagrande on drums — released his latest studio album, “Four”in February 2020 via Nuclear explosion.
