Why a classic era Sepultura reunion shouldn't happen (more thoughts on reunions)

There has been a lot of talk in recent months regarding a possible reunion of Sepultura's classic line up. You know, the one with both Max and Igor Cavalera. Hopes were high when Igor not only quit the band (and being the last very original member) to join forces with his brother in the Cavalera Conspiracy, but quashed any hopes of a reunion. There continues to be talk about the never ending possibility of a reunion (which as been documented ad nauseum on the Internet), with different thoughts from all sides, but nothing close to conclusive.

For whatever reason, the departure of Max began Sepultura's downward spiral towards irrelevance. While their earlier catalogue can still be held with high pantheon-like regards, their music has arguably taken a nosedive while Max's bread and butter, Soulfly, has cruised on along nicely. (Even though a considerable number of Sepultura songs have made it into the band's live set) It would be dangerous to say that the band has shared a similar fall from grace as Metallica, but the later still manages to bask in some kind of glory. It wasn't until I came across THIS ARTICLE that I found a solution to the great Sepultura Reunion questions: Don't do it!

"SOULFLY has had so many different formations," says Sepultura axeman Adreas Kisser, "so you lose kind of a characteristic sound there. Of course, Max and his vocals is what it is. I mean, he's been writing the same stuff over and over again. And in that sense, I don't think he has really evolved too much."

And this is where we say, "Hey! That sounds hypocritical!" As I wrote in my review for Sepultura's latest folly, Kairos, Sepultura hasn't written anything new, exciting or otherwise in quite a long time either. Dare I say that they haven't put out a solid album since Roots? An album which could also arguably serve as the foundation and jump-off point for Soulfly.

Derrick Green, Max's replacement in the band, has not gotten his due justice. Although he's been a member of Brazil's famed metal export longer than Max, he has not helped the band's efforts. While there may be a movement of fans that side with Green and support his efforts, it's very clear that the band relies on pre-Green efforts to keep a float. For the past 14 years the band has not been able to make a musical impact.

Go on Youtube; search through your music collection; listen to post-Max Sepultura, and then go listen to Soulfly. Both bands are lost. They are both riding on the success of what once was, when Sepultura wrote classic, ground breaking jams.

"When working with different musicians all the time, it's kind of hard to have a characteristic sound or try to do something original." Says Kisser. While Soulfly may have a rotating door of musical support it has been made clear from day one that Soulfly is Max's band. And at least there seems to bee some kind of effort in the Soulfly camp to do something different. Kisser's point may be valid, but it seems rather contradictory. Sepultura, with a different frontman and now a different drummer, have failed to do anything with a lasting impact (and for whatever I feel as if I hold my breath with each new release, hoping to exhale in celebration). With the release of each new album, Sepultura sounds more and more tired, playing through a dirge of uninspired riffs. Soulfly (whose music I haven't been a fan of since I was 16, when it at least sounded like a good Sepultura knockoff) sounds like rehashed nümetal and -core riffs. How either have managed to succeed is beyond me. Mr. Kisser, what you have said is true for both bands, and you're in denial.

With that said, what good would a reunion do for anyone? Between Soulfly and the Cavalera Conspiracy Max has gone in a direction far from anything resembling Sepultura past or present. What good would reuniting to play some old jams and recreating something that hasn't existed for quite some time? And judging by the caliber of songwriting of either band, would anyone really want a reunited Sepultura to make new music?

Putting aside the gossip, hearsay and ill will; a reunion of the classic lineup of Sepultura would hardly provide salvation for anyone. Dwelling on the same things for 14 years, or merely having to live with the fact that fans will never be happy, is an uphill battle of Sisyphus-like proportions. Even if there was a reunion, they'd probably just play songs off Roots and Chaos A.D. anyway.

Kyuss Lives... not Kyuss: Thoughts on Reunions

In a 2007 interview with Music Mart's Joel McIve Josh Homme(Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, founding member of Kyuss) stated:

"The offers come in all the time. They're getting more and more expensive, and more and more elaborate. The money is crazy, but I've never been tempted - I don't really care about the money, I never have. That's not what Kyuss was about, so to punctuate the end of our sentence with that would be blasphemy. Kyuss fans are so fuckin' rad, they're fuckin' badass but to me, reunions are just not necessary. It's not what it was, it's what it is, and Kyuss was a really magical thing and if you weren't there, well, you weren't. That's just the luck of the draw. I don't feel the urge to do it for somebody who didn't have the opportunity to see us, or just didn't take the opportunity to see us. I'll let other bands alter their great legacies. Kyuss has such a great history that it would be a total error. I like that nobody saw Kyuss, and that it was largely misunderstood. That sounds like a legend forming to me. I'm too proud of it to rub my dick on it." (The whole interview can be read HERE)

The Kyuss reformation all started at 2010's Hellfest festival in France. Kyuss vocalist John Garcia was playing essentialy under the guise of a Kyuss cover band, Garcia Plays Kyuss, and Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri happened to be playing the same day with their respective bands, The Bros and Mondo Generator. As luck would have it they decided to join Mr. Garcia on stage to jam a few of the old tunes for the fans. A very touching and unexpected moment for kyuss fans. I even got a little excited and basked in the crappy cellphone/iphone/etc footage.

Flash forward to this year and 'Kyuss' is back in the spotlight. Kinda. Garcia, Oliveri and Bjork are united once again under the banner Kyuss Lives. Having read Homme's comment above, it came as so surprise that he would not be attending. Aside from his moral conflict, Homme's music career is at full throttle and probably has no time to slow down for 'old times sake'. Bruno Fevery has stepped into Homme's shoes as the hired gun.

Homme's above mentioned quote definitely says something about reunions. I can't say for sure how many bands do it for the money or because, as Sleep once put it, there's something that feels unfinished. I can clearly get down with the later.

Homme, however brings up an interesting point. While current bands are either paying tribute to previous generations of music, or building upon it, many of these 'influences' have risen from the dead, so to speak. It's as if countless time capsules has been opened. Some of these bands never went away, they're riding on a second wind. Other bands never went away in that their members, even after a breakup, continued their careers with other bands. Although people like Homme are still turning out vasty different jams than before, he's still a living testament to what once was. Sometimes just being able to see members of your favorite bands in the flesh is enough. Matt Pike, Josh Homme, Wino, are all living reminders of glorious moments in music history. Sometimes basking in the memories is enough.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about many recent reunions. Recently I saw St. Vitus and Sleep. Both shows were amazing. But was it the real deal? No. For starters, both bands had different drummers. While I'm not complaining that having Neurosis' Jason Roeder bang on the skins to my favorite Sleep tunes, it just wasn't the same. Sure, it was Pike and Cicneros on the same stage, that alone was special; but the lack of Hakius left a void the experience, only in hindsite.

More importantly, reunited bands are like time capsules in that they're playing out of context. Like Homme said, "if you weren't there, you weren't there." At first I thought that was a shitty thing to say, but he's right. There's a certain magic, a certain element to being there, in the prime. What you're seeing on stage, at the reunion is a reenactment of the good ol' days. You're merely looking at a copy of an original. It's usually a more convincing copy when the musicians are the same ones on the album. Reunions exploit the hype around the band's legacy. Reunions kind of take a bands greatness for granted. Of course, most of the time bands that reunite are awesome, but it feels like their greatness only got bigger because they reunited. "I'm glad that nobody saw Kyuss," says Homme. So then how did they come to such legendary status? The point here is that there are those who help create a bands greatness and those who are told of a greatness, like lore.

The same, in a sense can be said for bands that haven't broken up, but have been playing for 30 years straight. Look at Slayer: In recent years vocalist Tom Araya has opened up about his Christian faith (Read that article here), yet continues to sing songs telling of certain blasphemy. Tom Araya is not the same guy he was when the band started, but that hasn't stopped him from doing business. Being open about your faith in a band that's known for its anti-faith shows a change in the rift. I still enjoy my Slayer, but knowing that for Araya Slayer is a really fun day job, has definitely changed the way I see the band. Slayer is not the same as it was before. The guys in Slayer are merely trying to keep up appearances working as the personality of Slayer.

Now while a small tid bit of information is not the same as a reunion, they both share the same idea. After a some time, what you see on stage is not the original product. Time and place is extremely important in music. While most people my age are going to grumble over the fact that they were old enough, or born, to see St. Vitus and Black Flag; or Kyuss and Metallica; we just have to deal with it and experience the scene currently surrounding us. When we're older, we can brag about all the cool shit we saw.