The New Messiah has Arisen.... Andreas Kisser speak out.

Septulura are no strangers to metal, having been around since 84, formed by Paulo Jr and Max and Igor Cavalera with Jairo Guedz who released the bands debut album 'Morbid Visions' in 86. Having this release out n the Brazilian underground Jario left with his replacement been Andreas Kisser for the album 'Schizophrenia'. The band recorded the classic album with Max and Igor 'Beneath the Remains', 'Choas A.D.', 'Roots' and a few more before Derrick Green took over the vocals in 97 and his debut album 'Against' in 98.

Both Paulo, Andreas and Derrick have continued to write some amazing music together and with drummer Eloy Casagrande who joined the band for the album 'The Mediator Between head and hands must be the Heart' in 2013. The band have come along way since the early days and I managed to catch up with guitarist Andreas to talk about the new album 'Machine Messiah' which is a great album released through Nuclear Blast, the tour and the future. Here is what he had to say.

Hi Andreas, good to see you again brother, tell me how things are going for you on this tour?

"Hey good to see you again too, this is the 1st leg of the 'Machine Messiah' tour and it's going really well with Kreator, Soilwork and Aborted. The new album is doing really well s far and after 33yrs of a career we can't complain."

Do you remember you're 1st ever show in the UK at the Marquee club in London supporting Sodom, half the crowd went home after you played, most of frustrating for Sodom."

"Yes of course I remember that show, the show was insane!! It was so very much in expected and Sodom were really huge in Germany but outside of Germany I think people were more excited to see us for the 1st time, Brazilian kids (laughing). The Marquee club was such an historical club and for us to play there in 89 it was amazing. 

I think Sodom were kind of expecting some of the fans to leave after we played over in the UK and I think they were happy to play outside of Germany to places they had never played before. The album 'Beneath the Remains' was a very big surprise and success for us, especially for the label back then as they really didn't invest and the changed the logo and cover and after that tour we got some great reviews for that album and then we could get the trust from the label and so we did the next album 'Arise'."

When you look back at you're previous albums do you have a favorite album and why?

"Well I like them all, it is early hard to say that I like a pacific one, each album is a very important part of our career & history and I think 'Against' is one of my favourite albums as it kept the band alive, because Max left the band and together with that we lost our management and trust from our label. Basically we lost a lot back then and it took us 10yrs to rebuild our faith in the band and with labels.

I feel that 'Against' was one of the most difficult albums to record and write and we got Derrick in the band with new management and working with different producers and without that album I think I don't think that the band would be here today. For that album we did some great tours and we played with Slayer, and System of a Down. We played lots of shows with Metallica and stuff we didn't even do before so it was a great opportunity for us especially with Derrick for us to play with some of our idols. Derrick brought new character to the band and I think that is why that album sold good in our career."

I have always wanted to ask you what band was you in before joining Sepultura?

"Well I wasn't in any professional band at all, I had a band in school with friends and we were called 'Sphinx' and we basically played cover from Twisted Sister to Venom, we played everything (laughing). After a while we decided to sing in English especially with influences such as Kreator with all the new Thrash Metal singing and it was so strong back in 1985,86,87 and I had a band called 'Pestilence' because of Kreator, not the Dutch band. I found out about the Dutch one a little later on and we met the guys on the 'Beneath the Remains' tour. 

(Ed: How do you compare you're Pestilence to that of the Dutch band?) We were totally different, it was Thrash metal but we were armatures and we worked on rehearsal tapes and the 1st demo I had done was with Sepultura from the 'Past comes the Storms' demo which ended up been the 'Schizophrenia' album. So back in those days was a pure passion trying to reproduce the sounds and we learnt so much back then and it helped us to deal with different stages and equipment from the big festival to the small pubs it helped me get some preparation to deal with any type of situation."

Moving on let's talk about the new album, why the title 'Machine Messiah', How do you see this album as a progression from the previous albums?

"Well I think it is a progression, I think 30yrs of a career we celebrated, we celebrated the last 3 yrs of 30yrs on the 'The Mediator between head and hands must be the Heart' in 2013. we put out a documentary and it felt like we were closing a cycle. We did very thing, we played with orchestras and percussions and we played with Steve Vai in Rock in Vegas.

This new album it is for us a new chapter, a new second volume and it gave us that feeling of freedom and we achieved that 1st half of our careers and we feel that we have done a lot to keep the band alive. We had to change drummer in the past for such albums like 'Against' and to different labels and here we are now with a great formation and the best moments of our career. Everything is very organized and management wise and we talk to each other, and we like each other. We have no dramas backstage like we use to, not now we have a deal label and amazing following from the fans old and new. We wanted to explore our musicianship at the highest level on this record and having Eloy in the band is great, he is new of the best drummers out there.

He brought new possibilities into the band and having Derrick in the band too has made all the difference. We have added acoustic guitars on this record like we have never done before, violins from Tunisia and working with Jens Borgen was our new producer and recording in Sweden was new for us. It was a total different environment for us and we wanted to challenge ourselves on this record and do something new. 

Everybody who has come into this band has changed Sepultura and when I joined the band changed a lot and so on and people have to respect that this is what the band is about. We are a band that is pure art and not enslavement otherwise it would be very boring.

We have worked so hard to be here now and it feels great!! Well the title for the new album I found like very early on in the process of writing and I passed the idea onto the band of a robotization that we see today not like a sci fi idea and we have the privilege to travel the world and we see different cultures and cities. 

We see different technologies in society in general, so it is what we see in today's society and we can relate to that with mobile phone, laptops, the internet GPS and that is what we talk about. 

So I suggested the the name 'Machine Messiah' in the concept and the band agreed with that and then we started to work on the music after the cover Camille Dela Rosa a Filipino artist and I found her on the internet and I had the idea in my mind and the painting fits perfectly with what we had in mind and dealing with. 

When you have an idea or concept or an objective everything starts to make sense. (Ed: It reminds me of Robbie the Robot from 'Lost in Space').Yeah I know what you mean (laughing), and this is nothing new, robots are here to stay like Star Trek with the imagination of the future."

Did you have any other titles for the new record?

"No not really, as we started very early on in the writing process and we started to practice our new ideas and deal with the demos we had and I wanted to go the band practice with ideas I already had."

How did you hook up with producer Jens Borgen?

"Well that was Derricks Idea, we had a list of different producers out there all the usual suspects and they are all great and we had the opportunity to work with all of them. Derrick suggested Jens because he likes the Swedish type of sound and we talked with bands he had worked with such as Opeth, Kreator, Angra, Moonspell and there all good friends of ours. They all gave us great references for Jens and we wanted to go too Europe and we did many albums in Brazil with Ross Robinson and we wanted a totally different environment, pretty much different everything."

Did it take long to record this album?

"No not really, we prepared ourselves pretty well for this album, and I think it was pretty short to record. In February of 2016 we started work on practicing and writing for the album and sending demo to Jens and in the last week of April we recorded the drums in Sweden, we worked with Jens for 6 wks and then he mixed the album and mastered it so we are very happy with the end results."

Do you have any favourite songs on the new album?

"We are playing 5 songs on this tour from the new album, I do like the song 'Resistant Parasites' and I also like 'Phantom Self' and it is great that people are actually listening too the album."

Tell me a little bit out this documentary you mentioned earlier please

"Well it is finally done basically and and we have this big distributor in Brazil called '02 Movies' and it took like seven years to prepare and make and the director followed the band in so many countries and tours and the reason for the film is to show people how we have progressed. It is a fact that we are still here playing music and with a great following, great label and great albums and touring the world like never before. This documentary will have a live show from San Paulo in Brazil." 

How is the tour with Kreator going so far?

"It is going great, a lot of shows are sold out. Kreator are an amazing band and Soilwork and Aborted are great bands too. We are having a lot of fun on tour and it is not easy to travel with 4 bands with some stages been too small and our crews have to make do with what they have for the bands. We are playing for an hour. The album was very hard to record and to play it live has it moments but we know what we are doing."

Do you have any plans to record any future projects?

"I did the Roadrunner United live DVD and Dino from Fear Factory is a good friend of ours and he called me to ask if I wanted to be part of his team and it was fantastic. I have my own band called 'Delatera'' we sing in Spanish and Portuguese and we play a show case at the Underworld in 14th June in London. 

It is metal but more melodic and it is a little different from Sepultura but its heavy and it will be released on Sony Music. We signed with Sony Latin and we are trying to not only play in the Latin countries but too to play at the Underworld is very important to us as it is going to be our 1st show outside of this Latin community, we want to break the barriers."

Well Andreas thank you for doing this interview, do you have anything to say to the readers? Best of luck with the rest of the tours and album sales.

"Yes, thanks for the support, we hope you like the new album. It's a great album with a lot of energy. It's good to see you again Jason.. Stay metal!!"

Thanx to Andreas & Sepultura, N Blast for their support and setting up this interview.