3. SepulturaRoots
I discovered them around the same time I discovered Suicide Silence. I started listening to metalcore, like Bullet For My Valentine, but it wasn’t heavy enough for me. So when I started listening to guys like Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decapitation, Bring Me The Horizon’s earlier stuff, I was very interested. I wanted to see if the other places in the world do metal, so I found Sepultura from Brazil, and they were really sick. I heard them for the first time on the radio – XFM’s Metal to Midnight.
We lost our minds on Roots. We would go to our friends, they were in university. They would have metal parties – play metal, drink, form bands and hang out. So us guys would just mosh to Roots. It was even my ringtone because I really loved how groovy it was. It was really different because it wasn’t like a generic ‘bang, bang, bang, blast, blast, blast’ metal, there were actually tribal, flamenco, Afro-Brazilian influences in it. So I really liked it. I was like, metal is sick. Plus the live shows were insane, it was like church.
Speaking of church, your mother runs one and your grandmother was very connected with her Christianity. What did they make of your taste in metal?
Yeah, they’d always tell me I should sing for Jesus and praise the Lord, glory to the most high and everything. But they’re cool with it because my sister is always sending me metal, funny clips from TikTok and books. So they understand it’s not some psychotic break – it’s art, it’s appreciated, and it has a market. And they know that I love it so much and I actually do it because I love it. And when I get into something, I’m really into it 100 per cent. I’m not doing anything evil or wrong or offensive. Actually my lyrics are very uplifting and very positive, and they always predict the future. I talk about prophecy, ways to achieve success and to accomplish self-actualisation and to be the best version of yourself and to reach your full potential. That’s all just another form of delivering that.
