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January 12, 2025

MAX CAVALERA Explains Why Now Is Right Time For Him To Bring NAILBOMB Back For More Live Shows

In a new interview with Australia’s The Rockpit, Max Cavalera spoke about his decision to revive his NAILBOMB project for a November 9, 2024 performance at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, Arizona as part of the SOULFLY-headlined “Max Cavalera Dynasty Show”. In October, it was announced that NAILBOMB will also perform at this year’s Alcatraz festival in Kortrijk, Belgium and at the Bloodstock Open Air festival at Catton Park in Derbyshire, United Kingdom.NAILBOMB’s lone studio album, 1994’s “Point Blank”. “Point Blank” saw the then-SEPULTURA frontman team up with FUDGE TUNNEL’s Alex Newport for a dense, industrialized offering that included a variety of samples and punk rock influences.Regarding the decision to bring NAILBOMB back, Max said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “NAILBOMB kind of came out of nowhere. We realized that this is 30 years since ‘Point Blank’ came out, and it came out the same year as [SEPULTURA’s] ‘Chaos A.D.’ So we thought we’d kind of celebrate also that, because that NAILBOMB record is very special for me. It taught me a lot. It taught me about [how to] be more free in the studio, be less fearful, experiment with different sounds and sonic ideas and not be afraid of technology and industrial elements, [and] actually combine all that. So I carry that NAILBOMB record real close to my heart in many ways. It’s a very, very cool record that it has aged very well too. If you put the record on right now, it sounds amazing today as it did [back then]. And the topics are so relevant right now — ‘World Of Shit’ and ‘Religious Cancer’ and ’24 Hour Bullshit’. It’s now, man. It’s what the world is at right now. It’s crazy that it’s more relevant now than when we made the record. So we’re gonna work a little bit touring some festivals in Europe with NAILBOMB.”Cavalera went on to say that “Point Blank” is “definitely one of my favorite albums that I was part of. And, yeah, it’s cool that in my career, I get to do these things. To me, it’s really cool. ‘Cause I get to make new music with SOULFLY and KILLER BE KILLED and GO AHEAD AND DIE, which I will do more music with them. But I also get to celebrate some of my old stuff as well. I don’t forget about those either, ’cause those are very special. So it’s cool. I get to really enjoy all the creative forces in my life and put them into action. Instead of just looking at them as something that just happened in the past and doesn’t happen anymore, I get to actually do things with them that makes it exciting to be a musician.”NAILBOMB’s lineup for the “Max Cavalera Dynasty Show” included three guitarists, Max, Max’s son Igor Amadeus Cavalera and Travis Stone. The three previously took part in the CAVALERA “Third World Trilogy” tour in Europe. Travis is also the guitarist of PIG DESTROYER. Johny Chow, formerly of STONE SOUR, FIREBALL MINISTRY and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, handled the bass duties for NAILBOMB. Alex Cha, of PIG DESTROYER, was on sampler and Adam Jarvis, of MISERY INDEX and PIG DESTROYER, bashed the drums.The sonic love child of Max and Newport, this 1994 one-off album from their NAILBOMB union showcased dense, industrialized heaviness, seething with all-out punk aggression. In 13 tracks, the revered duo — crediting SEPULTURA alumni Andreas Kisser and Igor Cavalera, as well as FEAR FACTORY’s Dino Cazares as players on the final product — managed to make an angry masterpiece that meets in the middle of what both SEPULTURA and FUDGE TUNNEL were doing at the time. But as for the visual representation of “Point Blank”, the war-time photo of a Viet Cong woman with a gun to her head proves just as striking as the devastatingly heavy music within its sleeve.Max told TeamRock in 2016 about “Point Blank”: “It’s just such a pissed off album. Me and Alex were pissed at everything and decided to make a real fuck-the-world ‘hate project.’ It is one of the most ‘fuck-you’ albums of all time; it aims at everything, and destroys everything. So, that’d be cool — to be remembered as a person who came here to fuck shit up, NAILBOMB’s perfect!”Max previously talked about NAILBOMB last November in an interview with Sense Music Media. He said at the time: “I love that record so much. I think ‘Point Blank’ is by far one of my favorite records of all time. It was just a blast to make it. Of course we really didn’t care for anything. We just wanted to make a brutal, pissed off record full of industrial sounds and samplers and riffage. And it’s crazy that NAILBOMB is 30 years old next year, and we’re actually gonna come and do some festivals in Europe in the summer. It’s great. I love it. I think it’s one of those records that would be a shame not to play live because it’s so good. I don’t feel the necessity to re-record the NAILBOMB record, but I feel that live it needs to be played. People need to hear NAILBOMB.”Touching upon the musical and lyrical relevance of the NAILBOMB effort, Max said: “In a weird way, ‘Point Blank’ was almost prophetic. The stuff we were singing about is what’s happening right now in the world, unfortunately. You’ve got stuff like ’24 Hour Bullshit’ with media. You have ‘Sick Life’ with the drug problem. You have ‘Guerrillas’ with the war in the Ukraine. Even the chorus of ‘Guerrillas’, it’s eerie: ‘Away from home, learn to hate, die for the land, fucking waste.’ I think that’s how those Russian kids must feel like right now going to Ukraine. Yeah, it’s a prophetic album that is actually more relevant now than when it first came out. It’s crazy.”[embedded content][embedded content]