Brazilian metal masters Sepultura really hit the bigtime both in Australia & in other countries (though surprisingly not quite as well in the US as I later learnt), with their last album Roots, which was a mightily awesome slab of metal mayhem, barely controlled by the band members.

Some controversy & the departure of former frontman Max Cavalera from the band had many thinking they might be finished. Fans will be pleased to know that they're far from it. The core members remained, recruiting new frontman Derrick Green, who has helped shape the band's new album Against into an evolutionary step for the band.

The band's record label recently sent me an advance copy of the new album, which will be called Against & it's pretty damned awesome, due for release in early October & I recently caught up with new vocalist Derrick Green for a quick chat while the band were here for a promotional visit, where we spoke about how he came to join the band & his expectations among other things.

I first asked how Derrick came to be involved in the band.

"It's not really all that long a story, but after Max split with the band, they pulled themselves together & thought about things, like if they were going to continue as a band, should they be using the Sepultura name. I've been in a few bands over the years & I think the guys had heard me or seen me perform & they sent me some demos & asked me to do some vocals over them."

So that was it then?

"Well, ummm... not exactly - you see it was about a month before I heard anything from them again & I was beginning to think that maybe they'd thought better of it after they heard the tapes. Then I got a call to come down & rehearse with the band & when we were in the studio together, we could all tell that there was something there between us & it's just gone from there."

The logical next question of course was to see how the band were expecting the new album to go after the amazing success of Roots.

"It's rather strange you know, because when I was in the US, it was like the album did okay, but it wasn't as huge there as it was in say Europe or Australia. I always thought Chaos AD was a great album & I thought Roots was simply amazing too, but that wasn't the vibe so much in the states, so we're not really up against it or anything, trying to better the last album."

Having heard the new album in it's entirety, I wondered how the band viewed the style change as opposed to where the band was headed under the guidance of Max.

"Of course Max has taken some of that sound with him to his new project Soulfly & continued on in the vein of Roots. The remainder of the band really wanted to evolve, so the fans didn't think that Max was the only part of the band who was in charge of the sound & I reckon we've done it with the new material."

Lastly, one of my favourite questions for any band is what their favourite track on the album is & that question got a slightly nervous laugh & then a short silence before Derrick answered.

"Wow, that's a really hard question & you've made me think a little. I can't really say that I have a favourite track at all. I've definitely got favourite tracks to perform live, but even after a few months of recording & then mixing down, I'm still not sick of hearing them. A lot of people I've spoken to have like Drowned Out, though now you've mentioned Old Earth & Floaters In Mud, they're a couple I love to perform."

Check out Sepultura's new album Against when it's released early in October & the band are heading home from this promo tour to get started on a world tour, rumoured to return to Australia in early 1999