As SOULFLY prepare to play the 14th Annual D-Low Memorial Show on Saturday, August 28th in Arizona, frontman Max Cavalera sits down with Phoenix-area news blog Up On the Sun to discuss the history of the memorial show, his songwriting process and the likelihood of SEPULTURA’s cassic line-up ever reuniting.

Read an excerpt of the Q&A with Max below, go here for the full feature, and to find out more about the D-Low Memorial Show, go right here.

Up on the Sun: The D-Low memorial show has a history of surprise guest appearances. Your publicist already let the cat out of the bag on Greg Puciato. Do you have any other surprises up your sleeve?

Cavalera: Well, I think Greg is like the main one. We did a song with him on the last record and we were never able to play the song with him live yet, ’cause we haven’t crossed paths yet. We called him and we told them about the Dana show, and he was available. He said “I’ll be there,” so that’s awesome. We’re really looking forward to that. Apart from that, probably just the family being involved in the show, like my kids playing drums. Each one of them plays drums in a different song, so Zyon and Igor, they’re probably going to play drums in two different songs, and Richie, who is opening the show with his band Incite, is probably gonna sing some for his brother, either “Bleed” or one of the songs that was done for Dana, “Tree of Pain” or something like that. So it should be a really cool show, a lot of cool things going on, like all Dana shows have had some really cool stuff on them.

I went back and re-read the New Times cover story from 1999 about the circumstances surrounding Dana’s death. Have your and Gloria’s opinions about the incident changed in the past 11 years? Do you still believe it was a murder?

Yeah, yeah, I have no doubt about it. She redid the case so many times in her head and talked to so many people that we know for sure that that was a murder. It’s just kind of one of those things. I told her the way I feel about it. I think, to me, the people that did this are gonna have to deal with God one day. They’ve got to have this heavy conscience on themselves anyway, you know, even without getting caught. They still have that, waking up every day and knowing that they did that to somebody. That’s probably the punishment right there. But we’re still hoping that something’s going to come up. That’s why she’s still doing the case. We’re still doing the benefits to keep people aware that that went on. Hopefully this thing comes to closure one day.

It seems like holding a memorial show every year would bring back lots of anger and sadness. How much longer will you keep doing these shows?

Well to me, the show is more of a positive thing. It’s more to remember his memory through the music, because Dana was a very musical person who was always into music. He got me into a lot of new bands that I ended up working with later, like Korn and the Deftones, he was the first one to get me to hear these bands. To me, it’s more to remember him as a person in the family who was into music, so it’s a celebration of music for that reason, and that’s why I like the show so much. It’s so cool. At the last one, they had a huge banner at the front of the stage that the fans made for Dana with his name on it. It was hand-painted, really really cool with big letters. It was right in front of me the whole time of the show. Just showing the fans that kind of stuff, that’s the spirit of the show, so I think that’s great.

Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of Sepultura’s debut album, Morbid Visions. You’re probably sick to death of this question, but will we ever see a reunion of the original lineup?

That’s something I don’t know. That’s a hard one. A lot of people ask me that, and sometimes I feel optimistic. I convinced Igor to do it, ’cause he didn’t want to have anything to do with those guys [bassist Paulo Jr. and guitarist Andreas Kisser] ever again. I convinced him to do it for me, and he said he’d do it for me if that was the case, but the other two guys, it’s kinda hard. They’re still trapped in an old mindset, so it’s just something that’s gonna have to wait. I mean, it would have been cool to do it next year. There’s a lot of cool offers for us around the world. People want to see that reunion, so I just kinda wait and see. In the meantime, I’m super busy with both bands. Soulfly is going to Israel and China and Australia next month, and I’m going to Brazil with Cavalera Conspiracy for a huge festival in Sao Paulo. So I’m pretty busy with both bands anyway, so I just kinda wait. If that happens, it’s cool. If it doesn’t, it’s still cool. I’m busy anyway.

Go to SMNnews

Savannah, GA’s sludge masters KYLESA has signed a record deal with Season of Mist Records. KYLESA will be back on the road later in 2010, tour dates coming soon:

”Hello all,
It’s been a while since our last update and we’ve got some cool stuff to report. First off, we’re about to hit Europe with our friends in Dark Castle. The trip will include a performance at Road burn (which we are very excited about) as well as a few special shows with Shrinebuilder and Eyehategod. Check our tour dates for details. We’re also very happy to announce our new partnership with Season of Mist for the next Kylesa release, which we are hoping to get out later this year! We are stoked to be working with SOM on this next album. They are a forward-thinking label and they have all been very accommodating and a pleasure to work with. The writing process for the new record has been intense, taking up the better part of each day since January (that’s why you haven’t heard from us lately), but in return we have some new material that we’re very proud of. The studio sessions at The Jam Room in Columbia start in May and end in early July; we’ll try to have a few reports for you along the way. Right after that we’re heading back to Europe again through August with our pals in Converge for what will be a month of mayhem. Additional support for the tour will be provided by Gaza. We’ll have more Fall 2010 / Winter 2011 touring plans for the US and elsewhere to be announced further down the line. Laura also has a monthly column coming out in a cool new magazine called Sick Sounds; she interviews Mastodon in the second issue which will be hitting stands soon. OK that probably does it for now. Thanks for your support and see you out there!”

Go to SMNnews

Michael Romeo, guitarist & songwriter for North America’s progressive metal gods SYMPHONY X, comments on the band’s recent signing with Nuclear Blast Records and the arrival of the follow-up album to 2007’s Paradise Lost:

“We are really excited to be a part of the Nuclear Blast Family, a great label with a cool roster of bands, which we are proud to be a part of.  As of now, we are working hard on the new CD and are looking to finish it up late Winter 2009 / Spring 2010.  We can’t wait to hit the road and play some of the new cool stuff for everyone and especially all our loyal fans.  We look forward to a long relationship with all the great people who work at the label all over the world.”

Formed in 1994 in New Jersey, Symphony X has seven studio albums and one live album to their credit.  Their discography has sold 170,000 copies in the U.S. alone.