Former SOULFLY guitarist Marc Rizzo recently spoke about his experience on a tour where former SEPULTURA members Max Cavalera and Igor Cavalera performed songs from the band’s “Beneath The Remains” and “Arise” albums.
Mark said via his YouTube channel (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I worked very, very hard to get prepared for that tour. That was not easy to learn those old-school SEPULTURA songs. A lot of ’em I knew, but I really wanted to show a lot of respect to Andreas [Kisser, SEPULTURA guitarist]. I did not want his guitar solos or his riffing to be different than what it was on the record. People paid good money to see ‘Beneath’ and ‘Arise’. Speaking for myself, I wanted to play just like the record. I wanted to put on a great performance and pay homage to Andreas. That was really what excited me. Andreas has always been one of my favorite lead guitar players and I really wanted to pay homage, show my respect to what a great guitar player Andreas is. So when it was time to learn all those solos, I learned ’em by ear. It took me about two or three weeks to really try to learn those solos as close as I could get ’em, ’cause there’s really not a lot of tab out there. And I did it, I think. I was very excited.”
He continued: “That was one of my favorite tours I ever did because that’s my favorite era of SEPULTURA… That was really, really an important tour for me because that’s my favorite era of SEPULTURA, was ‘Beneath The Remains’ and ‘Arise’, specifically because I think that’s Andreas at his best in the early SEPULTURA years. Although I do think he’s gotten better — that new SEPULTURA record [‘Quadra’] I think is amazing. I think it’s just as good as anything they put out back in the day. And I think it showcases how great Andreas has gotten better; he keeps getting better.”
When asked by a fan if he had spoken to Andreas since vacating his position in SOULFLY, Marc said: “No. We are friends. I have run into him from time to time. He’s always been very cool with me, every time I’ve talked to Andreas. And obviously I’ve always been very excited to talk to him also. We do have mutual friends in Brazil. I know I’ve relayed messages to our mutual friends. And I hope maybe one day I can do something with Andreas because, again, hes’ one of my favorite parts of what was SEPULTURA and was a very big influence on me. Andreas was just as important to me as Dimebag [PANTERA] or Kirk Hammett [METALLICA] or any of the thrash metal shredders. He was very important to me and I was very influenced by him.”
SOULFLY parted ways with Rizzo back in August due to personal differences.