Cavalera brands Korn's Davis 'childish' over Roots comments

A picture of Max Cavalera
Max Cavalera (Image credit: Getty)

Max Cavalera has slammed Jonathan Davis as “childish” over his claim that Sepultura ripped off Korn on their Roots album.

In an exclusive interview with Metal Hammer last month, Davis was asked how he felt about the influence Korn have had on other bands, and he said Sepultura’s 1996 album Roots was a “blatant Korn rip-off.”

Davis added that he had words with producer Ross Robinson, who he accused of taking Korn’s sound and “giving it to Sepultura.”

Later, former Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera admitted Korn did influence the sound of Roots, but his brother and Cavalera Conspiracy bandmate Max says Davis’ comments make little sense.

He tells CKRL 89.1 FM (via Blabbermouth): “Korn wasn’t the only reason we wanted to work with Ross. He had done a Fear Factory demo that I really liked and had a really raw sound. And he had done a Deftones song on the Adrenaline album that I really liked.”

“Saying that is like saying Sepultura should be pissed off at Cannibal Corpse because they used producer Scott Burns. I’m not pissed off at Cannibal Corpse – I think they’re great.

“Because we were one of the first that used Scott Burns, we should be mad at all the bands that use Scott Burns? That’s childish. So he’s just really being childish. And I really don’t give a shit about Korn or anybody.

“We were very different from Korn, we have own way of playing and the songs are different. Everything is different. It’s just the same guy that recorded both albums – that’s the only similarity.”

In the same interview, Igor says he thought the bass sound on early Korn music was “horrible.”

He adds: “I think especially the sound of Korn, in my opinion, with the bass, is horrible. We didn’t have that – we had a lot of low end and things that the Korn album didn’t have.

“So I don’t see why he would be pissed off.”

Max and Igor Cavalera are on the road on their Return To Roots tour, on which they’ll perform the classic Sepultura album.

Max and Igor Cavalera Return To Roots European tour 2016

Nov 04: Nancy On The Rocks, France
Nov 05: Bilbao Santana 27, Spain
Nov 06: Porto Hard Club, Portugal
Nov 07: Madrid Penelope, Spain
Nov 08: Barcelona Razzmatazz 2, Spain
Nov 09: Geneva L’usine, Switzerland
Nov 10: Milan Live Club, Italy
Nov 12: Zagreb Culture Factory, Croatia
Nov 14: Belgrade Dom Omladine, Serbia
Nov 15: Sofia Universiada, Bulgaria
Nov 18: Athens Gagarin, Greece
Nov 19: Istanbul Garaj, Turkey
Nov 21: Budapest Barba Negra Music Club, Hungary
Nov 22: Prague Meet Factory, Czech Republic
Nov 23: Warsaw Progresja, Poland
Nov 24: Katowice Mtp2, Poland
Nov 25: Berlin Huxley’s, Germany
Nov 27: Hamburg The Docks, Germany
Nov 28: Munich Backstage Werk, Germany
Nov 29: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Nov 30: London O2 Kentish Town Forum, UK
Dec 01: Luxembourg Rockhall, Luxembourg
Dec 02: Cologne Essigfabrik, Germany
Dec 03: Paris Eylsee Montmarte, France
Dec 05: Copenhagen Pumpehuset, Denmark
Dec 06: Oslo Vulkan Arena, Norway
Dec 07: Gothenburg Pustervik, Sweden
Dec 09: Helsinki Aulanko Arena, Finland
Dec 11: Moscow Yotaspace, Russia

Max Cavalera: I should have kept Sepultura name

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.