Derrick Green

Derrick Green — Sepultura's vocalist since 1997 — took on the hardest position in the history of Brazilian metal and stayed in it for almost three decades. When Max Cavalera left the band in 1996, Sepultura was coming off Roots, the widest-reaching record of its career, and Max's voice was inseparable from the group. Green, an American from Cleveland, walked into that situation — succeeding a founder, in a foreign country, before an audience that largely rejected the change from the outset. His voice is different from Max's, and he never tried to imitate it: a lower register, clearer articulation, with the ability to alternate growls and clean singing. That difference is what let Sepultura continue instead of becoming a cover of itself — and record works the previous line-up probably would not have made, such as Dante XXI (2006), a concept album on the Divine Comedy, and Machine Messiah (2017). Green has now recorded more albums with Sepultura than Max, and stayed in the band longer. He settled in Brazil, sings in Portuguese on several tracks and became a figure of the Brazilian scene — a path that turned what began as a contested replacement into a complete second era of the band.