Even for a metal album, Soulfly’s Savages contains a striking number of references to cannibalism. “It’s kind of a taboo subject to talk about,” leader Max Cavalera acknowledges, “but I think there’s also a weird, wild attraction to it, at the same time. There’s a place for it on a record called Savages.”

Cavalera is on the phone from his home base in Phoenix, Arizona, where he relocated with his former band, Brazilian thrash monsters Sepultura, nearly 25 years ago. He’s a relaxed, easy interview, considering we’re talking about the eating of human flesh.

“It’s mostly on two songs, ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ and ‘El Comegente’,” named, respectively, for a notorious Italian exploitation film and real-life Venezuelan people-eater Dorangel Vargas, dubbed “the Hannibal Lecter of the Andes”. The latter song was co-written, in Spanish and Portuguese, with Soulfly’s current bassist, Mexican-American rocker Tony Campos.

“We did some research on the Internet—there’s interviews with Vargas; he’s still alive in a mental hospital in Venezuela. He ate 10 people, he’s a real crazy guy. He would attack people with a metal tube and drag them into a tent he had in the middle of the city, and he would make soup with eyeballs… just kind of a crazy creepy story. It would make a great movie!”

As for “Cannibal Holocaust”, “I was mostly motivated from the words themselves: it’s such a brutal two words together, if you visualize it, so I like the name even more than the movie.” But Cavalera enjoys horror movies just fine. “My wife is a big fan of B movies, she’s got a big collection: Motel Hell, Microwave Massacre, I Eat Your Brain, all this crazy shit. I actually find it funny. I watch them and I kind of laugh, I don’t get scared.”

Savages continues to expand on the death-metal influences that dominated 2012’s Enslaved, with songs like “This Is Violence” and “K.C.S.” (“Kill, Cut, Scalp”), which features Mitch Harris of Napalm Death. But Cavalera emphasizes that he’s a “peaceful person” at heart.

“We all have violence inside of us, but we try to channel it into what we do. I think all my anger and hate comes out in the music; that should be the way you channel these things. It’s like, I don’t go out and beat people up, I do it with my guitar. It’s like a therapy, actually, to get singing those songs and get the anger out. It’s helped me a lot.”

In fact, at age 44, Cavalera—whose autobiography comes out in March—is very much a family man, and will likely have two of his sons with him when Soulfly hits Vancouver: Zyon on drums, and Igor on background vocals.

“They’re actually really good kids—when I was their age, I was already in a lot of trouble already, doing all kinds of stupid shit that they don’t do, so I don’t have to be too concerned. Zyon doesn’t even drink or smoke or nothing. He don’t like any of that, he just likes drumming! Igor’s a little bit more punk-rock, we gotta watch out for him a little bit. But it’s fun, man—it’s a really cool environment, the bus. It’s got that family vibe.”