SOULFLY. Max Cavalera talks about getting baptized at the Vatican; his mother’s deep immersion into the Candomblé religion; witnessing rituals and believers "possessed" by saints and deities in his childhood household; the death of his father, and the loss of his stepson, Dana; the spiritualism he finds present in some of the darkest and angriest metal music; the transformative experience that led to the eventual creation of Sepultura; his unapologetic belief in God; and the central role of spirituality in his life.

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Check out other PopCurse network podcasts: PopCurse, No Prize From God, and Hoosier Illusion.

Suicide Silence guitarist Mark Heylmun on psychedelics, Catholicism, the occult, creative hiatuses, the making of the band’s self-titled album with Ross Robinson, losing a close friend in high school, the death of frontman Mitch Lucker, the band's subsequent rebirth, the ego, and much more. Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

NILE frontman Karl Sanders talks ancient Egypt, his meditative and transcendental solo work, several of the books and ideas that shaped him, and more. "A lot of the [religious] options available to us are restrictive by nature," he explains. "I gravitated to the [ancient] Egyptians because you know what? When those guys did religion, they imagined big." Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

Church Of The Cosmic Skull founder Bill Fisher's seven-piece, vocal-harmony-and-Hammond-organ heavy, English prog/psych/rock outfit fashions itself as a spiritual organization dedicated to “The Seven Objects,” which includes instructions to “recognize the hallucinatory nature of reality,” “celebrate and uphold the freedom of art, science and thought,” “meet mistakes with forgiveness and determination,” and “maintain focus on the unity of all living beings.” Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix's band, Liturgy, is a platform for both fine art and theology, delivered in waves of transcendental black metal possessed by the spirit of classical music and the energetic urgency of punk and indie rock. An unapologetic Christian with a love of the Orthodox Church and a spiritual practice many believers would deem decidedly unorthodox, Hunt-Hendrix is a boundlessly talented, thoughtful, and moving artist and performer. As she says in this episode: "The band is called Liturgy. The point of the performances is to be a mass. Liturgy is a structured form of collective worship and that's the intention. When we play the music, I'm reading it as a holy experience." Discover Liturgy's music here. Delve further into her work and theology on Substack and YouTube.

Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

Hasan Oswald started his professional career as a cameraman for National Geographic’s film Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS. His verité style caught the eye of award-winning filmmakers Nick Quested & Sebastian Junger (Restrepo). His directorial debut, Higher Love, about the opioid crisis in New Jersey, arrived in 2020. He's also covered the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, drug trafficking, homelessness in Philadelphia, and the Yazidi Genocide in Iraq. Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

Dara Molloy is a Celtic Monk, Priest, and Druid who lives on Inis Mor, the largest of the three islands that make up the Aran Islands in Ireland. He talks about his journey from Catholicism to the Celtic spiritual tradition. Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

Sergio Navarretta directed Looking for Angelina (2005), The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship (2015), and The Cuban (2020), about Mina (Ana Golja), a naive pre-med student who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Luis (Louis Gossett Jr.), an elderly Cuban musician. Navaretta talks about filming in Cuba, the spiritual power of music, and our relationship with our elders. "When my dad passed away, I realized how absolute death is; whatever happens in the moments before becomes so important." Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

"Making peace with who you are inevitably leads to the recognition that who you are is an illusion." In this revealing and in-depth conversation, Devin Townsend talks about music, meditation, collective unconscious, imposter syndrome, perfect happiness, emotional balance, and "a certain amount of transcendence." Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast.

SATYRICON frontman Satyr Wongraven returns to No-Prize From God. The Norwegian black metal musician talks about the spiritual and creative connections between nature, music, and visual arts, anchored specifically around the Satyricon & Munch - Munchmuseet exhibition, which ran for several months in 2022. Handpicked works of Norway's most famous artist, Edvard Munch, inspired new Satyricon music drawing on existential themes, rhythms, and waves. (Read more about the exhibition here.) Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica). Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast. 

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM drummer Aaron Weaver talks about the deep-rooted spirituality of the American black metal band he co-founded with his brother, Nathan. WITTR make iconoclastic (even for black metal) and often ritualistic music meant to evoke the forests and mountains around them in the Pacific Northwest. In this in-depth conversation, Aaron speaks candidly about his personal experiences and the evolution of his ideas. Listen to No-Prize From God: Playlist For the Podcast. Follow No-Prize From God, Ryan J. Downey, and check out Downey's other podcasts: PopCurse (Musicians Talking Movies) and Speak N' Destroy (Interviews About Metallica).