Songfacts®:

• In a Songfacts interview with Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera, he explained where the lyrical inspiration for his song came from. Said Max: "I was in a subway in New York and going from Manhattan to Roadrunner Records. There was a Black Panther in front of me - a big black guy with an afro - and he had a black leather jacket. And in his leather jacket, there was this whole speech written about Black Panther, black power, all this crazy Black Panther s--t. And the very last part of this jacket, it just said, "Refuse and Resist." So I took it right from the guy's jacket and made it into a song.
• Max Cavalera often associates images with with riffs he comes up with. He told us what he sees on this one: "When I close my eyes, I imagine a riot going on when I hear this riff. So it was a riff that was borne out of a riot imagination. Just the confusion: upside down cars, burning cars, and upside down police cars burning."
• Andy Wallace, who has also worked with Faith No More, Bad Religion and The Rollins Band, produced this track. He was trying to put forth the idea of a culture clash, playing into the theme of Brazilian music mixing with Metal. The band had their doubts, but Wallace managed to combine these disparate elements in his production to make the connection.
• Drummer Igor Cavalera played the intro on a piccolo snare drum - an instrument you don't hear on many Metal tracks.
• Despite the name of the album, the song has nothing to do with Satanism. Rather, the title is fairly self-explanatory: Refuse and resist the government. The video is equally violent, and depicts riot scenes from Sepultura's homeland, Brazil. The entire album is essentially on this theme, and this is the opening track. It's very anti-government and pro-tribal. >>>

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  Brendan - Easton, CT
• The song was covered as a bonus track on Soulfly's 2010 album, Omen. Max Cavalera's first son Zyon played drums on the track. The Soulfly frontman said to Altsounds: "Zyon picked 'Refuse/Resist', which I think fits him really well because his heartbeat opened the original Sepultura Chaos AD, that's his heartbeat on the beginning."