Vania Cavalera, the mother of SEPULTURA’s founding members Max and Igor “Iggor” Cavalera, has died. She was 80 years old.

Max and Igor announced their mother’s passing in a social media post earlier today. They wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our matriarch Vania Cavalera. Vania’s greatest joy in life was raising and loving her three children Max, Iggor, and Kira, and being Vovó to her fourteen grandchildren. Our family asks for privacy during this difficult time of grief and as we honor our mother’s wishes and her legacy by continuing to celebrate her 80-year-long journey of love, strength, spirituality and metal.”

Max addressed his relationship with his mother in a 2016 interview with Rockwell Unscene. He said: “When you do your show, it’s a transformation. I was like possessed. My nickname in early SEPULTURA was Max Possessed, which was something that I chose. I was always into stuff like that, because my mom is a high priestess of a Brazilian religion called Candomblé, which is very spiritual. Candomblé is a bit like… It’s like voodoo, but the good side, not the dark side — kind of like that. So I was always around her when they did the rituals, and I saw a lot of people getting possessed, and I always liked that.”

He continued: “When my mom came to see my first shows, she mentioned that. She goes, ‘It looks like one of my rituals, what you guys are doing. ‘Cause you’re not the same son on a stage that you are at home.’ Cause at home I am all mellow and stuff, and on a stage, it’s a whole another layer of madness.”