Greyson Nekrutman recalls nerve-racking call to join Sepultura suddenly

Greyson Nekrutman faced one of metal’s most intimidating calls and said yes anyway. Asked to step into Sepultura during its farewell run, the young drummer had to absorb the scale of the job in real time: a legendary band, a global tour, and a vacancy created just days before rehearsals.

Nekrutman recalled that the pressure became immediate when guitarist Andreas Kisser called him directly and told him the band needed a drummer. That was the moment the decision stopped being abstract. He said he knew he had to accept, even while understanding the responsibility would be enormous. For a player coming off work with Suicidal Tendencies, the move into Sepultura was not just a schedule change. It was a leap into one of the most exposed seats in extreme metal.

The timing made the switch even more dramatic. Sepultura had launched its 40 Years Farewell Tour, Celebrating Life Through Death, on December 1, 2023, framing the run as an 18-month global farewell to four decades of music and a career that had taken the band to 80 countries. Then, on February 6, 2024, Eloy Casagrande told the band he was leaving to pursue another project, just days before rehearsals. Sepultura said it was taken by surprise, and by February 27, 2024, Nekrutman had officially been named the new drummer for the farewell tour.

That sequence explains why Nekrutman’s account landed so hard with drummers. This was not a slow handoff or a cushy audition cycle. It was a rescue mission for a band with a massive catalog, a worldwide audience, and no margin for hesitation. Nekrutman’s comments suggested that fear and excitement arrived together, and that surviving the first stretch depended on discipline, repetition, and a clear sense of what Sepultura’s songs demand from the kit.

The broader drummer shuffle added another layer to the story. Casagrande later turned up as Slipknot’s new drummer, with the Iowa band officially welcoming him on April 30, 2024. Meanwhile, Sepultura’s farewell pages have shown the tour extending into 2026, underscoring that Nekrutman’s role became part of the band’s final chapter, not a short-term patch. For a drummer, few calls carry more weight than being asked to help close out a legacy this large, this fast, and this publicly.