In 1996, Max Cavelera of Sepultura decided to part ways with the band and form his own group ‘Soulfly’ due to wanting a new musical direction with a more spiritual feel to the music. In the earlier days of Soulfly, they tended to play more Nu-Metal with albums like ‘Primitive’ which featured Corey Taylor of Slipknot. Later on from the 2004 release ‘Prophecy’ they started getting much heavier. Notorious for their band line-up changes, Max explained on his website that he wanted to use different musicians on each album and to “not be a band like Metallica with the same four guys” However, it must be working as this (Savages) will be their eighth album release.
OK, so the first track ‘Bloodshed’ may start with the war siren that’s been done a million times, but you can’t really knock it. It brings atmosphere and a bit of suspense to a (hopefully) great album!
The old school crunchy riffs are there but also some newer fresh stuff added too. The vocals are brilliant, you can’t fault Max Cavalera there! Although, saying that, the clean punk styled vocals just didn’t need to be there. I know they were the vocals of Max’s other son Igor, but still, they don’t seem to cut the mustard on this track. The solo is just superb with the rest of the music just a distant hum to show off the guitarists skills.
‘Cannibal Holocaust’ is probably one of the heaviest Soulfly tracks I’ve heard to date. However, apart from that this track doesn’t offer much else. Don’t fret though, ‘Fallen’ contains some cracking tempo changes, screams and of course some brilliant drumming by Max’s son Zyon. It’s obviously paid off having Max as your daddy! Anyhow, the ending on this one is pretty cool too, think a time warping “thwarp” Then, there’s the dirty riffs at the beginning of ‘Ayatollah of Rock ‘N’ Rolla’ which are quite frankly insane! But, the talking at the middle of the track is a bit off-putting. Luckily Max’s legendary vocals kick in saving the track from a fatal injury. Max will be a little pissed at me putting this but his less croaky vocals on this one remind me of Joakim of Sabaton… Sorry Max.
Whilst listening to this album I came across ‘Spiral’ giving me some familiarity of the good old days of the 2000 album ‘Primitive’ still a personal firm favourite over anything they have done. Then, there’s tracks like ‘KCS’, think Max and Vivian (The Young ones) having a screaming match and that’s pretty much the case here, yet strangely it works, personally I’m on team Vivian.
‘El Comegente’ which was co -written by Max and Tony Camposs (Bassist and ex Static-X Bassist) and sounds pretty heavy with a good idea behind it. El Comegente was a nickname given to a homeless guy in Venezuela who hunted and Killed and then ate his victims, yum! That aside, it’s quite a good track and a lot of heavy bands choose to write songs about murderers so if it works, it works.
Lastly, ‘Soulfliktion’ isn’t a ground-breaking number as the lyrics get a bit tedious but, it’s certainly heavy, full of energy and added to that some guitar work that the likes of Michael Angelo Batio would be jealous of.
All in all mini Cavalera does a fantastic job on drums and Max has still got that roaring voice. The overall feel is clean, polished (but not too shiny) and a lot different to what has been on offer by Soulfly before. However, there’s still that Brazilian edge and atmospheric sound that no one else can pull off that keeps you wanting more.
(7/10 Charlene Rance)
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