When it comes to South American metal musicians, there are none more recognisable than Max Cavalera. Co-founder of Sepultura, the rhythm guitarist and vocalist has been a standard bearer for metal since the mid-late 80’s producing some of the finest thrash metal albums of all time. As well as being involved in other projects like Nailbomb, Cavalera Conspiracy, Killer Be Killed, Roadrunner United, Dave Grohl’s Probot, Max also has Soulfly, his main musical project who are set to unleash their tenth album “Archangel”. With a host of guest musicians over the years, Max has opted to retain the services of Marc Rizzo on guitars whilst making it a more familial/tribal affair with son Zyon on drums and Igor Jr. On bass. With some stunning artwork and a theme of anger and wrath on apocalyptic scale, let’s see what the archangel brings.
Opening up with “We Sold Our Soul To Metal”, the trademark frantic and intense heavy riffing hits you right away without any warning. The controlled chaos in the form of a thrash/groove/death metal hybrid runs throughout the album, freely shifting between all three styles at will and the rawness and heaviness is right up there. I would consider this to be Soulfly’s heaviest release to date just on the sound alone. As you’d expect, Max’s rhythm work is solid, given how he is one of the best metal rhythm guitarists whilst long standing collaborator Marc Rizzo keeps up with him in the riffing and really lets loose with the melodic and showman like leads which litter the album whilst the drums from Zyon have that Dave Lombardo styled power behind them.
Vocally, you know what you are getting with Max, a lot of harsh and angry yelling, but on this record Todd Jones of Nail’s provides guest vocals on “Sodomites” which is a seriously angry and intense track. “Live Life Hard” features Matt Young of Kill Parrot offering vocals, keeping with the harsh theme and Max’s sons, Igor Jr. and Richie offer more vocal duties up on the album closer “Mother Of Dragons”.
With biblical themes, most notably wrath and punishment flowing through the album along with other ancient Middle Eastern mythology mixed in, this album is an extremely angry release. “Bethlehem’s Blood” and “Deceiver” are intense borderline death metal walls of noise whilst “Ishtar Rising” has a real sludge like quality to its pounding groove. The variation in sound and rhythm is notable, but the only downside is, a lot of the songs do link into each other and sometimes you cannot separate them unless you’re closely paying attention. Still, despite this being a slight concern, it does make repeated listens easier given the releases overall length clocking in just shy of 37 minutes.
Overall, “Archangel” is an intense record. Powerful rhythm work, scathing vocal assaults, cutting leads and plenty of groove all combine to make this the heaviest Soulfly release to date and with all the lyrical content about rage, anger and wrath, it makes for the perfect soundtrack to any impending judgement from the heavens or apocalypse. Max may not have done much in the way of groundbreaking since 1996’s Roots, but sometimes the saying “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” is proven to be the best course of action. With any release involving Max you know what you are getting and it rarely disappoints. Delivering an angry slice of metal, Soulfly have proved that after 10 albums, there is still plenty more to offer.
(8.5/10 Fraggle)
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