Soulfly – Savages

5th September 2013 2 By Craig

Max Cavalera and co (or if you want, we can just address them as Soulfly) are back with their 9th Studio album which is due out on 30th September 2013 via their new home of Nuclear Blast Records.

Ever changing but somehow managing to keep a unique “Cavalera” sound, this album is hard hitting with Max’s trademark tribal sounds in parts and is the first album to feature his 21 year old son Zyon on drums. Yes folks, if like me you remember hearing Zyons hearbeat (who at the time was unborn) on the intro to ‘Refuse/Resist‘ when Chaos AD was first released in 1993 you will now no doubt be feeling old….21 years old, where does the time go? Anyway, enough babbling and back to the review!

The album has been self-produced by Max and also produced by Terry Date (PANTERA, DEFTONES) who has worked with Soulfly on “3”, “Prophecy” and “Dark Ages” albums as well as “Roots” producer Ross Robinson (KORN, AT THE DRIVE-IN), Toby Wright (Ozzy Osbourne, SLAYER), Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE), ex-SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, GORJIA) and Zeuss (HATEBREED, SUICIDE SILENCE).

So with all the above big and well respected names in metal production producing your album you must be thinking the album is alright, that it just about hits the spot. Let me put that right for you right here, right now and say you are starting on the right path.

Of course, no Soulfly album is complete without the guest vocals. Bloodshed features Max’s son Igor Cavalera (LODY KONG), Savages features Neil Fallon (CLUTCH) who appears on ‘Ayatollah of Rock ‘N’ Rolla’. Jamie Hanks from I DECLARE WAR is on “Fallen” and Mitch Harris from NAPALM DEATH contributed vocals to ‘K.C.S.’ who has reportedly known the Cavalera’s for that long that there are videos of him changing the now Soulfly drummers nappies when he was a month old!

On Mitch guesting on the album Max says:

“Mitch came to the studio just to hang out during a day off from tour, I’m like, ‘You ready to sing some shit on this record?’ I put him on the spot. He’s like, ‘Right now?’ I said, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s do it!’ There was one point where we were recording together where he did a scream and I saw his eyeball popping out of his face like a cartoon. I was like, ‘Dude that was the most metal thing I’ve seen in a long time.’”

I must say that Soulfly have taken a huge gamble on this album given that the majority of the songs would give Metallica’s a run for their money in terms of duration. The shortest is Cannibal Holocaust at 3 minutes 29 which is a good duration. The longest is El Comegente at 8 minutes 17. The gamble was worth taking – none of the songs are boring, none of the songs sound the same and this album will be on repeat for some time.

So with that in mind, get your pre-orders in for this monster album!

Score: 9.5 out of 10

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ALBUM INFO

Tracklist:

1 Bloodshed 6:55
2 Cannibal Holocaust 3:29
3 Fallen 5:55
4 Ayatollah Of Rock ‘N’ Rolla 7:29
5 Master Of Savagery 5:10
6 Spiral 5:34
7 This Is Violence 4:23
8 K.C.S 5:15
9 El Comegente 8:17
10 Soulfliktion 5:43

Record Label

Nuclear Blast

Personnel

Max Cavalera | lead vocals/guitar
Marc Rizzo | lead guitar
Tony Campos | bass, backing Vocals
Zyon Cavalera | drums

Additional Personnel

Igor Cavalera (LODY KONG) – ‘Bloodshed’
Neil Fallon (CLUTCH) – ‘Ayatollah of Rock ‘N’ Rolla’
Jamie Hanks (I DECLARE WAR) – ‘Fallen’
Mitch Harris (NAPALM DEATH) – ‘K.C.S.’

Website
www.soulfly.com