Soulfly

Archangel

Written by: MBC on 01/10/2015 01:42:11

Max Cavalera is quite the legendary character in heavy metal with a career spanning more than 30 years. He remains an enigmatic and fascinating presence in the music business and continues to be a part of interesting projects such as the very excellent super group Killer Be Killed. Sepultura’s last album with Max was the incredible “Roots” in 1996 that saw the band go into new musical directions with more emphasis on groove and tribal orchestration. This of course ultimately led to the infamous split from Sepultura and the formation of Soulfly in 1997.

While Sepultura is still going strong, albeit with no original members, Max has continued his work with Soulfly which has also seen many line-up changes throughout the years, with Max being the only constant. Over the course of these now ten Soulfly records, Max’ direction for the band has gone through various styles featuring nü/groove-metal, hardcore, thrash and death metal with the degree of tribal influences varying greatly. “Archangel” overall is mostly based in thrash and hardcore with a little bit of death thrown in the mix. Unfortunately, the tribal aspect is toned down greatly on this album, which might have kept it from standing out as more than just an average sounding record.

Max’ scream-singing sounds as one could expect, and whether that is a good thing or not is really up to the individual listener. I have always liked his raw and primal approach with his thick accent being a charming characteristic, and overall his performance on the album is another good one. Much like Dave Mustaine’s Megadeth, Soulfly is his vision and the other musicians in the band are there to share and add to that vision. This time around, Max’ son Zyon is along for the ride as the band’s drummer. His performance is fine, but certainly nothing special, and in comparison for instance to the amazing Roy Mayorga who was in the band previously, he comes up short. However, with the music on “Archangel” being very straight forward with rather anonymous and unmemorable riffs and melodies, he fits well due to his playing consisting mostly of simple drum patterns and some double bass.

The album’s lyrics revolve around religious and mythological themes depicting various scenarios from the Bible and other texts. These are areas that Max has visited many times during his career being very critical of religion, but claiming that Soulfly is a spiritual band and even dedicating many of his albums to Deus/God. These are not exactly amazing lyrics though. They most often consist of short, staccato sentences with a bunch of names in them such as “wines of Sodom, sin of Gomorrah, dissolved by flame in Leviathan's den” from “Sodomites” or “root of David, eradicate, violate the Sabbath, Hammurabi code, eye for an eye, stabbing the heavens, mount Sinai, tribe of Judah, splendor of light, retaliate” from “Shamash”.

On the extremely corny album opener “We Sold Our Souls To Metal” the lyrics are more direct:

“Fuck you all we don't belong! I want to burn your fucking world! Destroy 'em all! Fuck your laws! Metal flows through my veins, I wanna rage, I am insane, c'mon punk make my day!”
.

The track "Live Life Hard!" has similar content: “Hey! What the fuck did you say?! Get the fuck out of my way! I stand my ground motherfucker let’s throw down!”. If you are looking for an album with sophisticated lyrics to delve into and connect to emotionally, it might be best to skip this one.

Now, with so many years in the industry and so many releases behind him, does the Brazilian singer/guitarist still have some gas left in the tank? Yes, yes he does. Max’ charismatic and oddly charming persona always shines through in his material, and there is no denying his credentials and abilities to write and perform great metal. Unfortunately though, “Archangel” is not among his greatest achievements and remains one of the weaker and more bland albums from Soulfly.

6

Download: Archangel, Ishtar Rising, Bethlehem’s Blood, Deceiver
For the fans of: Cavalera Conspiracy, Sepultura, Nailbomb, Pantera, Megadeth
Listen: Facebook

Release date 14.08.2015
Nuclear Blast

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