Soulfly

Soulfly don't run to the hills, they burn them down. Just like the multi-limbed monster adorning the cover of their sixth offering Conquer, Soulfly's claws are razor sharp and ready to kill. Conquer is simultaneously the band's most brutal and epic effort to date. Max Cavalera's penchant for experimentation has once again propelled his band to the next level. Whereas Cavalera Conspiracy's Inflikted channeled raw hate into thrashy death metal warfare, Soulfly's Conquer is a trip across the battlefield, before, after and during the war. An acoustic passage during "Paranoia" breaks up the onslaught, and brings a strangely hypnotic reprieve. The rest of the song combines bludgeoning guitars and Max's commanding roar for a full-on metallic charge. Album opener "Blood Fire War Hate" enlists Morbid Angel vocalist David Vincent's pummeling pipes. The song's massive chorus matches the riffs in terms of intensity and raw metallic violence. Cavalera's mammoth war cry kills in unison with Vincent's deadly scream.

"Unleash" brandishes a brutal breakdown a la Pantera, while Throwdown's Dave Peters aggressively howls. "Warmaggedon" showcases a bridge-burning lead from guitar maestro Mark Rizzo, and it's one of his fastest and most ripping leads yet. "Doom" is a slow hazy tribute to Sabbath, and "For Those About to Rot" mixes a big groove and some downright deadly drumming. The biggest departure comes during the album's last two tracks. "Touching the Void" stretches past the seven-minute mark, and it's a full metal headtrip. The song slowly drains off with a psychedelic dub outro. Then there's "Soulfly VI." It's a somber and entrancing instrumental that's the perfect ending to the raw brutality preceding it.

At the end of the album, there's nothing behind Soulfly but flames. Max Cavalera and the tribe stand victorious once again.

—Rick Florino
07.31.08

After mercilessly teasing Sepultura fans by reuniting with long estranged baby brother Igor for the Cavalera Conspiracy project in early 2008 (quite possibly a one-off deal), Brazilian heavy metal icon Max Cavalera waited just a few months before refocusing on what had been his primary concern over the previous decade: Soulfly. Be that as it may, and with the exception of those jilted Sepultura supporters, there was good cause for the metal community in general to look forward to Soulfly's sixth album, Conquer. After all, its 2005 predecessor, Dark Ages, had represented something of a creative and qualitative rebirth, going a long way to rescuing Max's ostensible solo project from years of post-nu metal iniquity. Luckily, that same spirit of stylistic diversity abounds once again throughout Conquer -- as does Soulfly's career-spanning juxtaposition of scholarly cross-cultural exchange and primitive Neanderthal violence. Opening number "Blood Fire War Hate" may be the best example, contrasting sweeping symphonic flourishes against pulverizing metallic brutality, Cavalera's legendary lyrical simplicity (as effective as it can be hilarious at times), and guest vocals from David Vincent for good measure. And even though the next song, "Unleash," comes dangerously close to unearthing lousy old habits -- an imaginatively mellow solo from guitarist Marc Rizzo only barely staves off gimmicky groove metal breakdowns and a wholly unnecessary co-vocal by Throwdown's Dave Peters -- the album rarely falters again after that. On the one hand, it offers up numerous awe-inspiring returns to Cavalera's ancient death/thrash roots in tracks like "Paranoia," "Enemy Ghost," the devastatingly riffed "Fall of the Sycophants," and "Warmageddon," featuring a throwback Rizzo solo filled with flashy swoops and dive-bombs. On the other, it makes room for Cavalera's trademarked tribal percussion bits and "world metal" hobbies, including a nifty reggae breakdown midway through "Doom" and several evocative passages derived from his recent Egyptian travels, often as codas for "Touching the Void" and "For Those About to Rot" (also featuring French dub artist Fedayi Pacha). Naturally, there's a sixth, predictably lame and new agey installment of the band's ongoing eponymous suite closing these proceedings, but its arrival late in the game hardly affects the album's otherwise formidable forward thrust, nor can it stop Conquer from writing one of the stronger chapters yet in the Soulfly saga. And wherever Max Cavalera heads off to next -- even if it comes to that dreamed-of Sepultura reunion some day -- Conquer seems to assert that Soulfly will forever remain his primary home. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide