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Soulfly: Conquer
05/08/08 || Euthanatos
So here is the history of Soulfly, and pay attention because I’m only saying this once. When Max Cavalera left Sepultura, he naturally went on to form his own band, an outlet for all his ridiculous ideas. As he was deeply immersed in that hideous nu metal culture of the late nineties, he released “Soulfly” and “Primitive”, two shittier than shit albums that disgraced this Earth.
Then, as the fad was fading, Max started to lean, like everyone else, towards metal, which once again was becoming popular in America. “3” saw a mixture of metal elements, tribal nonsense and some down-tuned jumpdafuckup bullshit, while “Prophecy” showed Max fully-flirting with metal again.
Then came “Dark Ages”, a very solid album which surprised the fuck out of me, metal from start to finish, decent thrash metal, aggressive as fuck, “Arise” and “Chaos A.D.” elements all around, should have been the album “Roots” wasn’t (and fuck you if you liked that industrial voodoo crap).
Between “Dark Ages” and this new album, Max showed that he was wholeheartedly intent on going back to his roots (ha ha), and teamed up with long absent brother Iggor (now with two g’s, double the protection) and released The Cavalera Conspiracy, which I have already reviewed. It was thrash as fuck and everything one could have hoped for from the two brothers.
So where does that leave us? “Conquer” seems to come about way too soon, while we’re still enjoying the Cavalera clan together again and all the back and forth talk of a Sepultura reunion. Maybe because of that, maybe because, like I said, it seems a little too soon to be released (and I can understand the reason, Max just wants to make clear that Soulfly will remain active and his main band), “Conquer” sounds half-assed, somewhat of a “Dark Ages” leftover collection, the Cavalera Conspiracy album would be a much more dignified follow-up.
Not that the album is a complete waste of time, I like the yelling in “Blood Fire War Hate” (probably because it features David Vincent on it), the riffs on “Paranoia” as fucking old school, “Fall of the Cycophants” is really good, “Doom” is fast and reminds me of “Arise”, as does “For Those About to Rot”. I mean, there’s some very decent stuff here, enough to keep one mildly interested. I will point out, however, that the experimentation on this album is much more interesting and coherent than in other efforts by Max (listen to “Touching the Void”). This is, quite possibly, one of those albums that grow on you with time. Yeah, good luck with that, I don’t have the patience to try.
The only problem is, when we consider Max’s two previous releases, this one pales in comparison. Probably enough to keep the fan entertained and the rest of us waiting what will be the next Cavalera chapter.
The cover: It looks like one of those strange Hindu deities. Looks pretty badass.
6 bring back the dark ages out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Roadrunner
- Website: www.soulflyweb.com
- Band
- Max Cavalera: vocals, guitar
- Marc Rizzo: guitars
- Bobby Burns: bass
- Joe Nunez: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Blood Fire War Hate
- 02. Unleash
- 03. Paranoia
- 04. Warmageddon
- 05. Enemy Ghost
- 06. Rough
- 07. Fall of the Sycophants
- 08. Doom
- 09. For Those About To Rot
- 10. Touching the Void
- 11. Soulfly VI
