### Soulfly: Dark ages

#### 09/02/10 || InquisitorGeneralis

Not everything Max Cavalera has done with his post-Sepultura project Soulfly has totally sucked a dick. The band’s first two releases, 1998’s “Soulfly” and 2000’s “Primitive” featured heavy hip-hip and “nu” influences…and they both sucked a duck’s dinky dick. However, “Prophecy” was distinctly more heavy and featured some pretty solid songs and reflected Max’s time with Sepultura much more than the bands first albums. 2005’s follow up “Dark Ages” thankfully keeps the heavy vibe going and also features a few enjoyable tracks. But, it is far from perfect and still nothing compared the Max’s class late 80s and early 90s output with Teh Sep.

“Dark Ages” is just an intro for the catchy first real track “Babylon”. I like the mixing in of Rasta themes and images into Soulfly, as gay as that may sound. “I and I” gets a little thrashy and is another decent song with almost badass chorus and some decent guitar work, especially when the song’s tempo picks back up. Even the super-easy breakdown is enjoyable. It’s clear that on “Dark Ages” Max and Co. are making an effort to kick some more ass.

The best example of this is ‘Carved inside”: a cool, frenetic beginning with some badass trashy riffs and headbangin’ time changes make this a shockingly awesome song from the same band that made the atrocious “Jumpdafuckup” and whatever shit song that was with Fred Durstbag. “Arise again” rounds out a solid foursome of songs to start the CD off. As far as the band goes the musicianship is tight with Mark Rizzo the Rat complimenting Max well on guitars and Joe Nunez adding some more groove to Soulfly’s established tribal sound.

The quality goes down a bit though starting with trying to hard to be punk-ish “Molotov” and the uninspired “Frontlines” which was the most heavily promoted but least original track on “Dark Ages”. It is pretty clear that Max and the boys ran out of steam and could not keep the heavy quality going throughout the album but at least they fucken tried. Fifteen songs is way too long for a Soulfly album. “Bleak” is pretty awesome though and definitely the best song on the second half of the disc. “Riotstarter” is also enjoyable. However, I feel the same way about “Soulfly IV” as I felt about versions I thought III on the previous three Soulfly albums… not impressed.

“Dark Ages” is a good effort at getting things heavy again and I give Max credit for that. It’s not perfect but Soulfly could have, and has, done a lot worse. Soulfly will never be Sepultura and die-hard fans will be happy with anything Max shits out.

Still, “Dark Ages” is a good album that sounds excellent and has a few memorable songs mixed in with some skip worthy but not entirely heinous filler songs. A decent score for Maxfly’s best and heaviest effort to date. Plus, the cover is pretty fucken cool too.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Roadrunner
- Website: www.soulfly.com
- Band
- Max Cavalera: guitar, vocals
- Mark Rizzo: guitar, vocals
- Bobby Burns: bass
- Joe Nunez: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. The Dark Ages
- 02. Babylon
- 03. I and I
- 04. Carved Inside
- 05. Arise Again
- 06. Molotov
- 07. Frontlines
- 08. Innerspirit
- 09. Corrosion Creeps
- 10. Riotstarter
- 11. Bleak
- 12. (The) March
- 13. Fuel the Hate
- 14. Staystrong
- 15. Soulfly V