There are many ways for a band to be heavy, and over the years Soulfly have tried most of them. There was the tectonic groove that ran through the first few albums and the furious thrash of Dark Ages. Enslaved saw Max Cavalera embrace his death metal roots, and their most recent outings have been a chaotic amalgamation of everything that had come before.
Through all the riffing and roaring, though, they’ve never sounded so consistently abrasive as they do on Chama. Here, Max has passed the production reins to son and drummer Zyon, and the younger Cavalera has gone for a caustic and bloody sound. The guitar tone could flay skin, and Max’s lacerated barks have never sounded so raw.
This isn’t the fastest or most full-on album Soulfly have ever made. In some places, it dips back to the nu metal bounce and tribal rhythms of those earliest albums, but that corrosive finish gives everything a grinding Godflesh feel or the effect of a Nailbomb going off.
This fits perfectly with the incendiary cast of the lyrics. ‘Chama’ is Portuguese for ‘Flame’ and Indigenous Inquisition starts with a slow-burn, as Max evokes indigenous American peoples long-since extinguished. They then explode into Storm The Gates, which merges the most punishing of groove metal riffs with a raging death metal clamour.
As we’ve come to expect with Soulfly, there are stylistic deviations and guest appearances aplenty. Ghenna is two minutes of grindcore tumult with a melodic solo breaking through courtesy of Arch Enemy’s Michael Amott. Gabriel Franco of Unto Others adds a gothic sensibility to No Pain = No Power , which also features precision industrial-metal riffing from Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares. Soulfly remain eclectic yet instantly recognisable, which is an admirable trick to pull off.
Chama is out this Friday, October 24, via Nuclear Blast
