Watch Soulfly’s Max Cavalera discuss Ritual's spectacular cover art

Last week, Soulfly announced that they would release their new studio album Ritual on October 19 via Nuclear Blast.

The follow-up to 2015’s Archangel was produced, recorded and mixed by Josh Wilbur and features guest appearances from Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe and Immolation’s Ross Dolan. 

The sleeve artwork was created by Eliran Kantor, while the booklet art and packaging were designed by Marcelo Vasco.

And in a new video interview with Nuclear Blast, mainman Max Cavalera speaks about the inspiration behind the cover art and how he and Kantor worked together to achieve the final result.

Cavalera says: “It wasn’t an easy road, having to go back and forth. The first design, he made a total concept and we scratched the whole thing and didn’t use any of that. 

“It then became something totally different. That’s what making records is. It’s a lot of arguments – and that’s how good art is created. It’s not easy and sometimes you can’t compromise. You have an idea through the music and you’ve got to stay strong with it.”

He adds: “The easy way would be to just accept the first album cover. It would have been OK, but now I’m much happier that I put up a fight.”

Watch the full interview below.

Soulfly previously released the first single from Ritual in the shape of Evil Empowered.

Soulfly - Ritual
1.  Ritual
2.  Dead Behind The Eyes (feat. Randy Blythe)
3.  The Summoning
4.  Evil Empowered
5.  Under Rapture (feat. Ross Dolan)
6.  Demonized
7.  Blood On The Street
8.  Bite The Bullet
9.  Feedback!
10.  Soulfly XI

Soulfly - Ritual

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Max Cavalera and co's first album since 2015's Archangel features guest appearances from Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe and Immolation’s Ross Dolan.

Scott Munro
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Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.