2005-12-26
I approached this album with great optimism. It's been awhile since I last wrote a review and I was thinking "what better way to make my return with a Soulfly review". We all remember the good old days when Max Cavalera was in Sepultura, and he impressed us over the years with Soulfly as well. This album is no different. It has its twists and enjoyable surprises. The album was made in the wake of Dimebag Darrell Abbott's death, and at the same time Moses, Max's grandson, also passed away, so the album has its fair share of rage and anger, but also a few quiet moments. Cavalera took a trip to the U.S, Serbia, Turkey, France and Russia in order to soak the atmosphere, and he brings us souvenirs from each country on the album.
Dark Ages, the fifth album of the band, starts with a quiet intro that in its end the pace quickens and the music rolls into the first track, Babylon, a very energetic song that puts the listener in the mood. The next song, I And I, is more aggressive, but somewhere along the way its becoming softer and more quiet and then the aggression comes back only to be halted all of a sudden by the song's end – I couldn't understand it. Carved Again and Arise Again that follow bring back the good old Max – A heavy voice filled with anger accompanied by thrashy tunes, a few interesting riffs and some added surprises(percussions on Arise Again, for example).
The next track, Molotov, is a thrash-only song. Billy Milano from S.O.D(Stormtroopers Of Death) makes a guest appearance and he's singing the chorus in Russian(counting in Russian at the beginning and then says "mayhem, war")as a tribute to the feelings of the public after the communism's fall. The next song, Frontlines, ends with a beautiful acoustic solo with helicopter sounds in the background, and it's connected to the next track, Innerspirit, where Max produces some heavy screams and a few growls and Serbian band Coyote sing with clean and calm vocals. Marc Rizzo's guitar and Joe Nunez's drums blend in beautifully, and once again the track ends with a great acoustic solo. After that comes Corrosion Creeps, an Aggressive and thrashy song that features church-like sounds that blend in the heavy and speedy riffs.
The next one is Riotstarter, which starts off with Brazilian percussion and tribal calls, a minute and a half later the track stops and resumes with a distorted riff that goes along with Max's screams, some more percussion and some Middle-Eastern sounds, a very unique song, no doubt. The next track is Bleak. It begins the same way other songs on the album began, but midway through the track we encounter some very crazy and talented riffs by Marc Rizzo and an equally talented drum work by Joe Nunez. The song features another interesting and successful attempt, a recording from the works on the Haggia Sofia temple in Istanbul. The sound of construction works really adds a new dimension to the track. After an aggressive passage we hear a date at the beginning of Fuel The Hate, July Sixteenth 1945, and I guess something happened then that made Max angry because he says with an aggressive voice he doesn't care if he lives or dies and it doesn't matter there's a genocide(that ended that year) or a suicide. The song also sees Max go from English to Spanish and to another language I didn't recognize and it features a great passage from a fast rhythm to a slower rhythm and a lovely quiet segment that ends the song.
On the next song, Staystrong, Richie, Max's son is a guest singer and he makes daddy proud. They both protest to god that he took Moses away. They offer themselves instead, but receive an answer that they must carry on and stay strong. Thunder and rain, original recordings supplied by Max accompany the song, and they are also featured on the last track that follows.
The track, Soulfly V, is an instrumental bit. It was made in France under Stephan's supervision(a local artist from France), Max's production and Terry Date's mixing(he worked on the mixing of the entire album, and his previous works include White Zombie). The track, which continues the band's trademark to include a track on their name in every album, cleanses the atmosphere with four different instrumental bits.
Nir Haviv
