So, the facts: Archangel (Nuclear Blast) is Soulfly’s 10th album. It has 10 tracks of thrash based heaviness with occasional flourishes of groove metal. It has a lead off single called ‘We Sold Our Souls to Metal’ which is every bit as heavy and thunderous as you would expect from Max Cavalera. Right: to the review.
One of the golden rules that businesses talk about is expectation management. Make sure the customer understands what they are going to be getting and then deliver it for them. If you can, don’t just meet their expectations, exceed them and delight them. If this adage be true, and there is plenty of supporting evidence, then Max Cavalera is a very smart businessman indeed. Archangel sounds exactly like a Soulfly album and, as a consequence, one’s reaction to a new release from Brazil’s favourite heavy metal son largely depends on your view of the nine other Soulfly records that you can also pick up at your local heavy metal dealership.
This then, self evidently, is a good thing or a bad thing, dependent on that point of view. Cavalera’s position and importance in the development and progress of heavy metal as an art form is cemented; he doesn’t have anything left to prove, but Archangel seems to find Cavalera in particularly spiky form. Whatever your view, what is not in doubt is, this is 40 minutes of relentless heaviosity and brutality.
Archangel is probably closest in tone to Soulfly’s fifth record, the largely well received Dark Ages (Roadrunner) which, almost unbelievably, is now ten years old. Opening track ‘We Sold Our Souls to Metal’ could easily have found itself on a Cavalera Conspiracy record, such is its accessibility but the overwhelming feeling on Archangel is the return of the groove and just how bloody brutal it all is. The title track is a decent example of heavy metal thrash laden thunder but, equally, the pounding ‘Sodomites’ would serve just as well: both are bone crushingly heavy slabs of groove metal and, as any fule kno, this is a good thing.
Elsewhere, ‘Live Life Hard’ is a manic hardcore track with Matt Young of King Parrot picking up the vocal duties; it’s low rent fun but ultimately lightweight; of more considerable heft and resonance is ‘Titans’ which has echoes of mid period Anthrax running through it whilst Max wails like the proverbial banshee. ‘Bethlehem’s Blood’ is a highlight: four and a half minutes of bilious rage against organised religion and a bit of a horn section thrown in for good measure: it’s a dark composition and all the better for the musical diversions thrown into the thrashy soup.
If you like Soulfly, you are likely to embrace this record warmly; if you don’t, well there won’t be anything here to change your world view but you might just want to doff the cap for a single-mindedness and obstreperousness that shows no signs of waning anytime soon.
7.0/10
MAT DAVIES
