REVIEW: SOULFLY - Totem

 

SOULFLY - Totem

Nuclear Blast Records

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My first release from Soulfly was 'Savages' which I found to be interesting.  This release seemed bland the first few listens to.  Then it kind of grew on me.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect here and well this one is a little bit more experimental and cut-throat.  I've been a fan of Max Cavalera since the early Sepultura days in the band.  He took quite a different approach then those days here is experimental Max.  I like it though, the not knowing what to expect here sort of idea.  The brutality, the temperance, the enlightenment.  It's 40 minutes of in your face metal with  vocal effects and odd time signatures.

This type of metal has a bit of a groove to it with death metal components.  A really odd release including the leads with terror on the vocals bellowing.  These guys have riffs that are simply atypical and sort of bizarre.  I don't know how else to describe this album but just that: ATYPICAL.  It might be the norm of how Soulfly works and that's how Max wants it, I just sense a peculiar sounds and rhythms.  Nothing seems to remain the same it's just different from all respects.  Then the clean tone guitars, it gives me pause about the direction the band is taking here.  Weird metal and highly atypical.

40 minutes of this going on what I've described here.  It's solid here, Max sounds odd on this it's forceful but not to the extent reflective of Sepultura's Max in your face. Hell, he's in his 50's now still making metal and Igor doing Sepultura tributes too.  He's had to relearn their songs but still sounds good.  Soulfly is his project.  Weird metal it's totally him just whatever he's doing he's putting his thoughts into this music the rhythms are cool and heavy but this experiment with Soulfly puts Max in a different position.  I don't hear a plethora of fans liking this band.  Those I do because it's metal but it's just different genres.

The anger and brutality is here but Max is in a league of his own dynamics.  If he continues in this direction, who knows what to expect on the next LP.  More experimenting or something more straightforward?  It's unpredictable as to where he's going here.  Heavy guitars, clean bouts and vocals with an echo/reverb.  This guy is totally metal, it's just his ideas for metal aren't at all the same as the Sepultura days where he's utterly thrash galore.  But on 'Roots' is where his strange where his writing went opposed to 'Beneath The Remains' and 'Arise'.  I think the expectation is a new Sepultura here with Max but it's so not.  Don't expect that at all.  For Soulfly fans, this is a keeper!

Ryan “Death8699” Fanucchi