3

by

Soulfly

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You have to be a true follower of this music to understand.

With this record Soulfly have shown they are here for the long haul. You couldn't ask for a better example of this than 3. With

Max Cavalera, Marcello D. Rapp, Mikey Doling, and Roy Mayorga together it really works. This is the best line-up this band has ever had. I mean EVER!!! This isn't a review just to Max, but the BAND Soulfly.

With songs like Seek N' Strike, Enterfaith, Downstroy, One Nation, LOTM, and Four Elements-you can tell they haven't lost their touch with the heavy music. But part of the magic of Soulfly is to create an interesting piece of art by doing the unexpected. Hence, the song Tree of Pain, a song in which 3 people sing about the heartache of losing a loved one. The Soulfly tribal vibe is most evident in the song Brasil. Max does the whole song in Portugese. He even uses a berimbau. Perhaps the most respected song on the album is 9/11/01. Just a minute of silence. Soulfly looked at making a statement by not saying anything at all. That in itself, said enough.

Marcello and Roy are one of the greatest, most tight rhythm sections in Metal Music right now. If Mikey can keep bleeding out those sick, sick guitar solos he will be well on his way to being a guitarist of Kerry King like proportions. And as far as Max goes. Lyrical chaos runs through him. As well as the Brasilian musicianship that is in his blood as well as Marcello's I'm sure. If they can keep the line-up, keep it heavy, and keep it tribal, only good can come out of this.

Max Cavalera is sort of a world champion of metal. He conquored the world with Sepultura back in the early 90s, and after he left, he did it again with Soulfly. Now, here in the 2000s, here is another Soulfly record, and to be honest it's a bit old.

Not that this record completely blows, like I said, this is probably Soulfly's heaviest to date, it's just the whole metal with tribal beats has gotten old right after the first Soulfly record (with the exception of Ill Nino). Musically, I'd say this falls between the first Soulfly record and Sepultura's classic Chaos A.D. Yeah, it's heavy, it's hard, it's even fast too (ex. "Last of the Mohicans"), but other than that, it's really too repetitive for my tastes. Plus, the lyrics Max is writing is a far cry from the stuff on Chaos A.D. or Arise.

Soulfly fans will love this, no doubt. But in my opinion, I think Ill Nino actaully does this whole latin-metal thing better than Soulfly at this point. Max, little tip, either do something new with Soulfly or go back to Sepultura.