Brazilian singer and guitarist Max Cavalera is a survivor. In the late 1990s he left the successful thrash metal band Sepultura and explored styles as diverse as nu metal and Brazilian tribal with Soulfly. However, blood was thicker than water and gradually Soulfly (which had many changes of band besides Cavalera) returned to playing more and more furiously to occupy the forefront of thrash metal
… alongside the also still active Sepultura. That's also where the twelfth album Totem resides. This one contains no new angles but a solid portion of mercilessly rough metal with fierce guitar riffs and ditto solos and where Cavalera roars his dark lyrics towards the microphone. Only in the instrumental Soulfly XII they slow down as a prelude to the epic closing track Spirit Animal in which some tribal singing appears. The spirited Totem especially shows that Soulfly, after more than 20 years, still has a right to exist. (MR)more