Soulfly "Totem" (2022)

 

 Four years back Ritual failed to make a lasting impression with me. Prior to its release Max had caught my ear again with Cavalera Conspiracy's Pyschosis, a powerhouse of a record. Tuning in once again, I find a lack of distinction for why this should be called Soulfly, in comparison to Max's other projects. Long gone are the bounce riffs and Nu Metal hallmarks that defined the name. All that's left now is the distinctive cultural sounds of its twelfth self-named instrumental track Soulfly XII.

Totem is in essence another fiery sprint of razor-wired metal dashing across the danger fields. Foaming at the mouth with rage, Max roars forever youthful. Intense, ceaseless drums chase along a dense wall of thrashing guitars that pound out beastly riffs. Its a riot of energized aggression. A veteran pulling out the old stunts with renewed vigor and an infectious spirit. Little is new, novel or even surprising but the execution is hounding, throbbing with attitude. A lot of fun when in the mood.

Like with Pyschosis, its the production that raises the bar. These riffs and atypical arrangements could be rather stale in a different environment but the dense, smothering tone simply engulfs all in its path. Max churns through the motions with Death and Thrash riffs leaning on chunky stomps of palm muting and chugging, occasionally drifting into a bouncy groove, although these are always short lived.

Rot In Pain and Ancestors have flashes in the pan textures, hailing Sepultura's Roots record. They are among a string of competent songs firing with firm intentions. Then Soulfly XII offers up its dreamy acoustic flavors and the tone is reset for Spirit Animal. Its the albums best song, soaring in with tribal entanglements and going out on a high as it unravels into a weary mess. Not Max's best output but consistent and fun to spin.

Rating: 7/10

Windows96 "One Hundred Mornings" (2018)

I've always maintained a key interest in Vapourwave, the Internet's own truly international and border-less music scene. The unfortunate problem is quality. This is a genre plagued by low effort releases, often hinged around pitch shifted and time stretched re-sampling. It makes discovery hard but luckily Ive found this Brazilian musician who operates under the Windows96 pseudonym. They have the theming and aesthetics down and I'm happy to report the music is there too!

One Hundred Mornings gets off to a reasonable start with slightly off kilt drum arrangements and quirky synth tones taking up most of the focus. It builds atmosphere and steadily lures one into its particular vibe, a mesh of nostalgia tones and childish wonder. Its kitsch snippets of obscure cartoon sounds bouncing of the multiple layers of resonant synths has it start with its magic muffled somewhat.

As the song Visions I kicks in, the samples draw back and a lead instrument whirls around, dancing in the winds above its clunky drum groove and blocky baseline. Its here that the record gets into a stride, unleashing inspiring melodies and swelling with emotions. Its wobbly keyboards and murky low fidelity tricks find a warm cohesion where the aesthetic and music really start to compliment one another.

The pivot feels somewhat inspired by 80s Synthpop, the chord arrangements and notations of Bliss seeming almost like a Tears For Fears song re imagined through a new set of sounds. Its a very enjoyable record, warm uplifting mellow moods through the lens of nostalgia play, acting as if it resides in a infatuated past. The off kilt and sample oriented components don't hit home as hard but when the real musical composition comes through it shines bright in these lovely surges of swooning melody.

Favorite Tracks: Visions I, Bliss, Rituals

Rating: 7/10

Ruido-mm "Rasura" (2014)

Hailing from Brazil, a fine craft of Post-Rock epic emerges. Rasura is fourth effort over a ten year span and that frequency may speak to the detail and care this record bestows. As an instrumental piece, the depth of instrumentation at work lets a plethora of tones, tangents and threads take limelight on a wholesome journey of warm, engrossing, uplifting atmospheres. Its a canvas for your imagination as emotions are birthed and conceded in the swelling of delicate and delicious deliberations.

Its the typical Post-Rock affair of shimmering guitars wailing in the breeze of their own reverberations, playing with tone and expansive sounds. The record also musters occasional outbreaks of conventional melody, imprinting clear and decisive tunes to hum along with in the wake of the more ambiguous, and scenically poised sound, although it leans to a progressive avenue. All of it is handled with an inspired touch, a organic web of instruments, yielding an ever changing chemistry to excel its vision. It is indeed the strength of the genre, to trade in the flat and equated roll of instruments fitting into structures and instead blossoming sounds into wild blooming adventures.

Rudio-mm achieve this wonderfully. The music will be personal to each individual and I find myself engulfed with a soft, warm earnestness each listen but only up to a point. After the Shoegazing dabble of Filete, the last two songs seem to fumble in pace and the borrowing of famous classical melodies deployed on the keyboard seem grandiose in their moment but pale against a rather dull ten minute stretch. Its an odd fumble but over the months Ive been enjoying this record its always the last fraction of the music that looses me. Otherwise its pretty fantastic and memorable!

Favorite Tracks: Electrostatica, Cromaqui, Filete

Rating: 7/10

Soulfly "Ritual" (2018)

The years roll on by and Metal legend Max Cavalera, approaching fifty years of age, continues onward, devoted as ever to his distinct sound. This time the Soulfly project gets project some love, working with his son Zyon who delivers a battering from behind the drum kit. Much like Cavalera Conspiracy's Pyschosis, Ritual picks up some shared ideas in advancing the aesthetics of a style aging through this era of crisp production. It all sounds good but as the eleventh record of a relatively stagnant Groove Metal fusion, this latest Soulfly record has little in the way of surprise.

Born of the Nu Metal boom, Max's departure from Sepultura had him home in on the Groove Metal charm they helped pioneer with Chaos AD and Roots, while embracing Metal's latest trend of the time. As it died out the Soulfly project found its way through embracing elements of Thrash and Death Metal that solidified a distinct, settled indentity a decade ago. Any record since has felt without progression beyond that comfort zone but there is no denying Soulfly is fun and worthy of a good listen. Ritual however front loads the record with its best song, dropping its most infectious, groovy slamming riffs to bop to right at its opening. The rest of the music lives in the shadow of a cracking song worthy of the classics Max has composed over the years.

Everything else of the record is business as usual with a couple of stand out moments. Typical song structures and arrangements of bouncy, energetic, aggressive riffs go through the motions. Tracks like Under Rapture muster some excitement as the song erupts into fast thrashing guitars, engulfing vocals roar gritty, monstrous cries over a guitar shift, getting sinister with evil tremolo shredding. Feedback goes a different direction with obvious Motorhead vibes but its mostly the Pychosis blunt force approach to aesthetics in "over the top" moments that catch the ear here. Unfortunately its all a little to predictable to become more than the sum of its parts.

Rating: 5/10

Favorite Tracks: Ritual, Under Rapture, Demonized, Soulfly XI

Cavalera Conspiracy "Psychosis" (2017)

"From beneath the slums of a third world, a two headed Brazilian Godzilla was born, destined to leave permanent sound scares on all under pale grey skies. Hell, chaos, pandemonium, the massacre continues and with no end in sight". That's the records closing lyric and It would be equally fitting as a tone setting mission statement. "Psychosis" is one heck of a record from the Cavalera brothers who have cast a lasting influence in the world of all things Metal, between them they have amassed around thirty records since their debut with Sepultura in 1985, a phenomenal output. Cavalera Conspiracy was a chapter in the legacy I could care less for, back in 2008 their debut Inflikted was a mediocre release and I had since failed to follow their releases and so I very nearly passed this one by.

What a mistake that would of been! Psychosis is one of the tightest, mean and hard hitting Metal records Ive heard in some time. The riffs are roaring with intensity, the grooves mammoth, full of swaying rigor and the album steadily sinks into the depths as the ferocity of sound borders into Industrial territory, even Black Metal with the frightening "Judas Pariah". The whole record is tinged with a retroactive ideology once heard on old Thrash Metal records, the demonic reverberations of vocal lines have been resurrected and executed with utter class and inspiration. Max's screams and shouts can creep in from the distance or shuffle across the stereo spectrum and often shatter into the vast chambers of space these effects can muster. Its a demonic pleasure that shrouds the record in classically evil overtones while shedding the cheese that old sound carried.

The records production is a treat, everything is loud, present and punchy without feeling "overloud". A crisp creation that squeezes the texture and power from the guitars alongside a devastating kit with a deep thudding base kick and ear piercing high pitched tom rolls that burst into the music, cutting like a devilish cascades of daggers descending upon the listener, gives me chills every time. The album's songs are pulled together for an album experience with atmospheric interludes of ambiguous dystopian obscurity. Vague voices can be heard in the rumblings of sound too, these cryptic themes often creep into the main sections of songs too, providing another layer of depth to the onslaught of riveting, thrashing music.

The album starts to push hard with "Hellfire", loading clattering industrial drum stomps behind the harsh, over distorted guitars that seem to intentionally peak the mix as supernatural synths drop in for a outlandish wall of sound that has grown on me much with familiarity. Its unusual amounting of sounds satisfyingly leads into a stomping breakdown groove with a violent snare drum striking like the snap of a whip. It leads into the aforementioned "Judas Periah", the deployment of blast beats and satanic snaky tremolo guitar riffs lead give it a very Black Metal tone that diverts us from the diabolical storm into another romp of a breakdown, big slamming guitars and light synths accenting the bounce will have your head swinging!

After dragging us through fires, the title track offers respite in an equally impressive esoteric soundscape track that slowly leads its rich layers of swamping sound, vibrant synths and effect soaked acoustics, into a collapsing of noise as the track falls in on itself. These ambitious clattering of experimentation in noise finds its final statement on the following and final song, ending with hellish alien sounds of suffering and a malevolent mechanical heartbeat that's truly as terrifying as it is vivid. This dimension gives the album a depth you can't help but feel can be peeled back to reveal more. Whatever vision the two have behind such a frighting ordeal becomes irrelevant in the impact of its reality. This is an all around flawless record that I have yet to tire from an inch in my binging of the hailstorm that is "Psychosis". Kudos Cavalera brothers, the fire still burns bright in Brazil.

Rating: 9/10