Soulfly - CHAMA - Album Review

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00:00:00.240 What's going on? Soulfly has a new album
00:00:02.399 coming out on October 24th called either
00:00:04.960 Chama or Shamba. We're going with Chama.
00:00:07.680 First single is Nihilist. Let's wake up
00:00:09.920 the neighbors and get into it. Derek.
00:00:12.020 [Music]
00:00:16.000 Yeah. So, I'm going to throw a curveball
00:00:18.320 at you. You had no idea I was going to
00:00:19.920 do this, but I've listened to the whole
00:00:21.520 record.
00:00:22.400 Uh, the label sent it along.
00:00:24.080 Sneaky son of a biscuit.
00:00:27.519 Pain in the ass. Italian not wrong
00:00:30.080 there.
00:00:30.800 Any chance to make you look
00:00:33.040 ignorant? I'm going to do it.
00:00:35.120 That's ignorant. Yeah. So, listen. Let's
00:00:38.000 talk a little bit first about the two
00:00:39.600 releases. Uh especially Nius because
00:00:41.760 that's what I had tasked you. What did
00:00:44.160 you think of it?
00:00:45.280 I like it. It is very, as it should be,
00:00:48.160 very Max.
00:00:49.440 You know, all the projects that Max is a
00:00:51.840 part of are carry a a big rubber Max
00:00:55.840 stamp to them sonically for me. Um, and
00:00:59.520 this clearly this Soulfly Track Nilus is
00:01:02.160 no exception. I like it. It's good. It's
00:01:05.199 chuggy. It's modern, but has an old
00:01:07.680 school flavor to it, which is fitting
00:01:09.840 again because of Max. At the risk of
00:01:11.680 repeating myself, I like the song.
00:01:14.479 Yeah, it's aggressive. Uh, very raw.
00:01:16.799 Arthur Rizzick. I hope I said correctly.
00:01:19.520 I usually butcher his name. It feels I
00:01:21.600 feel like he he uh produces every record
00:01:23.680 that we like, but Arthur is great. Max
00:01:26.400 had said that he wanted to let Soulfly
00:01:29.119 have a a tribal uh groove power to it.
00:01:32.960 Big groove, big tribal sound. And you
00:01:35.840 know, here's the thing. Soulfly was
00:01:37.840 created right on the back of Roots. And
00:01:39.920 Roots is one of Sephilura's biggest
00:01:41.920 records. And so Soulfly was a
00:01:43.520 continuation of that. And then over
00:01:45.200 time, it's gotten away. He's become more
00:01:47.119 of a thrash crossover thrash metal band.
00:01:50.320 And this record does go back a little
00:01:53.920 bit to that root sound and the early
00:01:56.880 Soulfly stuff, but it's really mostly on
00:01:59.680 that first release Storm the Gates,
00:02:01.280 which has some really good, you know,
00:02:03.040 tribal beats to it. But the one thing
00:02:05.759 that's stayed consistent in recent Max
00:02:08.080 with recent Macs is riffs, riffs, riffs,
00:02:10.479 hard-hitting thrash metal riffs, which
00:02:12.480 is core to early Suppleura and continues
00:02:16.000 to be a staple of his work. And this
00:02:18.560 record is definitely produced more of
00:02:20.879 with a more of a bassy new metal feel to
00:02:23.599 it. Very very raw, very dirty. Um, but
00:02:27.120 once you get into this record a little
00:02:29.360 bit deeper,
00:02:31.200 it feels like a another Max Cavalera
00:02:34.080 Thrash record. But here's the kicker. I
00:02:37.040 feel like it feels like nail bomb a
00:02:39.920 little bit more. There's some nail bomb
00:02:41.760 in there. not so much the industrial
00:02:44.080 part of it, but musically, sonically, it
00:02:47.040 feels like, and it would stand the
00:02:48.480 reason at the time that he was writing
00:02:50.080 and recording this, he was also playing
00:02:52.000 a lot of Nail Bomb live at the time.
00:02:55.040 And so this feels like, and when you get
00:02:57.920 into the record a little bit more, um,
00:03:00.080 once you get past Nihilus, like no pain,
00:03:02.720 no power, it is such a nail bomb meets
00:03:06.959 roots meets chaos ad track. It is
00:03:10.800 fantastic. It is classic Max. Tons of
00:03:14.000 reverb with his vocals which I loved. Uh
00:03:16.879 the other track that was really great
00:03:18.720 was uh Blackhole Scum. Um it's a banger.
00:03:22.959 You can't help but headbang. Max sounds
00:03:26.239 absolutely fantastic. He sounds like
00:03:29.040 classic Max. And then Soulfly. I think
00:03:32.319 it's 13 X I II. It's 13, I believe.
00:03:37.599 It's a typical trippy. you know, they
00:03:40.400 always do the Soulfly, you know, number
00:03:43.120 one, two, three, four, right up, and
00:03:44.640 this is the 13th album. So, stand the
00:03:46.560 reason it's a trippy trip. Um, and then,
00:03:49.760 uh, Shamba kicks in and it starts off
00:03:53.200 slow, but it ends up becoming one of the
00:03:55.760 most classic Soulfly tracks ever. And it
00:03:58.239 is the reason why Max named the record
00:04:01.680 Shama because it is a banger. And from
00:04:04.959 front to back on the record, and again,
00:04:07.120 I was bummed out. My dad passed away, so
00:04:09.840 I decided to uh treat yourself.
00:04:12.560 What do we treat ourselves to?
00:04:14.239 Clothes,
00:04:14.879 treat yourself.
00:04:15.599 Fragrances,
00:04:16.238 treat yourself.
00:04:16.959 Massage it.
00:04:17.759 Treat yourself.
00:04:18.399 Mimosas,
00:04:19.120 treat yourself.
00:04:19.918 Soulfly,
00:04:20.880 treat yourself.
00:04:21.680 It's the best day of the year.
00:04:23.600 And I, you know, the label sent it to
00:04:26.000 me. So, I listened to it. And boy, did I
00:04:28.080 listen to it. And I've listened to it
00:04:30.080 probably 10 times. And it'll definitely
00:04:32.160 be in my top 10 for the year. Right
00:04:34.080 along with Testament, right along with
00:04:36.320 Spirit World. But this record is is a
00:04:39.440 return to the more tribal sound, but
00:04:41.759 it's grittier. It still is rooted in
00:04:44.320 thrash and it has elements a feel of
00:04:47.840 nail bomb. So for those of you who like
00:04:49.840 Nail Bomb, you're probably going to like
00:04:51.680 this record.
00:04:52.560 Yeah, I always thought, you know,
00:04:53.919 Soulfly and again my exposure is, you
00:04:55.919 know, kind of limited to Soulfly. just
00:04:57.680 it's never been super high on my list,
00:04:59.840 but always had a little bit more new
00:05:02.000 modern flavor to it, whereas a lot of
00:05:04.720 his other projects tend to to stick with
00:05:08.080 the old school Cavalera vibe. And I
00:05:11.280 liked this track because of that. I
00:05:13.840 guess it's like I lean more towards
00:05:16.000 modern and, you know, contemporary
00:05:17.680 progressive metal and gent and that sort
00:05:19.520 of thing. Um, and so from a sort of
00:05:22.639 presentation standpoint, this feels like
00:05:25.199 a modern track, but it, like I said,
00:05:28.240 it's got that Cavalera chug to it. You
00:05:30.639 know, it's got sort of a a triplet
00:05:32.880 triplet pattern chug in there and it's
00:05:35.440 great. It just hits and then it breaks
00:05:37.680 loose and then there's a gnarly
00:05:39.520 breakdown there. It's a good song. It's
00:05:41.759 a good song. And I bet live it's going
00:05:43.360 to be one of their just powerhouse live
00:05:45.520 tracks.
00:05:46.320 Yeah. You know, if Max ever went out and
00:05:48.320 was had to play a best of, like, how the
00:05:50.720 hell would he do it? How would he do
00:05:52.320 like keep a a set list of 14 songs? When
00:05:55.440 you look at his entire music library,
00:05:58.000 it's like, holy crap. How do you How do
00:06:00.960 you do it? I don't know. Somebody
00:06:02.560 interviewed David Gilmore uh recently
00:06:04.720 about his new live album that came out,
00:06:07.600 the the Luck and Strange live tracks,
00:06:10.240 and they said, "How do you do it? How do
00:06:11.840 you pick what songs you're going to
00:06:13.520 use?" He said, 'We all just sat down and
00:06:15.759 listened and listened and listened and
00:06:17.840 listened. And I thought to myself, what
00:06:20.160 a horrible job to have to sit and listen
00:06:23.120 to to great live music, you know? Well,
00:06:26.160 what do you those of, you know, the
00:06:28.400 schmucks of like us out there that go to
00:06:30.400 the office for their day-to-day grind,
00:06:33.120 you know, to pay their mortgage and all
00:06:34.560 that don't have the pleasure of a rough
00:06:36.720 day being, well, I had to listen to all
00:06:38.479 the live tracks from my last tour. A
00:06:40.960 little a little jealous. Yeah. You know,
00:06:43.680 it's funny as as um you know, getting
00:06:47.039 into my father's estate and life.
00:06:50.240 One of the things that came up was Alexa
00:06:53.600 and he used Alexa to listen to music
00:06:56.720 and he loved the Moody Blues. He loved
00:06:59.360 Elvis. Weirdly, he loved Lady Gaga. Um
00:07:03.680 and seeing his pattern of listening to
00:07:07.440 music, I got to give the guy credit. He
00:07:10.639 spent a majority of his retirement
00:07:12.880 listening to the music that he either
00:07:14.720 grew up with or the modern stuff that he
00:07:16.479 really enjoyed. And I think it's really
00:07:18.720 important as a reminder, you know, on
00:07:20.880 this podcast where we're talking about
00:07:22.479 Max, who I love, um, to listen to the
00:07:26.319 stuff you like a lot. Don't force
00:07:28.560 yourself to go listen to stuff because
00:07:31.280 maybe your friend thinks it's cool or
00:07:33.520 that you feel like you should like it
00:07:35.440 because they're on the cover of
00:07:36.720 magazines or they're you're watching TV
00:07:40.240 and it's a barrage of this of Taylor
00:07:42.560 Swift. You I have to like Taylor Swift
00:07:44.720 because everybody else tells me I need
00:07:46.720 to like it.
00:07:47.919 Like what you like and enjoy it. And you
00:07:51.120 know, going back to Max, I would say
00:07:52.960 this record um I compared it to Totem,
00:07:55.680 the previous record that came out in uh
00:07:57.680 2022.
00:07:59.440 Totem, the first few tracks,
00:08:01.199 Superstition, Scouring the Vile, Filth
00:08:03.280 Upon Filth, Rotten Pain, were great, but
00:08:06.080 the rest of the track felt like filler
00:08:08.319 to me. And this record, Shamba, feels
00:08:12.560 like a complete experience from the
00:08:14.720 first track to the end. There's an eb
00:08:16.879 and flow to it. I'd be remiss to not say
00:08:19.199 there are some slight black metal
00:08:21.199 elements weaved in there u because black
00:08:23.680 metal is so popular but yeah um and I
00:08:26.000 and Testament did the same thing just
00:08:27.759 ever so slight but it's a complete
00:08:29.680 listening experience whereas I felt like
00:08:31.440 Totem was a tale of two halves the first
00:08:33.760 half was really great the second half
00:08:35.200 was it's okay but it's forgettable the
00:08:38.320 second half this is a really good
00:08:39.919 experience and I I think that
00:08:41.839 oh sorry go ahead
00:08:43.200 no I think that fans of of Max selefly
00:08:46.480 nail bomb you name are probably going to
00:08:48.560 find common ground
00:08:50.399 uh with this with this record.
00:08:52.240 So, of the the last three Soulfly
00:08:55.040 records, where do you rank it?
00:08:56.399 I like Ritual the best. Yeah. So, Ritual
00:08:59.920 came out in 2018. I think that Ritual,
00:09:03.040 the album cover, is is absolutely
00:09:04.959 magnificent. Dead Behind the Eyes is
00:09:07.040 about the cenites in Hellraiser, which I
00:09:09.600 loved. The summoning is just a wicked
00:09:12.320 wicked banger. Evil empowered is
00:09:15.120 fingertapping goodness. It is about
00:09:17.680 corrupt politicians using their power
00:09:20.720 to, you know, do bad, do do evil. Under
00:09:24.640 Rapture is just almost like a death
00:09:26.560 metal track. And it's just Ritual to me
00:09:29.040 is the best record that he Soulfly
00:09:31.279 record that they've ever done. I know
00:09:32.880 that's sacrilegious because there's
00:09:34.160 people out there that love jump the [ __ ]
00:09:36.160 up, but I think Ritual is the most
00:09:38.160 complete, but I think Shamba is
00:09:40.720 definitely a step above totem. And then
00:09:42.640 Totem would be third.
00:09:44.160 Okay. How about over their whole
00:09:45.600 discoraphy? Where would you rank it?
00:09:47.600 Probably second or third. Yeah, I would
00:09:51.360 say
00:09:51.760 that's saying something.
00:09:53.040 Yeah. I mean, you really can't you can't
00:09:55.760 go against the first record. It just was
00:09:58.560 so good. It was such it was such a you
00:10:00.640 know, the Soulfly. Just Soulfly. It was
00:10:02.480 the that was the name of it. Um but as
00:10:05.040 soon as you heard Eye for an eye with
00:10:06.640 that record, you knew that, okay, Max is
00:10:09.680 going to be okay. Like Seleura is gone,
00:10:11.920 but this is classic Max. It's classic
00:10:14.560 sepura. No hope equals no fear. Again,
00:10:18.640 it was just it was great. And then
00:10:20.720 Bleed, his collaboration with Fred Durst
00:10:24.160 from Limp Biscuit just worked for the
00:10:26.880 time. And it's still kind of a kind of a
00:10:29.600 catchy track today, especially with New
00:10:31.120 Bed making a comeback. I suspect that
00:10:33.360 he'll probably play Bleed again. And who
00:10:35.120 knows, maybe Fred, who is also having a
00:10:38.079 resurgence in re recent years,
00:10:40.320 might come out and join him. But that
00:10:42.079 record was was um you know for its time
00:10:45.120 was a hard hitter. It had Max doing
00:10:47.680 this. It was an you know an ode to a
00:10:49.839 family member who passed away. Um and so
00:10:52.240 I think that um that has to be you know
00:10:55.360 right up there.
00:10:56.160 Uh three words to describe the album.
00:10:58.399 Shamba by Soulfly.
00:11:01.040 Powerful
00:11:02.800 consistent
00:11:04.320 pleat.
00:11:05.680 Ooh. Okay. Nice. Well all right. So, the
00:11:10.160 task then for me is to get in and listen
00:11:13.120 to the rest of this record, which for
00:11:15.279 the conversations of this podcast is
00:11:17.040 pointless, but uh now I need to know and
00:11:20.000 uh as soon as any any, you know, the
00:11:22.480 general public gets the album on October
00:11:24.320 24th, let's see if we all uh agree with
00:11:27.440 Derek and we can all fight it out in the
00:11:29.279 comments down below.
00:11:30.800 Yeah, let me have it. If you don't agree
00:11:32.320 with me and you don't think it's it's
00:11:33.920 better than most of the Soulfly
00:11:35.600 material, then what's that hippo game?
00:11:38.320 Hungry. Hry hippo. Yeah, we'll we'll do
00:11:40.560 a hungry hungry hippo fight over beers
00:11:43.600 or whatever your poison is. Just let me
00:11:45.360 know what your poison is.
00:11:46.560 All right, so look, great uh great I can
00:11:49.600 say I like Nius. Derek loves the album.
00:11:52.880 Uh if you've made it this far and you
00:11:54.560 like this sort of content, throw a
00:11:56.880 comment down below, throw us a like,
00:11:58.959 subscribe to the channel. We appreciate
00:12:00.160 the hell out of it. And uh yeah,
00:12:02.800 sorry for throwing the curveball at you,
00:12:04.480 but we needed to talk about the full
00:12:06.079 record because it is worthy and I think
00:12:08.800 fans will love it. And if you're new to
00:12:10.639 Max and you're new to his dis
00:12:12.399 discoraphy, uh this is a great starting
00:12:14.560 point.
00:12:14.959 All right, excellent stuff, man. See you
00:12:16.720 on the next one.
00:12:18.240 [Music]