Heavier than before
Petros "EpicMetal" Hadjianastasis | Dherynia, Famagusta Cyprus | 03/02/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"i really love the dark ages album, i listen to this album every day, sometimes two or three times.
this album sounds heavier, and more thrash than the previous Soulfly albums. Some reggae and tribal influences are here as well, and they fit very well to the whole result.
all songs are very good, but i like most "arise again", "frontlines", "innerspirit", "carved inside".
i saw Soulfly live two days ago, i visited Greece especially for this event, i'm happy it was more than worthy.
well, i would suggest that you should buy this album:)"
It's not so Dark in this Age
Gunther Haagendazs | Up High in the Trees | 07/12/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Dark Ages is Soulfly's Fifth album. Most people have labeled it as Max's heaviest album since Arise. This is sadly not true. Though the cover art comes from the same artist who drew the cover art for Beneath the Remains, Arise and Chaos A.D., Dark Ages is not all it's been hyped up to be. It has its heavy moments in the beginning, but as you progress through it, the flaws become apparent and Dark Ages becomes difficult to listen to from start to finish. There are a lot of things wrong with this album, which I shall list now.
1. Special Guests: yet again, Max Brings in 3 vocalists who are below average. The worst is his stepson Ritchie Cavalera, who makes me want to rip my ears off in a horrible and twisted rage from his inability to sing.
2. The Zumbi chant and Berimbau: Max needs to get a new chant. One every single Soulfly album he uses the same thing over and over again. This time he uses them on the song Riotstarter, which has got to be one of the worst songs on the album. You would think that his interest in tribes would allow him to use another one.
3. References to previous songs: Arise Again... Let's just say that the song Arise is better than this whole album. Same goes for Innerspirit (Inner Self).
4. Soulfly (Insert Roman Numeral Here) Instrumental: while this instrumental isn't that bad, it's rather boring.
5. Poor lyrics: The lyrics become pretty bad and annoying at a few points.
6. Lyrics about Dana's Death: I understand that Max was really attached to his Stepson, but it's been 10 years since his death. Do you think that if Dana were alive that he would want Max and his family to be grieving over his death until the end of time? I wouldn't.
7. Christian lyrics: These are the things that bother me the most. I'm an Atheist and I respect the beliefs of most people, but Pro God lyrics just don't work in Metal. I'm surprised that touring with MORBID ANGEL didn't change this. Remember songs like Necromancer? Antichrist? Crucifixion? Doe anyone remember?
8. Max actually mispronounces Babylon which kills the song for me and just makes me laugh at times.
9. (The) March: It's like Prodigy got involved with Soulfly, fortunately it only lasts 1:18.
Bonus tracks
This is the reason that you are looking at this import in the first place. Well I'll go over all the content so you get what you wanted to read. First of all the artwork is reversed. What is black is now white and what is white is black. The case itself is a Digipak and unlike previous Soulfly Digipaks, this one contains NO LYRICS INSERT. The Artwork on the CD itself has also its colors reversed. The 3 Bonus tracks are nothing really special. Salmo-91 is calm music with Psalm 91 being read monotonously in Portuguese. The two live tracks are of great quality however they are just the audio tracks taken from The Song Remains Insane DVD.
With that all said and done, now we can talk about the good things found on this album. There are actually a lot of good songs found on the album. Had it been cut down to ten songs, this album would be significantly better. This is the first Soulfly album to not have a lineup change and actually allow the band to strengthen together and create some really good songs. But who knows how long it will last before Max kicks someone out. If you want to find out what Max is up to then I would definitely recommend picking this up, but only in the used bin. If you are a huge Soulfly fan then you'll go nuts over this but the moment you listen to the early Sepultura album, you may lose interest in this one.
Now that was the review for Dark Ages. This section is my comment on Soulfly and where they are with Sepultura. Though not really a review, I felt that I needed to say this and compare Dark Ages to Sepultura's Dante XXI as I am sure some readers are interested to know who is outdoing the other.
What's the current situation with Sepultura and Soulfly? Which outdoes the original? Many people would probably yell at me by saying "Those are two DIFFERENT bands!" but admit it. Everyone wants to know which is currently doing better. Which of their new albums are better? Is it Dark Ages or Dante XXI? So here is my opinion. Dark ages has a few good songs which bring back some hope that Max still has it in him. However, the album is plagued by special guests (fewer this time), clichés, Christianity to the point of annoyance, and features a few songs that should never have been recorded. Dante XXI on the other hand, I can listen to from start to end, features better solos and though it has a few soft spots, is a solid record and filled with mystery as it is a very interesting concept album. In the long run, Dante XXI is a much better album than Dark Ages by comparison. However the question of which is a better band may go to Soulfly as Igor Cavalera has officially decided to leave Sepultura, leaving Paulo as the only remaining original member. Now two of the things I loved about Sepultura are gone; Max's awesome Vocals and Igor's unique drumming with only thing saving the band being Andreas. Derrick may make a good vocalist but Max was just better in comparison hands down. The future of Sepultura is at stake where as Soulfly is actually becoming stable with Dark Ages being the first album without a lineup change. Who knows what will happen in the future as it looks like it's up in the air. Hoped this review and comparison helped, I apologize for its length."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1