Almost Soulfly 1 All Over Again
Matthew T. Gilman | Baltimore MD | 10/05/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album is sick. In Soulfly, the production value was just stupendous. I'm a big critic on CD quality for music. Besides the songs, that's my main reason to buy or not to buy a cd.
Like the first Soulfly, everything was heavy, the guitars were raunchy, the bass roared and thunked, and the drumbs and cymbals just flared with fury. There was tribal drums written all over it, and you could hear them perfectly and especially with headphones-what side each instrument was panned on.
In Primitve, Max went and made it a co-op album with each artist's track, but the quality was all tuned down. Much like anything of Ill Nino since Revolution, just littled to nothing basically. The guitars were too clean, and the drums were muted out and panned too softly. That, and the vibe was just too uplifting, especially since Soulfly is all a musical therapy/dedication for Max coping with his dead son. This album blew.
Soulfly 3 comes out, and it didn't blow my socks off lol, It'd made me put them back on. It was a good comeback after the embarassing Primitive. I love how it was really more on the political side of the spectrum lyrically, but it's kind of a bore to feel it - now 2 years later with the support of the war and the world totally takin a downfall.
He experimented a little too much on this album. It seemed a little rushed as most of the songs all had their own volume and instrumentation (which is not bad considering it's primarily different artists every other track) But it just wasn't up to par. Honestly, this should've been the original follow up. If they would've just taken more time on this it could've been a gem.
Now, here we are with Prophecy. It's just as hard as Soulfly 1. To me, the first Soulfly will always be the best one because it's just SO UNIQUE and perfect. I'm not one to have stand out tracks, but stand out segments of the tracks, whether it be intro, outro, chorus, or break... That's the dice I roll. Every song has it's awesomely tribal spots with amped up solos and fit right in with your head as you're having an anxiety attack. They all have long hard rocking moments where you just stand there and bang your head for a good 30-40 seconds non stop, especially on my current anthem 'Born again Anarchist.' That's what really killed 3. It was almost as if there was none, or any that doubled over.... I'm sure I'm in the 'new CD rocks' phase and will tire eventually, but I know that when I put it back in after a 2 month hiatus or whatever.. I'll be kicking a hole in the floor of my car-and probably stuck in traffic because Soulfly, me, and I-95 just can't go together EVER without a big traffic jam. It's as if fate wants us to rock together or something... But in all honesty, if you are hesitant to know if this is another Primitive, or a weaker attempt at 3, it's definately not.
Max returns with more balls in hand than ever-and returns with what originally made Soulfly such a big hit from the Git Go. If you want another shot at Soulfly, take this... The only downfall that I feel is, towards the end of the CD there is a lot of fillers between tracks.. Some tracks go from hard to an abrupt soft end - but it sounds good, but just too abrupt. The reggae tracks you might not like at first, but 'Moses' has me stuck still in the chorus espcially when I'm at work. Hits harder knowing it's about a friend he lost. But besides those -half star faults this disc is definately good enough until Dark ages, which is a whole other rocking story I've yet to tell."
WOW!!!!
BLEEKER | NYC | 04/16/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Max is back! An amazing CD from start to finish. I was a HUGE fan of Sepultura back in the day but lost track of anyhting Max did after ROOTS. This is my first time listening to Soulfly (believe it or not) and i'm glad I picked it up! I love all the experimentation , sounds very fresh mixing all the world music styles together. THis is what I imagined what Sepultura would have sounded like if they were still together with Max today. I also love the HELMET cover of In the Meantime... just awsome!"
Best Soulfly
Todd Berggren | LA | 12/12/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is Soulfly's best. Dark Ages is pretty good, but this sounds much better. Some of the songs are a bit 'funky' like Moses, but they are really fun to listen to. The only skippable songs are possibly 10, which is just ok, and the second half of 12. It starts out a nice song, and ends with some random New Orleans Saints Came Marching In funky crap. Otherwise, each track is really, really good."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1