(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
On Soulfly (Roadrunner, 1998) and Primitive (Roadrunner, 2000)
the former
Sepultura
frontman, Max Cavalera, played at assimilating elements of
reggae, dub, drum'n'bass and hip hop. These albums sound more experimental than
anything Sepultura ever dreamed of. The latter may be the leader's artistic
peak, even if too many guests (and not all of them Beethovens) risk
disrupting a vision that otherwise flows brutal and precise.
The tribal and grinding Back To The Primitive opens the album like
a ceremonial invocation.
With In Memory Of, Bring It and Boom,
Cavalera injects the superhuman frenzy and power of
death-metal into rap (a dub coda, an exotic guitar solo).
Mulambo and Terrorist
perform a similar operation with voodoo music.
Fly High (possibly the most powerful track) flirts with soul.
And the raga/Caribbean/jazz/classical instrumental Soulfly II
is as subtle and sophisticated as the best of progressive-rock.
Even the usual detonations of Jump and Pain are derailed
by detours, noises and breaks.
On III (Roadrunner, 2002) the party is already over, as Cavalera
is taking his project too
seriously and fails to expand on the musical intuitions of the first two
albums. Downstroy is already formulaic. Seek 'N' Strike is
shameless bait for maintream radio. One exhudes Sting-like (i.e.,
yawn-inspiring) spiritualism.
The tribute to Brasil, the ode to the victims of
September 11 Call To Arms,
the pathetic melodrama of the eight-minute Tree Of Pain
are mostly unbearable.
Even the ethnic instrumental, Soulfly III, is sub-standard.
The project ran out of ideas on
Prophecy (Roadrunner, 2004), an album that tries to be eclectic
by flirting briefly with all sorts of styles but falls flat on the
incompetence of the players and the goofiness of the material.
Despite the addition of Borknagar's drummer David Kinkade and Prong's bassist Tony Campos, Enslaved (2012) was still an empty work.
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