Soulfly

About Soulfly

Soulfly started because Max Cavalera needed somewhere to go after Sepultura imploded. When you spend fifteen years building one of the most important metal bands to ever come out of Brazil, then get forced out in 1996 over management disputes involving your wife, you don't just fade away. You start something heavier.

The first album dropped in 1998 and made it clear this wasn't going to be Sepultura part two. Cavalera pulled in elements from his Brazilian roots more explicitly than before, mixing in tribal percussion, world music textures, and guest spots from people like Dino Cazares and Fred Durst (yes, that happened). The self-titled debut went gold, which nobody really expected from what could have been a vanity project. Songs like "Eye for an Eye" and "Bleed" were angry in ways that felt personal, not performative. This was clearly about working through something.

The revolving door lineup became a Soulfly trademark early on. Cavalera was the constant, but everyone else cycled through. His stepson Marc Rizzo joined on guitar in 2003 for "Prophesy" and stuck around longer than most, bringing this technical thrash style that gave the band more teeth. That album leaned harder into the thrash elements, like Cavalera was reconciling with his past while still doing his own thing.

"Dark Ages" in 2005 might be their best pure metal record. It stripped away some of the experimental stuff and just focused on being crushingly heavy. The title track and "Babylon" were about as straightforward as they got, which worked. They spent the late 2000s bouncing between this more focused aggression and occasional detours into their world music fusion thing, never quite settling on one identity.

The 2010s saw them get even heavier with albums like "Enslaved" and "Savages," embracing death metal influences more openly. These records weren't trying to cross over or prove anything. They were just brutal for people who wanted brutal. "Archangel" in 2015 featured Todd Jones from Nails, which tells you what territory they were operating in by then.

Cavalera eventually reconciled with his brother Igor, and they started doing Sepultura reunion tours and projects, which could have made Soulfly redundant. Instead, it seemed to take pressure off. Recent albums like "Ritual" and "Totem" feel looser, more willing to experiment again without worrying about commercial expectations that stopped existing a decade ago anyway.

They're still going, still touring relentlessly, still putting out records every few years. Cavalera is one of those lifers who can't not make metal. Soulfly never became as culturally significant as Sepultura, but it gave him a vehicle to keep doing what he does without compromise. Twenty-five years in, that counts for something.

Soulfly shows are straight violence. Mosh pits are immediate and chaotic. Cavalera prowls the stage like he's still got something to prove, and the crowd matches that intensity. No frills, just crushing riffs and pure aggression.

Known for Bloodywood, Prophecy, Back to the Primitive, Archangel, Pain

See Soulfly Live