Band:	Soulfly
Album:	Ritual
Style:	Groove thrash metal
Release date:	October 2018

01. Ritual
02. Dead Behind The Eyes [ft. Randy Blythe]
03. The Summoning
04. Evil Empowered
05. Under Rapture [ft. Ross Dolan]
06. Demonized
07. Blood On The Street
08. Bite The Bullet
09. Feedback!
10. Soulfly XI

I didn't want to review this album. I mean, I reviewed Cavalera Conspiracy's Psychosis just a year ago, how much Max Cavalera can a person take in one year? But I'm a romantic metalhead and Max is one of my childhood heroes, so there you have it; my thoughts on the new Soulfly album.

Ritual was advertised as being a tribal thrash triumph, finding Soulfly returning back to their roots (or did they mean Roots?). I personally take all this promo stuff with a pinch of salt but I did think that the statement was indeed truthful when I heard the tribal chanting and percussion of the opening title track; then I had to wait until "Blood On The Street" and "Bite The Bullet" to hear some more of this exotic influence.

I can't complain though because in the meantime I got treated with exceptional, jump up and down-inducing groove thrash with highly enjoyable lead guitar work by Mark Rizzo and riffs made for unforgettable mosh pits and history-making walls of death.

Guest performances from Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe in "Dead Behind The Eyes" and Immolation's Ross Dolan in "Under Rapture" do more than enough in order to add to the ruthless brutality and infectious grooviness of this album and make it even more addictive.

Some punkish solos by Rizzo here and there should have given me some warning so that I wouldn't have had a completely wtf reaction when the first notes of "Feedback!" came pouring out of my speakers. This Motörhead-loving, punk rock/thrash anthem is hands down the album's finest moment, a track I would maybe expect from Sodom but of course I don't complain because I heard it by Soulfly.

Ritual is a selection of great tracks, something that hasn't happened for Soulfly since, well... the Dark Ages (pun intended). I know that most of the content of this album is not ground-breaking material and that a few of the riffs have been used before (for instance "Dead Behind The Eyes" begins exactly like "From The Past Comes The Storms" from Sepultura's Schizophrenia), but it is so much fun, so replayable, so headbanging-worthy that I can forgive and even enjoy the Sade-loving closer, "Soulfly XI".

If you have come across a better thrash metal release this year, let me know because I haven't.

"Will you take my soul?
Will you take my world?
I fear no one
The strength I summon"