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Rating:
7.9 |
Soulfly - Soulfly 21 April 1998
01. Eye For An Eye [feat. Burton C. Bell & Dino Cazares] 02. No Hope = No Fear 03. Bleed [feat. Fred Durst & DJ Lethal] 04. Tribe 05. Bumba [feat. Los Hooligans] 06. First Commandment [feat. Chino Moreno] 07. Bumbklaatt 08. Soulfly 09. Umbabarauma [feat. Los Hooligans] 10. Quilombo [feat. Benji Webbe & DJ Lethal] 11. Fire 12. The Song Remains Insane 13. No [feat. Christian Olde Wolbers] 14. Prejudice [feat. Benji Webbe] 15. Karmageddon 16. Cangaceiro [Limited Edition bonus] 17. Ain't No Feeble Bastard [Discharge cover] [Limited Edition bonus] 18. The Possibility Of Life's Destruction [Discharge cover] [Limited Edition bonus]
Of course most people know Soulfly's front man Max Cavalera came from his former project Sepultura. Soulfly's self-titled debut really shows that it is Max Cavalera's band, as he projects all of his new found anger and he also really explores tribal music from his native Brazil as was started in Sepultura's later albums "Chaos A.D." and "Roots".
This album is full of decently heavy riffing which does a fairly solid job of portraying Max's anger towards both the death of his loved ones and the overall oppression in Brazil. However the guitar work is not by far anything ground breaking in general, as it is, for the most part, very basic heavy riffing. This portrays the angry emotion, but that's it. Although I did say for the most part; there are times where the guitar work is very exceptional and uses quite varied effects, such as at the end of "No Hope=No Fear" and the beginnings of "Bumba" and "Umbabarauma". Furthermore though, the highlight of varied musicianship falls into the title song. Soulfly offers a complete paradigm shift from the generally heavy, thrashy riffs and replaces them with blissfully soothing melodies, albeit for only five minutes. As the guitar is much different in this song, so is the drumming. Much of the drumming on the album is very generic, but on a few songs the drums are heavily tribally influenced, especially on "Soulfly". For the first 60% of the album, the musicianship really manages to stay solid and tight, and is helped quite a bit by the meaningful lyrics. These songs, as I said earlier, expresses Max Cavalera's anger, especially in songs like "Bumbklaat", "First Commandment", and "Eye For An Eye". Really the only disappointing song in that whole part of the album is "Bleed", and that's because it features Fred Durst on it. Yeah I said it, Fred Durst. But despite that, the song still pulls through with the other aforementioned parts.
It is however, a little disappointing to get to the second half of the album after a very solid first half. After Umbabarauma, the songs simply get very boring. The lyrical content just goes nowhere in these songs, and the musicianship really doesn't either. The riffs are "different", but still follow the same style as the rest of the album as is the same with the drumming. It just gets repetitive. There is a much calmer interlude during the middle of "Fire" and at the end of "No", and even during the first half of "Karmageddon", but unfortunately these parts also get quite repetitive. In addition, the track "The Song Remains The Same" is as horrible, as it is very generic.
To sum up, the first part of Soulfly uses some varied guitar and drumming patterns, being heavily influenced by Brazilian tribal drumming, making it almost a Folk Thrash Metal album. Yet because of this success on the first half of the album, the second half cannot continue the momentum and fails. While this album shows a lot of emotion, it is nothing compared to that of bands like The Old Dead Tree.
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Performance:
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7 |
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Songwriting:
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8 |
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Originality:
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8 |
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Production:
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9 |
written by Marcus | 07.07.2008 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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Comments
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7
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Users visited:
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I really like this album.. it was one of the first metal works that i've listen to.
But i have to agree with you in some parts: ''The Song Remains Insane'' is a terrible song, and ''Bleed'' is the poorest part of the album (besides the fast berimbaus at the end, wich was very cool ).
I just don't think that after ''Umbabarauma'' the album gets boring, ''Prejudice'' is a very nice song (Benji Webbe's voice is very nice), and ''Karmageddon'' is an folkloric and nostalgic song (to me). Anyway, its a pretty fair review that you write 
Now i'm curious about that ''The Old Dead Tree'' band.. ill check it out. |
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flordimaria - 04.04.2009 at 09:46
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Written by Guest on 04.04.2009 at 09:46
FUCK THE NU-METAL!!!
I agree hehhe |
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Bad copy of Roots.....
Any album with Fred Durst and Chino Moreno SUCKS!!!!! |
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People are too kvlt...
I like this album alot, Bumbklaatt is a great song. |
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Written by BoxCar Willy on 20.02.2012 at 02:59
People are too kvlt...
I like this album alot, Bumbklaatt is a great song.
Yeah.. that's what reviewing this taught me. Ha I remember when I first listened to it )I had to have been like 13), me and all my friends would call each other Bumbklaatts. |
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Written by Marcus on 20.02.2012 at 03:20
Written by BoxCar Willy on 20.02.2012 at 02:59
People are too kvlt...
I like this album alot, Bumbklaatt is a great song.
Yeah.. that's what reviewing this taught me. Ha I remember when I first listened to it )I had to have been like 13), me and all my friends would call each other Bumbklaatts.
Book Ya Gimme dat agony ya dirty rasclot!
That's my Partois saying at skool.
(google it) |
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