Band:	Soulfly
Album:	Conquer
Style:	Groove thrash metal
Release date:	July 29, 2008
Guest review by:	Ey up tha knows

Disc I
01. Blood Fire War Hate
02. Unleash
03. Paranoia
04. Warmageddon
05. War Ghost
06. Rough
07. Fall Of Sycophants
08. Doom
09. For Those About To Rot
10. Touching The Void
11. Soulfly VI
12. Mypath [limited edition bonus]
13. Sailing On [Bad Brains cover] [limited edition bonus]
14. The Beautiful People [Marilyn Manson cover] [limited edition bonus]

Disc II [DVD:Live in Warsaw, Poland - July 13, 2005. Special edition only]
01. Prophecy
02. Downstroy
03. Seek 'N' Strike
04. No Hope = No Fear
05. Jumpadfuckup/Bring It
06. Living Sacrifice
07. Mars
08. Brasil
09. No
10. L.O.T.M.
11. Porrada
12. Drums
13. Moses
14. Frontlines
15. Back To The Primitive
16. Eye For An Eye
+ Innerspirit [video]

With "Conquer," Soulfly have filtered out most of the experimental aspects of their music, an example being the inclusion of only two guest vocalists contributing to the album. This is a more stripped down Soulfly which is a good thing as it is more direct and less distracting. The problem with this album is it's not bad or good, just average. Mark Rizzo has a huge influence on the sound as with the past Soulfly albums since he joined the band, not straying at all from his usual scales for solos and riffs. The drumming is good but not very interesting as they should incorporate more diverse percussion patterns to compliment their tendency to involve different cultures in their music. The song "Touching the Void" is the highest quality song on the album and I think they should make more songs like this using lower guitar tunings.

The outros to "For Those About to Rot" and "Doom" introduce atmosphere to the songs (I respect Cavalera for travelling around different countries and exploring their cultures to integrate their sounds into the songs), whereas the electro-based outro to "Rough" sounds similar to Korn in the late 1990's and I think it ruins the song. I have never been a fan of the "Soulfly" songs towards the end of each of the albums and "Soufly VI" does not change my opinion.

The highlights are Dave Peter's vocals on "Unleash" which is one of the better songs, as well as "Touching the Void" and "Blood Fire War Hate." It feels as if they could have done much more with the talent they have and some of the past energy from the "Prophecy" era has been lost. The most polished part of the album is the production, which is superb. This is an average album, but the band has shown in the past that they can do a lot more on the metal front.

Overall, the exclusion of songs in the vein of "Wings" from the album "Prophecy" and shortening the album is a positive, as their fifth album, "Dark Ages," dragged on far too long. The songs have been arranged well, the production is clear and crisp but "Conquer" has an aura of dullness that does not lift the album into anything above mediocre.