By: Anders

Posted: Oct 9, 2005

This is the first full Soulfly album I have laid my ears upon. I was one of the many that was quite disappointed when Max Cavalera left Sepultura. I got even more disappointed (or wanted to be) when I heard his new band Soulfly, which really didn't talk to me, so far I've heard bits and pieces from a couple of the earlier albums, but now I guess it's time to take the bull by its horns and take on a full Soulfly album.

The album is quite varied, there are influences from Cavalera's thrash metal roots, to latin rhythms patters, middle eastern sounds, East European folk music, you name it and it's most likely here. When working with such diverse sources and sounds one should think it would be a strange sounding album without a flow. But it isn't, the tracks are well composed and even though there are huge inspirational changes from some tracks to others, the album seems like a whole unit, tied nicely together with aggressive thrashy pieces among the ethnic influences and atmospheres.

The thing that surprised me most about this album, is the aggressive thrash parts, reminding me very much of Sepultura era "Roots". Without copying, but the crunchy and in your face guitar sound, the ripping riffs and the brutal frustrated scream from Max are back and effective. Take a listen to 'Babylon', which turns out to be a good track with healthy doses of thrash, over nu-metal sounds, but very aggressive and good vocal work. 'Arise Again' which again makes me think Sepultura during some parts, a good and thrashy song, with some nice in your face parts, mixed up with more calm atmospheres. 'Molotov' is even more aggressive, with screamed Russian vocals, a yelling Billy Milano (MOD/SOD), who delivered his performance over the phone, none the less, and again some good frantic guitar work.

This album is for sure not for everyone, the closeminded metalhead will for sure hate this release. Though if you like your metal diverse, modern and with ethnic influence, "Dark Ages" will spice up your life. I have found some great enjoyment in this album, though also find some parts of too distracting. Like the track 'Innerspirit' which starts harsh off with good guitar and pounding double bass drumming, and then goes into a quiet piece delivered by the Serbian artist Coyote, who sings and plays the trombone, a strange track that takes a while to get into. And the long outro 'Soulfly 5', which more or less is a meditating ambient piece with samples of rain and thunder, a strange way to end the album, and I’m sure many will skip it. No matter what Max Cavalera dares to step out of the ordinary path and explore new areas of what is possible and not, some of it work some of it don't. This is a good album, no doubt about that, you should give it a spin before writing it off.

Rating: 7½/10

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