Soulfly- Primitive (2000)
Roadrunner Records

This is the second album that Max Cavalera has released upon leaving Sepultura to create Soulfly. This is not recognized as a very strong album for whatever reasons. The album includes many gust appearances. Some of these include: Chino Moreno of Deftones fame, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, and Tom Araya of Slayer (also Sean Lennon, the son of John Lennon of Beatles fame appears on this album as well). Soulfly is basically another tribal aggressive band by Max Cavalera (he took a similar approach in his last album with Sepultura, “Roots”). Basically, even though Sepultura was one of the greatest bands of all time, but when Max Cavalera left them, they were left with Derreck Green on vocals (whom is not nearly as good as Max Cavalera was). Even though Max Cavalera was at his best with Sepultura, he created a band greater than what Sepultura was left as. This sophomore attempt by Soulfly, is said to fall short of the first.

Onto the songs, from “Primitive”, which will be looked upon in a individual basis in this review.

The album kicks off with a little weird prelude, and slowly into “Back To The Primitive”, which is a catchy start for the album. Max Cavalera may show his lack in lyric writing skills, but this does not matter, since his “cookie monster”-style vocals are so unique. It drags on a little bit, even though it is fine for introducing the whole album, setting the standards of what to expect throughout the rest of the album.

“Pain” is the next track, and Chino Moreno of Deftones sings on this album. This is definitely pretty strange, since his vocals do not truly correspond to those of Max Cavalera. The lack of complimentary vocals is not too. Somehow, the song manages to be good, though, probably because the riffs combine all the elements together. The slow part is not too great, even though it feels good once the track returns to the normal pace again.

“Bring It” is one of my favorite tracks of this album. It is a very fast-paced effort, very heavy. The chorus is extremely heavy, the drumming by Joe Nunez very nicely done. We can hear a little trash influence, in typical Soulfly style. Also typically for Soulfly, the slow parts near the end tend to mess the song up entirely. This is definitely the case here. Basically it becomes too repetitious after a while, but just as when I think this it starts getting really heavy again, and ends in this fashion.

”Jumpadafuckup” is probably the most famous track from this album. It is done by the lead singer of Slipknot (and Stone Sour), named Corey Taylor, with the heavy parts done by both Max Cavalera (who just sings the chorus and not much else) and Corey Taylor. The voices of Corey Taylor and Max Cavalera are actually quite good combined though. The song is quite powerful and definitely one of the better ones on this album. Again this track is plagued by a slow part, that is effective only about a quarter of the time it is used. This, of course, is a typical problem for Soulfly, though.

The track that follows is an almost purely Portugese track, named “Mulambo”. It is pretty okay, even though I now see why Max Cavalera prefers to sing in English. The Portugese aspect of the singing is pretty boring, and I do not think that it works too well. The song ends up much faster than what is typical for Soulfly.

“Son Song” is a decent Soulfly track. Not anything special in my opinion. The slow part sung by Sean Lennon (the son of the legendary John Lennon) does not really bring anything to the table. It is strange to hear something that does not have crunching material in the background, joined with the screaming voice of Max Cavalera, which only seems to be made for heavy screaming duties. The track is dedicated to John Lennon and Graziano Cavalera (the parents of these two sons). Sadly, it ends up going slow in the closing stages, as well. Wierdly enough it ends in the same way that “Back To The Primitive”.

“Boom” is the next track. It is a pretty fast song, yet in some way fueled by a pretty slow and easy beat. The track is a typical Soulfly song, crunching vocals by Max Cavalera, even though the lyrics he has written are a little bit brainless (I guess one can not blame this on any other factor but that he hails from Brazil, and English is not his first language). I would however say, that the effort is a little bit repetitive for my tastes. Also, I think it is more suitable for Soulfly to have short, to-the-point songs, rather than dragged-out tracks like this. Once again we go back to the underlying sound of the track, that we first heard in “Back To The Primitive”.

The next track is “Terrorist” which is the one that Tom Araya of Slayer appears on. His vocals are not really suited for a Soulfly album, even though they are very good. It is very strange to hear Tom Araya sing his characteristically high-pitched, yet powerful vocals, with the low grouchy voice of Max Cavalera. The pace picks up as the track approaches it´s end, even though the true ending is strange as always, in typical Soulfly fashion. In general, I would have to say that I would have imagined that these two great vocalists could have made something better together.

“The Prophet” is another little typical Soulfly song. The effort is angry, and quite good. However, the song is fully okay, not remarkably memorable, even though it is fully okay. A typical fast-paced Soulfly song, which can be said for a lot of the other songs on this album.

“Soulfly II” is the song which follows “Prophet”. It starts out with tribal drumming, and is pretty much a slow effort, letting me regain my concentration, which I will need to have to listen to the rest of the album. Basically it is not something you would listen to typically if you are a metal fan, even though it shows the roots of Soulfly, and that they are not only inspired by heavy bands, but also that they take these roots seriously, just like how Sepultura have shown. The song drags on and on though, and after a while you will say “I got the point already” and probably look for more than this repetitive slow song.

“In Memory Of…” opens in a scratchy style, but then actually turns out to start like a rap song, which really made me fear. However, Max Cavalera saves it, singing the chorus. However, the rap which is performed by Babatunde Rabouin, Deonte Perry, and Justus Olbert of Cutthroat Logic, makes the song truly horrible. The verses are a constant waiting to hear Max Cavalera sing the verses once again. I think the whole thing is pretty horrible. Additionally, I think it is a disgrace that this track is made for Lynn Strait of Snot, who died tragically in a car accident. I am sure that he would not like to have his pinned to a rap song. Anyways, I am pretty relieved as this track finishes.

The last track of the album is “Fly High”, which is a heavy song (thank God, after two pretty awful songs, one being slow, the other being rap). The song is however sadly spiced with Asha Rabouin, who sings the vocals, which is stupid. The track is very catchy instrumentally though, and Max Cavalera shows once again that he has a very crisp voice for metal. The song would probably be better done if we did not have to live through the female voice of Asha Rabouin, in the chorus (hopefully I will never have to hear her voice on a metal song again, because it should in no way be even near one). The song ends predictably enough in the same way it started, after some sweeshing and swooshing noices.

Rating: 7.5 (The album is at times very aggressive, which is good. However the score is brought down with the inclusion of songs such as “Soulfly II”, “In Memory Of…”, and also the inclusion of Asha Rabouin in “Flyhigh”. Two more things that are not so great about the album is the common sound that we heard in the beginning of “Back To The Primitive”, and also the way a song can continue to drag on but in a slow fashion, which we saw in “Jumpdafuckup” and various other tracks. Regardless, the guest appearances are pretty high profile. The tribal aggressive style that Soulfly exhibits, can be done better than on this album though. I do, however, recommend this album, but not strongly)
Standout Tracks: “Back To The Primitive”, “Terrorist”, “Bring It”, “Jumpdafuckup”, and “Boom”

Reviewed by: Joakim von Essen (4/10/2002)