Soulfly’s latest album Totem was unleashed on the world last week, a brutal, violent and extreme record that harks back to vocalist Max Cavalera days of blackened thrash metal while maintaining other elements of his music that have seen Soulfly release twelve albums and counting.
Written in a more collaborative effort in the family garage with his son, and Soulfly drummer Zyon, Totem is twelve tracks of unrelenting power that could quite possibly be the most complete Soulfly album yet.
Big call, I know, but HEAVY caught up with Cavalera earlier today to get his take on the album.
“I think it's insane that it's my twelfth record,” he smiled. “That's kind of unheard in this business to have so many records with one band like that. It's unique. It's cool. It's kind of a badge of honour of longevity and fighting for what you believe. I like Totem for many, many reasons. One of the main reasons is it was made by me as a fan, for the fans. It's a bit selfish of me the way I made this record. I wanted to please myself but pretty much my main records I have done my whole career have had that same state of mind of I have to play what I like, what I believe is in my heart, what I feel. And Totem is no different. The reaction has been really, really good. Actually, it's been better than I thought. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm kind of surprised at how positive it has been. It's pretty fucken cool."
The press release calls Totem “violent, brutal and extreme”, so we press Cavalera to see if that is an apt description.
"Yes. All those three elements are very present in this record,” he agreed. “Although I think there's more than that on the album itself in general. There's also some new things, especially towards the end of the record. “Spirit Animals” is a ten-minute journey, almost like an epic song. I've never written this kind of song before, so to me it was very unique and unusual and exciting. Also, “Soulfly XII” has a very kind of The Cure, gothic, keyboard feel to it. The rest of the record - especially Side A - is very Max Cavalera, meat and potatoes. Just in your face (smashes hand with fist). It's a beatdown, unmerciful, angry, brutal, energetic... the way we love metal to be. To me, that's what metal represents. It's gotta be a little dangerous; it's gotta be a little bit outta control; it's gotta be a little bit...dirty. The recordings and the production has all these elements on this record that I really love. It doesn't sound like a high tech, polished record, and I like that about it. It sounds really old and dirty and old school in some parts. I like that about Totem.”
In the full interview, Max talks about the back to basics songwriting approach to Totem, the producer Andrew Rizk and what he brought to the sound, acting as producer himself and the pros and cons of doing so, the instrumental track Soulfly XII and what it means, having Dino Cazares in the band and what he brings, the Australian tour as part of Good Things Festival and more.
Intro track THE VIOLENT INZIDENT 'Brazil Is Great'