YES, THEY’RE ACTUALLY GOING TO CALL THE BAND “CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.” YES, THEY’RE ACTUALLY GOING TO CALL THE ALBUM INFLIKTED.

I suppose I have no real reason to feel so cynical about the music that the reunited Cavalera brothers will make together; in 2005, Max Cavalera released Dark Ages, arguably the best Soulfly album to date, while Igor Cavalera and his band mates put out what is arguably the best Max-less Sepultura album, Dante XXI, just a year later. And they both made albums of such quality by introducing elements of older Sep back into music that become far too diluted with the “legacy” of the over-rated Roots, even if they’ve never abandoned that album’s musical “advances” altogether. In other words, it would seem that both Max and Igor have their heads in the right place, creatively speaking, and if ever a Sepultura semi-reunion was going to (needlessly?) produce new music, now would be the time.

Still, I was hoping that the band would come up with a better name than Cavalera Conspiracy, and a better album title than Inflikted. Not so, says Blabbermouth, who exclusively announced the album’s track list yesterday.

Okay, so I understand that the band’s primary selling point is that it’s the first time the Super Cavalera Bros. have played together since the friggin’ 90’s, but did they really think that metal bands weren’t going to put that together if their name wasn’t part of the band’s moniker? Especially if they’re going to make the announcement via Blabbermouth, where it exclusively reaches people who know who Max and Igor Cavalera are. They could have called this band “Awesome Anal Animals” and everyone would have known who they were. And they would have a more metal name, too.

As for Inflikted – well, that demo was originally intended for a forthcoming Soulfly album. And with Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo also a part of Cavalera Conspiracy and the fact that Soulfly have completed the recording of a new album – well, it seems pretty obvious that we’re just getting two Soulfly albums next year, one of which happens to feature Igor Cavalera on drums (and, oh yeah, Joe Duplantier from Gojira).

I just hope that we’re not gonna get Soulfly overkill in 2008.

-AR