Max Cavalera: Next Soulfly Record Will Have a “Big-Groove Tribal Sound”
His old band may be calling it quits, but Max Cavalera is far from being done. With newly re-recorded Sepultura albums under his and his brother Igor’s belt and the tours that followed, it seems like the Brazilian icon’s focus is shifting slightly to other projects, with Soulfly being chief among them.
During a recent interview with Radioactive MikeZ (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Cavalera spoke about Soulfly’s next record and what he envisions their sound being for their 13th studio effort. And while not a whole lot was divulged, it sounds like Soufly could be going back to their groovier, tribal-sounding roots.
“When I lock in on a project, I get very obsessed with the project. I become so obsessed that everything I’m writing is for this and I know exactly what it needs, what kind of sound I’m looking for. And Soulfly, I’m kind of planning a little bit of a return to the early sound. The big-groove tribal sound will return to Soulfly. I think a lot of fans want that. I love that.”
Given the fact that recent efforts have gone down a more traditional thrash metal path, the fact that we could be getting old-school Soulfly should be an exciting proposition for long-time fans.
Looking back at the band’s output, Cavalera admitted that while Soulfly’s had the ability to be a little more fluid with its sound, it’s always had that original style at heart. And now with other projects taking up his thrash metal interests, he said he doesn’t need to force Soulfly into that mold.
“I think it’s kind of like a trademark of Soulfly that kind of got lost in the shuffle through the years. We went more into the trashier side of stuff. But now I have my side project Go Ahead And Die that I can trash all I want in it. I can have Soulfly be a little bit more what it was in the beginning — more about that, the whole tribal thing, which is really cool and unique. It’s a unique thing that Soulfly has. So we’re gonna probably go back more to that, which should be really cool.”
Despite all that, Cavalera said even more stuff is up in the air with Soulfly, including whether Mike DeLeon would be featured on the new record or not, saying that he’s “leaving it open for now.”
“Mike is gonna jam with us. We have some festivals in the U.S. I think we’re doing Welcome To Rockville and another one, and we’re also doing the Lamb of God Headbangers Boat, the cruise. That should be fun as hell. And Mike will play with us for that. He’s a great guy. I love Mike.”
“I don’t know. It’s too early to know where I’m gonna go with this record — if I’m gonna try to find somebody else to record or if we’re just gonna roll with Mike. We don’t know yet. I haven’t even — I only have a few riffs written so far.”
