Soulfly - Prophecy
(Roadrunner)"Roots, bloody roots"... and we're off and running. By track two, Living Sacrifice, we're running real fast. And real cool. Damn, it makes me think of Probot (am I the first to review something and call it Probot-like? Probotly.). Max is more emphatically than ever the sole Fly, hiring a whole new crew to headbang (Dave Ellefson basses three tracks), very surprisingly, like a cross between chugging '80s metal and Arise/Chaos A.D.-era Seps. Friggin' right on, as far as I'm concerned. Max considers this album the outcome of a bunch of world traveling (there are even native Serbian musicians on here), coupled with his usual spiritual/societal rantings and Rasta ravings. Whatever works for you, you go man. And it wouldn't be Max without a few Superfly bits. But man, these are so starkly demarcated from the metal moshing, you actually welcome them. And care, given the exotic instruments and layerings and wealth of knowledge that go into them (see Soulfly IV and Wings). Still, Prophecy is hot clockin', no nonsense riff madness more than three quarters of the time and for that, buy Max a beer.
Rating 8.5