Murderous Groove and board-like riffs - unexpectedly strong plate

No matter how hard I tried it: With Soulfly I could never get warm. The to modern for my taste orientation of the band put me off as much as that of Max Cavalera repeatedly advocated "world music" approach. I found this tribal stuff already in Sepultura exaggerated in Soulfly I felt even more on your nerves. When they later strengthened devoted to the good old thrash, just problems in some cases considerably in the songwriting. In the end, could me from the camp of Brazilians in the last 15 years actually only the albums of Cavalera Conspiracy really convince. If you put the pitiful attempts of Sepultura to build on old deeds to one end of the spectrum and the excellent work of the Cavalera Conspiracy to the other, remained the space between these two for Soulfly.

At least until "Enslaved". Because this loose concept album about slavery, it creates Max Cavalera finally back to score with his marked by intended occupation rotation ribbon. At least with followers all hard sounds. The disc resembles music of Cavalera Conspiracy, is but something simple knit. One advantage - it namely much more directly to the point, what feels good. The best comparison to "Enslaved" is found right at the Sepultura masterpieces "Arise" and "Chaos AD", perhaps in various albums of the German heroes of Sodom. To some extent, such a brutal game, that you no longer even need to speak of Thrash but rather of Death Metal. A brute piece follows the next, but strangely wears "Enslaved" still not as fast as one of the younger brutal bands knows occasionally.

How to integrate style foreign influences, despite all the hardship perfectly, shows the in my opinion best piece on the board: In "Plata O Plomo" meet flamenco sounds on murderous Groove, the aggressive, Cavalera-typical song is also powerfully by the Death Metal supported by bassist Tony Campos -affine organ (formerly Static-X, Ministry). The result: an incredibly strong, very intense song about the 1993 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot. Can convince whole also arguably the toughest Soulfly-piece so far ("World Scum") that the "Hail Hail Hail!" - Growls welcoming "Gladiator" and "American Steel" and "Treachery" that sound as if they was originally written for the Cavalera Conspiracy. Also strong: In "Redemption Of Man By God" is DevilDriver-screamer Dez Fafara are the micro and the honor "Revengeance" as an enterprise of Max, Igor, and Zyon Cavalera Richie. All excellent tracks that I had not expected so much of Soulfly at this stage of their careers.

In contrast, the remaining pieces fall off a bit, even if there is no real loss. But "intervention" and "Legions" noise in the end almost unnoticed past the listener. Also one of the bonus tracks on the limited edition, "slave", shares this fate. The obligatory instrumental "Soulfly VIII" was the way this time packed in the bonus section. Violins and Metal? Why not here passts really good, even if I temporarily had the impression to hear a Apocalyptica-disk (yes, I know that use cellos ...).

Conclusion: Soulfly submitted with "Enslaved" a very strong album, which I did not expect in this intensity of the band. A second spring for Max Cavalera? The time it has to show - for this album I pull out anyway the highest rating, although I admit that some listeners will miss the autonomy of Soulfly. The must deduct a point.