Hear Max Cavalera Revisit Tribal Roots With Ripping New Soulfly Song "Ritual" | Page 2 | Revolver

Hear Max Cavalera Revisit Tribal Roots With Ripping New Soulfly Song "Ritual"

Brazilian groove-metal icon calls upcoming album opener a "Soulfly classic for the ages"

With the October 19th release date for their next album Ritual less than two months away, the Max Cavalera–led Soulfly have dropped the record's title track and opener. The five-minute groove-heavy thrasher comes hot on the heels of early August's blast-beat– and breakdown-packed "Evil Empowered," leaving no doubt the album will stand as another of Cavalera's confrontational diatribes on the evil political forces that be.

The cut's creation at first proved lyrically challenging for the former Sepultura frontman, who claimed, "This song took a long time and almost didn't make the record. We recorded it as an instrumental and ran out of time in the studio. We ended up having to fly [producer] Josh Wilbur out to my house to finish the vocals. He kept on telling me he wanted more of that 'tribal shit' like some of the stuff on our first record and Primitive. We ended up creating the chorus on the spot and layering something like 12 or 16 tracks of chanting for it." Their approach worked, leading Cavalera to believe fans of his older work will particularly enjoy it. Distinctive callbacks to Roots-era Sepultura beats infused among Cavalera's modern songwriting give weight to this claim.

Below, watch Max Cavalera's crushing live performance of "Roots Bloody Roots" with Suicide Silence at the 2014 Golden Gods: