“We worked really hard on it, tried to do something a bit different from everything we’ve done,” says Soulfly vocalist, rhythm guitarist and songwriter Max Cavalera in regard to his band’s new – and tenth album – Archangel, available now via Nuclear Blast Records.

“The chemistry was really good in the studio with (producer) Matt Hyde and all the musicians,” recalls Max. “I think we came up with something pretty cool that is going to take us to the future. Now we can do all kinds of other new adventures. But it was really cool to have this album, Archangel, with the artwork and… it was a good team! A good bunch of people got together.”

In addition to producing and mixing Soulfly’s Archangel, Matt Hyde has worked with Slayer, Children Of Bodom, and Monster Magnet to name but a few. Yet this was his first time in the studio with Soulfly. “Yeah, we did it in two places,” reveals Max. “We did the drums in a big studio that had a big room; then we did the guitars in another studio. Then when everything was done, we switched to Matt’s house and did the vocals there; at the same time he was doing the new Deftones. He was doing double duty, which is crazy. But we got done and Matt was really super essential for this album cause he loved all the Biblical stuff, and making it sound apocalyptic and crazy. It was really fun man. I love the theme that we had – (artist) Eliran Kantor (Testament, Iced Earth, Sodom) for the cover; a lot of people really like the artwork. We had a good team! I’d like to repeat this team sometime in the future, having the same people do another album.”

 

Surprisingly, Max didn’t even begin writing the lyrics for Archangel until after all the music was recorded; quite the unusual move. “Yeah, just try something different. I’ve never done that before. It was like, what the hell? Let’s try it and see what happens. And I liked it! I might do it like that from now on; it gives you a different perspective. You sit with the music for a while, so you’ve got a lot of different vocal ideas you can try. By the time you go into the studio to actually sing… I’ve always liked choruses. So we have some catchy choruses like ‘We Sold Our Souls To Metal’, ‘Archangel’, and ‘Sodomites’. It was a good experience; I might do that again.”

An integral part of the aforementioned team, specifically bassist Tony Campos, is no longer part of Soulfly as he’s currently touring with Fear Factory. Undaunted, Max replaced Tony with his son, Igor Jr. “Yeah, we always knew Tony was going to leave one day; he’s always in different bands: Ministry, Possessed, and Prong. He’s a musician’s musician – always doing stuff with other people. I always knew he might not stay with us, so it wasn’t much of a shock when he told me. It was friendly. We never fought; which is cool. My son, Igor Jr. (Lody Kong) ended up playing bass live in Europe and it was great; it came out really good. But for the US tour, we’re going to try Mike (Leon) from Havok. He’s a friend and I love Havok; I love that thrash stuff and he’s going to bring some of that to Soulfly.”

Prior to tearing off the protective shrink-wrap surrounding Archangel, a quick glimpse at the tracklisting brings Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward to mind. Reason being, the first track, “We Sold Our Souls To Metal”, instantly conjures up visions of the 1975 Black Sabbath compilation album, We Sold Our Soul For Rock ‘N’ Roll. “It’s all borrowed,” chuckles Max. “I’ve been doing that for a long time. ‘The Song Remains Insane’ is making fun of Led Zeppelin – you know, ‘The Song Remains The Same’. Every chance I get to do something similar like that – ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ (by Sepultura) comes from ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’. Black Sabbath is always a great influence! You can always get something from them; they are our teachers. We are the students, we’re supposed to use stuff from our teachers.”

 

As per usual with Soulfly, there’s a couple of special guests on the album. Up first is Todd Jones from Nails on “Sodomites”. “Oh, I love Nails,” exclaims Max.  “They’re one of my favourite new bands! They’re so brutal and so killer. Pretty much, me and Greg (Puciato) from The Dillinger Escape Plan talk about Nails all the time. So we pretty much got Nails signed to Nuclear Blast. I just thought ‘Sodomites’ was a killer, powerful song that needed a second vocalist. The intro he gave – that’s the coolest thing! It sounds like a pissed-off God ready to unleash Hell upon mankind. When I first heard it, I rewound it ten times. I was so excited!"

Matt Young from King Parrot appears on “Live Life Hard!” – another barnstormer of a track. “King Parrot’s more of a crazier band from Australia. I discovered them last year; they’re on Phil Anselmo’s label and he’s in one of their videos. But we became friends with Matt during the Soundwave Festival; we hung out a lot. Then I went to his show in Phoenix. He had a show the next day in Los Angeles, and I told him to go to Matt’s studio and record the vocals for ‘Live Life Hard!’, which is about us living the life we chose – the road life, the rock life, the metal life; which is not for everybody. It’s a choice you have to make. Once you make that choice, you’ve got to live by the rules. I love the chorus: ‘Go hard or go home! Go hard or fuck off!’ That’s kind of like our Bible.”

With the exception of “We Sold Our Souls To Metal” and “Live Life Hard!”, there’s a lot of Biblical narrative and influence found within the lyrics on Archangel,  from “Sodomites” to “Bethlehem’s Blood” to “Ishtar Rising”. It’s no secret that Max is a religious person; in fact previous Soulfly albums have been dedicated to God. But why such a Biblical influence this time around? “I just thought it would be cool to do some songs with Biblical elements, influenced by some stuff I listen to like Behemoth, Melechesh, and talk about some Babylonian themes like ‘Ishtar Rising’ – the Goddess of Babylon. ‘Bethlehem’s Blood’ is about the killing of infants. ‘Archangel’ is about the war in Heaven. So it’s really like Old Testament; that’s a very hardcore book. All these crazy stories that go great with metal; I can make probably ten records out of that stuff.”

Soulfly currently has tour dates booked until late November. What does 2016 look like? “More work. We’re going on a European tour right at the beginning or middle of January. Then I’m going to get together with the Killer Be Killed guys to write some new stuff and record it. I’d like to do a big Archangel tour and go to Australia, South America, South Africa. Hopefully we can do a world tour next year.”

Those fortunate enough to be in the first few rows at a Soulfly concert will quickly realize that Max’s guitars only hold four strings, as opposed to the traditional six. This is nothing new, but an explanation is long overdue. “I don’t do solos man. I don’t even attempt to; I suck so bad. Two strings broke a million years ago, and my roadie had money stashed for booze or new strings. I told him, ‘Go buy booze, let’s get drunk!’ Fuck the strings! I let (Soulfly lead guitarist) Rizzo do what he has to do. I’m happy with my four strings, just writing my riffs. That’s what I am – a riffmaker.”

Coming full circle, Black Sabbath has announced their farewell - the final goodbye, The End Tour, with dates running through July 2016. “Hopefully I’ll get to see some of that… I don’t believe it’s true,” admits Max. “I think they will come back after that. Ozzy’s been saying goodbye for the last 20 years. He’s kind of like me; you cannot stop. I don’t see myself ever stopping… hopefully die on the stage; that would be the cool way to go… 20 or 30 years from now.”

 

(Photos by Hannah Verbeuren)