by Nancy Chang
Daily Lobo
Soulfly is famous for being a pioneer of experimentation, and its lineup is no exception.
Members create a fresh fusion of native Brazilian sounds and heavy rock music on each of their four albums. Soulfly formed in 1997, but its latest CD Prophecy proves the band has developed a rich product with more universal appeal.
Singer Max Cavalera has been in the bands Nailbomb and Sepultura. He is a man with a message and has intricately sewn his beliefs and thoughts into the songs he writes. The result is political, powerful and spiritual.
The group is a whirlwind of different band members, with the lineup changing on every album - a concept Cavalera says keeps the recording distinctive and unpredictable.
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"In a big organization, somebody should have to be an instigator in a certain moment," Cavalera said. "But I let everybody be their own boss on their own terms. Everybody is in their own place and seems part of it. I come up with the songs and everybody adds things on top of it."
The individuals chosen for Prophecy are Mark Rizzo on guitar and former Ill Ni§o band mate Joe Nunez on bass and drums.
Dave Ellefson, a former Megadeth bassist, joined the lineup along with ex-Primer 55 bassist Bobby Burns.
Changing band members is always a difficult task for any band, but Cavalera makes the constant transition an opportunity for growth in sound.
"With Sepultura it was the same guys for a long time," he said. "Soulfly is a blast in the fact that every album is different."
He writes provocative songs that focus on issues of politics, religion and human nature.
"Inspiration is so different from all kinds of stuff," Cavalera said. "Most of it hits me from whatever. It can be from I'm walking and I see something, I read something, I hear something. Inspiration is something that is very spontaneous and open."
Soulfly, now busy with its U.S. tour, is notorious for ferocious, jam-packed shows.
"I think it's that I love seeing the growing of a song live," he said. "Songs that you make in the studio, when playing them live, they become much more fun, different, and bigger than you expected when you started on it. With 'An Eye For An Eye,' which is from the first album - it's the vicious song that I close with at every Soulfly show. It seems like the most powerful one. My goal is to keep writing songs like that."
Members of Soulfly plan to put out a DVD soon.
