Soulfly Conquers with 6th Effort

Soulfly has a musical revelation exactly every two records, the second being an extension of the first.

In the beginning there was Soulfly, the natural musical progression from the Sepultura down-tuned groove epic Roots. Then, Max Cavalera made it more Primitive, emphasizing big crowd bounce and cleaner production. With 3, Soulfly shed its NuMetal past, infusing rougher grooves and brutal thrash riffs with more tribal instrumentation, giving their music a brooding and inspiring edge.

Finally, the Prophecy was uttered, and Max’s vision for 3 was mastered. By recruiting Ill Nino’s former flesh searing soloist Marc Rizzo, Max solidified Soulfly's sound. His flamenco influences and hyper-stylo added a spice you didn't know was missing. As a record it is their most balanced to date: groove, thrash, brutality, reggae, latin jazz, flamenco, epic movie soundtrack transitions - the potential soundscape and tremendous range of Soulfly is best showcased here.

Enter the Dark Ages, by far their thrashiest and most experimental phase. Max travelled the world collecting music, carefully orchestrating pieces in order to emphasize a darker intent through creepy sonic passages. Meanwhile, he allowed Marc Rizzo free reign over some of Soulfly’s tightest and heaviest material. But although the direction was right, it still came across as somewhat inconsistent.

Conquer is the equalizer in a sense, variating in musical direction by cycling through thrash, groove and tribal from measure to measure, laced with wicked sonic effects and brilliant solo work courtesy of Mr. Rizzo. Cavalera Conspiracy is definitely an influence here, too, as nearly every track achieves breakneck speed and exhibits tight structure. The songs are perhaps their most progressive, complex and complete to date. “For Those About To Rot” is a classic example in that sense, the title of which also featuring the dead serious phrase play Max is known for.

Now, granted, this record is much more vibrant than CC's Inflikted, but some of the riffage is not as fresh as previous Soulfly efforts, and might require a few listens to catch the subtleties blinded by the inattention caused by familiarity. Nonetheless, Max believes a band should both have its givens and be organic. And as a man who knows how to satisfy his fans, there are certain tracks you just know you're going to get with a Soulfly record: epic introductory, second track single, a nailbomb style headbanger somewhere in the middle, and a spiritual Soulfly number towards the end, not to mention guest vocalists (David Vincent from Morbid Angel on "Blood Fire War Hate"; Dave Peters from Throwdown on "Unleash"). But Max and co. still have an ace or two, or three or four – the headspinning groove of “Rough”, the gloom and doom of “Touching the Void”, and the musically and technically excellent “Fall of the Cycophants”. As with all Soulfly records, the momentum builds as it goes, each track stronger than the last, ending on the truly beautiful “Soulfly VI”.

On "Rough" Max tells us, “it’s how you live, not how you fall,” and Conquer is a full package of Soulfly that delivers on that line – despite some missteps, the record shows that Soulfly is still strong, full of life, and ready for the next phase.

Scars on Broadway...fun but unmemorable.

Here's the thing: This is not a new band, this is the same old Daron Malakian. And when an artist does a solo project, or forms a new band, there's always a sense of danger mixed with excitement.

Why? For the most part, solo records tend to be wildly unsuccessful. The purpose of a solo effort is to establish a confirming document that you are the genius you claim to be. Fact of the matter is that, unless you start solo, this is most likely not true, and the results can be crushing. There's also the hype factor, or what I like to call the George Lucas factor. You can be as gentle a dictator as you want, but when it comes right down to it, you won't hire a gun that will challenge you. And that's the first mistake, because much of the band dynamic feeds off of that. Some bands enjoy it, others hate it, but if it works it usually don't need fixin.

Case in point: I love the guy, but Daron Malakian is not a musical genius. He's a really spaced out Armenian cowboy who likes anything over the top. Big power chords. Fast and aggressive rhythmic attack. Soaring vocals. Absolut quirk. A lot of this is on the record, and a lot of it is fun, but a lot of it is empty. Admittedly, he's never been the type to be deep outright. There's no lyrical conspiracy here, nor musical complexity. The record is a lot of fun, though. And simplicity works, but making something complex that sounds simple is what writes the greatest songs. Daron's had too much fun and ends up with something so simplistic that its most brilliant moments, from lyrics to melody to soundscape, will fall from memory within a week.

In fact, if your memory serves you right, you could probably get more worth out of the neat exercise of picking out which riff, melody or chord progression (hell, even track sequence) comes from which System record.

As a rule of thumb, going the way your band already went is always a bad idea because without challenging yourself, or having someone there to challenge you (and it is hard to prove Dolomayan wasn't more than another hired gun) inevitably it will be conventional. Doubly bad when you're one of the least conventional bands in your time. Yes, part of you will always be that band, but Daron is not even slightly original to himself, and despite calling it an evolution of his sound, it comes off as denatured. This is true with Serj's solo effort as well, and what's clear when listening to the two is that the magic of System of a Down comes from a group effort. The fact is, both solo records are weak versions of what makes these talents stronger together. The genius is communal.

If you're a System freak that just can't get enough, go for it. Otherwise, skip it.