Soulfly
is a heavy metal band formed in 1997. Soulfly is led by former Sepultura guitarist and frontman Max Cavalera, who formed the band after he left the influential Brazilian group in 1996. The band has released six studio albums, one tour EP, several singles, and one DVD video.
Soulfly incorporates many styles of metal with Brazilian tribal, world music and latin music. The band has had all six of their studio albums debut on the United States Billboard 200, with a peak position at number 32 for their second album, Primitive
. [1] Their debut album, Soulfly
, has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. [2]
The band has gone through numerous line-up changes, but the line-up has been stable since 2004's Prophecy
.
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SOULFLY TICKETS
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History
Formation
Brazilian songwriter, guitarist and singer
Max Cavalera formed the band in 1997, following his split with
Sepultura in 1996, and the death of his stepson Dana Wells. The lineup consisted of former Thorn and
Nausea drummer
Roy Mayorga from New York, guitarist Jackson Bandeira from
Chico Science & Nação Zumbi, former Sepultura roadie Marcello Dias, from The Mist, on bass, and Cavalera on guitar and vocals. Prior to forming Soulfly, Max Cavalera made a guest appearance on the second
Deftones' studio album,
Around the Fur
in 1997, on the song "Headup". This song is about Wells' death. Cavalera got the name for the band from the lyrics of this song.
Debut album
Cavalera was troubled during the recording of Soulfly's first album, and on the band's website he said that he founded the band "with the idea of combined sounds and spiritual beliefs". As well as leaving one of the world's most renowned thrash metal bands, he had to deal with the death of his stepson and best friend Dana Wells. The first self-titled album,
Soulfly
, released in the spring of 1998,
[3] and reached number 79 on the
Billboard 200.
[4]
In addition to the core band, the debut album featured
Mario C.,
Burton C. Bell,
Dino Cazares and
Christian Olde Wolbers from
Fear Factory,
Fred Durst and
DJ Lethal from
Limp Bizkit,
Chino Moreno from
Deftones, Benji Webbe formerly of
Dub War and now a member of
Skindred,
Eric Bobo from
Cypress Hill and Jorge do Peixe and Gilmar Bola Oito from
Chico Science & Nação Zumbi. The album was recorded at Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, California and was overseen by producer
Ross Robinson.
In addition to fronting Soulfly, Cavalera also branched out into other areas not usually associated with heavy metal musicians. He became a speaker at music conventions, appearing at
CMJ's New Music Marathon in New York and Holland's Crossing Boarder Festival, both in late 1997, and sang a TV commercial for
Sprite in Brazil.
After recording the first album, Jackson Bandeira returned to Brazil with
Nação Zumbi and was replaced by
Logan Mader of
Machine Head for the live tour that followed. Soulfly played on the 1998
Ozzfest mainstage alongside
Ozzy Osbourne,
Megadeth, and
Tool, and played small club tours around the world with bands such as
System of a Down and
Snot. After the world tour in support of
Soulfly
, Logan Mader was replaced by
Mikey Doling who had just been displaced by the breakup of
Snot.
Primitive
A variety of influences, including
nu metal, appeared on 2000's
Primitive
, and it was the most successful album by the band in the U.S., reaching number 32 on the Billboard 200 and number 11 on the independent charts. Joe Nunez, from Chicago, replaced
Roy Mayorga on drums for
Primitive
. The album featured a number of guest appearances as well, including
Corey Taylor of
Slipknot and
Stone Sour,
Sean Lennon,
Chino Moreno of
Deftones,
Tom Araya of
Slayer, Grady Avenell of
Will Haven, Cutthroat Logic, and Asha Rabouin and was produced by
Toby Wright. In addition, artwork was created by longtime
Bob Marley artist
Neville Garrick. The release of the album was followed by world tours with the likes of
Pantera,
Morbid Angel and
Ozzfest.
?
In late 2001, Joe Nunez left Soulfly to join Stripping the Pistol, saying that it was "time for [him] to move on". Roy Mayorga departed from his band Medication to rejoin with Cavalera, Doling, and Dias for the recording of the band's third album.
?
(often referred to as 3 (particularly in text) as it is simpler to read) was the first Soulfly album which was produced by Max Cavalera. Other musicians performing on
?
included Christian Machado of
Ill Niño, Danny Marianino of Arizona based North Side Kings, and guitarist Wiley Arnett and drummer Greg Hall of
Sacred Reich, and Max's stepson Ritchie Cavalera. The album reached number 46 on the Billboard 200 in that year. After the release of
?
on June 25, 2002, Soulfly toured throughout
Europe and
North America with bands such as
Slayer,
In Flames,
God Forbid, and
Will Haven.
In September 2003, after the world tour for
3
,
Mikey Doling, Marcello Dias, and
Roy Mayorga all made the decision to leave the band and together they departed from Soulfly, leaving Cavalera as the lone remaining core member for a period of three weeks.
Prophecy
Cavalera recruited a new lineup in October 2003 for the recording of Soulfly's
Prophecy
album. Joe Nunez was back behind the drumkit with New Jersey native
Marc Rizzo, formerly of
Ill Niño, on guitar and West Virginia native Bobby Burns, formerly of
Primer 55, on bass.
David Ellefson, a former member of
Megadeth, also contributed several tracks on bass to the album.
Max Cavalera explains on the band's website that he wants to use different musicians as part of the group for each album. "This is an approach that I've wanted to do for a while. I never wanted Soulfly to be a band like
Metallica, with the same four guys. On every Soulfly album, we've changed the line up and it will probably continue that way. In order to do that, I had to start from the inside out and bring in people who caught my attention, that I had never played with before, and create this."
While a member of
Sepultura, Cavalera had shown an interest in
world music as shown in
Roots
, featuring elements of the music of
Brazil's indigenous peoples. This approach continued on the
Prophecy
album, with Cavalera traveling to
Serbia to record with traditional musicians. On the track "Moses", he works with Serbian band
Eyesburn, which also features reggae influences from one of his heroes,
Bob Marley. Other tracks on the album feature instruments from the Middle Ages, sheepskin bagpipes, and Serbian Gypsies. Danny Marianino and Asha Rabouin returned as guest vocalists on
Prophecy
, as well, and Max Cavalera produced the album.
Prophecy
was released on March 30, 2004 and in April of that year had reached a peak of number 82 on the Billboard 200, although it has reached the top 50 of the Australian album charts. Soulfly followed the album release with tours supporting
Black Sabbath and
Morbid Angel.
In February 2005, Soulfly released their first
DVD, entitled
The Song Remains Insane
. This was a biography of the band, containing live footage from all over the globe, interviews, and all of the band's music videos. In August 2005,
Roadrunner Records reissued their self-titled first album as part of the label's 25th anniversary celebration.
Dark Ages
In December 2004, as recording was beginning for Soulfly's fifth studio album, the band was rocked by several tragedies that affected the outcome of the album. On December 8, Max's friend
Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott was tragically shot to death while playing in Ohio, and on December 10, Cavalera's 8 month old grandson Moses unexpectedly passed away due to health complications. The following fall, on October 4, 2005,
Dark Ages
was released. Many critics have described
Dark Ages
as a return to Cavalera's
thrash metal roots of the early
Sepultura days; however, the world metal influence found on the first four Soulfly albums is still present. In fact, this time, Cavalera traveled to five different countries —
Serbia,
Turkey,
Russia,
France, and the
United States — in order to record all the sounds that he desired to have on the new album.
The core band on
Dark Ages
still consisted of
Max Cavalera,
Marc Rizzo, Joe Nunez, and Bobby Burns, and on this album,
Dave Ellefson came back to lend his talents to a couple of tracks,
Eyesburn vocalist Coyote sang on "Innerspirit",
Stormtroopers Of Death vocalist
Billy Milano and Russian singer Paul Fillipenko of FAQ screamed on the
hardcore influenced "
Molotov", and Max's stepson, Ritchie Cavalera from Phoenix-based band Incite, sang on "Stay Strong". Soulfly supported
Dark Ages
on a world tour with various bands such as
Deftones,
Korn,
Throwdown, and
Skindred that has stretched through North America, South America, Europe, Russia, and Australia.
On August 17, 2006, Soulfly played the 10th Annual D-Low Memorial show with several guest artists including Danny Marianino of North Side Kings, Ritchie Cavalera of Incite,
Dave Ellefson, and their former longtime drummer
Roy Mayorga who currently plays with
Stone Sour. Most notably, Max was reunited onstage for the first time in 10 years with his brother
Igor Cavalera. Max and Igor formed
Sepultura together in the early 1980s, but had not played together since Max's departure in 1996. Igor joined the band mid-way through the set for a jam on the drums and stayed onstage to play the
Sepultura classics "Roots Bloody Roots" and "Attitude" on Joe Nunez's drum kit.
In the time between legs of Soulfly's world tour for
Dark Ages
and afterwards, members of Soulfly stayed extremely busy by focusing on projects and activities outside of the band. Max Cavalera guested on the
Apocalyptica single "Repressed" with
Bullet For My Valentine vocalist
Matt Tuck during a visit to
Germany, went to
Russia in January 2007 to guest on the album
Circus Dogs
by Russian hardcore band FAQ, played a surprise jam session in
Serbia with
Dan Lilker of
Brutal Truth and
S.O.D., and spent time in
Arizona writing for future releases. Marc Rizzo spent the year on the road throughout
North America playing his solo flamenco-meets-shred metal, gaining him further recognition as one of the world's premier metal guitarists. Earlier in 2005 Marc had released his debut solo album,
Colossal Myopia
, through
Shrapnel Records, and in 2007 he prepared his follow-up,
The Ultimate Devotion
, which has now been released. Bobby Burns purchased a studio in
Orlando,
FL with his partner Tim Lau, revived his former band Primer 55, and worked on new releases for his Love Said No and King Street projects. In September of 2006 Bobby suffered a mild stroke, was forced to sit out of Soulfly's
North American tour, and his spot in the band was briefly filled by
Dave Ellefson and
Danny Lilker. Joe Nunez worked on the development of several drum accessories with Slug Drums, and taught drum lessons and worked construction in
Chicago.
Soulfly ventured to Undercity Recording Studios in March 2007 to record a cover of the
Marilyn Manson single "
The Beautiful People" with Logan Mader producing. The song was later released in June 2007 by
Kerrang!
magazine in issue 1164 as part of their
Higher Voltage
compilation. During time in the studio, Max Cavalera also recorded vocals for the song "War Is My Destiny" with
Ill Bill and
Immortal Technique for Ill Bill's second studio album,
The Hour of Reprisal
, expected to be released on
August 26,
2008.
Cavalera Conspiracy
Prior to Soulfly's short
South American tour in April 2007, Cavalera announced he would like to make one of his new demo recordings available to his hardcore fans in an effort to show them how he goes through his creative process. On May 1, 2007, Max Cavalera premiered a new 4-track demo entitled "Inflikted (After The Slaughter)", which was presumed to be from Soulfly's upcoming new album, for download through the band's official
MySpace site. Later in the year it was revealed that the demo would instead be used for an album which he was busy writing with his brother, former
Sepultura drummer
Igor Cavalera.
In early June, it was revealed by
Sirius Radio that Max and Igor had begun work on their project which would later come to be known as
Cavalera Conspiracy. In early July 2007, Max and Igor Cavalera went to Undercity Studios in California with Marc Rizzo and Joe Duplantier from French death metal band
Gojira to record Cavalera Conspiracy's first music. Their album,
Inflikted
was produced by Max Cavalera and engineered by Dirty Icon (featuring former Soulfly guitarist
Logan Mader) and was mixed in late 2007 at Undercity. It features a guest appearance by bassist Rex Brown of
Pantera and
Down on the song "Ultra-Violent". Cavalera Conspiracy's album
Inflikted
was released on March 25, 2008 by
Roadrunner Records. Cavalera Conspiracy will tour in support of the album in the 2008, with dates being scheduled throughout Europe, North America, and Australia thus far.
Conquer
In August 2007, Soulfly did a tour that consisted of a mixture of festival and club shows through Europe before playing the 11th Annual D-Low Memorial Show in
Tempe,
AZ on August 31, 2007.
Cavalera Conspiracy also made their debut live performance at the show by opening for Soulfly. One week after performing the show, Soulfly went to Bobby Burns and Tim Laud's newly renovated Porch Studio in
Orlando,
FL to begin work on Soulfly's sixth studio album, which Cavalera had begun writing during the summer. After working halfway through recording until September 29, Cavalera halted the session to travel throughout
Egypt to record more sounds to integrate into the new songs. In November 2007, Cavalera returned to Orlando to complete tracking and the album is scheduled to be mixed by
Andy Sneap in early 2008. It has been revealed that the album features guest appearances by
Dave Peters from
Throwdown and
David Vincent from
Morbid Angel. A late summer 2008 release date has been announced, with Cavalera and Rizzo expected to focus on their
Cavalera Conspiracy band in early 2008.
In a recent interview regarding the follow up to
Dark Ages
, Max had this to say about the new album,
When asked about the new album Max Cavalera told www.thegauntlet.com,
The sixth Soulfly album is entitled
Conquer, and was released on
July 29 2008.
Forthcoming untitled seventh studio album
Bassist Bobby Burns stated in a thread on the official Soulfly forum on Feb 27, 2009: "we'll more than likely record a new record sometime towards the end of the year (2009) but it wont hit the streets until next year (2010)".
[5]
Band members
Current members
- Max Cavalera - vocals, guitar (1997-present) (also in Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura, ex-Nailbomb)
- Marc Rizzo - guitar (2003-present) (also in Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Ill Niño)
- Bobby Burns - bass guitar (2003-present) (also in Primer 55)
- Joe Nunez - drums (2000-2001, 2003-present) (also in Painface)
Former members
- Jackson Bandeira (Lúcio Maia) - guitar (1997-1998) (currently in Nação Zumbi)
- Logan Mader - guitar (1998-1999) (currently producing as part of Dirty Icon, ex-Machine Head, ex-Medication)
- Roy Mayorga - drums (1997-1999, 2002-2003) (currently in Stone Sour and Amebix, ex-Nausea, ex-Medication, ex-Shelter, ex-Crisis, ex-Thorn)
- Marcello D. Rapp (Marcello Dias) - bass guitar (1997-2003) (currently in Dead Heart Saints, ex-Abloom, ex-The Mist)
- Mikey Doling - guitar (1999-2003) (currently in Snot, ex-Invitro, ex-Abloom)
Discography
- 1998: Soulfly
- 2000: Primitive
- 2002: ?
- 2004: Prophecy
- 2005: Dark Ages
- 2008: Conquer
- 2010: TBD
In pop culture
Australian cricketer
Mitchell Johnson has a tattoo across his back inspired by his favourite heavy metal band, Soulfly.
References
- Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
- GOLD AND PLATINUM - Searchable Database
- Soulfly > Biography
- Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
- 7th album in 2009 -