Soulfly – Enslaved

Alright this one I’ll make it quick as this record is lacking of force, dynamics, rage and frontal assault anything you can call (seriously if it was an other band we won’t even be talking about it!). Forget “Enslaved is the most violent thing I made since Arise” or I don’t listen to the same Arise…

Let’s start with the new drummer, too modern death, without any natural or synthetic samba. The bass drum has lack of frankness and with Dave Kinkade we have a series of blast-beats to masque the obvious lack of creativity! The drum section is the less passionate thing in the long hour this record last.

Marc Rizzo must be aware of the decline of Max Cavalera a he doesn’t even make a try in the solos, less impressive than the past even if he is still present. From the leads to the solos and the melodies he is making a minimum without even trying. A blend of thrash wrongly death, wrongly dark and uninspired without any personality and totally generic.
AndHere comes Max, who use and abuse reverb and other modulated effects in his voice in o more extreme tone. He is getting old you see. Vocally it may be be a little better than Omen but without force and impact! And it’s always the same…

Yes ok you’ll say that the music staff is good as a whole, that the soultribe is still present and that the music of Soulfly is inhabited by a spirit but no I’m bored in the major part of the record. And the usual guests that save the day to be Travis Ryan from Cattle Decapitation in “World Scum” without something special who mostly duplicates Max’s voice than giving something really. Not even Dez Fafara who even with a good interpretation he is present in “Redemption Of man By God” a track drowned in mud.

In general the whole record is mediocre, with badly Swedish riff from “Gladiator” to “Revengeance”. He also auto recycle having passed in the bonus track “Slave” a Quilimbo couplet already present in Soulfly (great inspiration…). To end in a total negativity the rhythmic has no personality and no colour… Nothing to see here. At his worse is mud soup, at his better he bites his tongue.