From the ashes of Sepultura rises the phoenix Soulfly, the new quartet led by singer-guitarist Max Cavalera. The band's debut release on Roadrunner is filled with all the humid anger and heated fury that comes from the band's Brazilian roots, from the land, as Max calls it, of "Carnival and murder." Cavalera is a teacher as well as a clever musician. He gives Portuguese lessons in raucous rave-ups like "Bumba" (or "big noise") and "Umbabarauma" (Who cares what it means? You'll sing along to the call-and-response chorus anyway). He teaches us about a Brazilian hero -- the 15-century slave leader Zumbi, who freed thousands of refugees from slave camps -- in "Quilombo." But the main thing Max gives listeners is a greater understanding of the music of his homeland. The "world metal" he pioneered in Sepultura gets expanded upon and reinvented to an even greater degree here. Tribal grooves mesh and entwine with traditional metal rhythms, and innovative guitar riffs couple with bits of sampling to create an effortless, seamless whole. The bits of Indian chanting and primitive percussion breakouts are there because somehow they have to be. The music insists that they be. He's thrown down the gauntlet to his ex-Sepultura bandmates in fine style -- it'll be interesting to see how they'll meet the challenge.
