It's been three years since the last SOULFLY album. During those years, Max and Marc released, alongwith Igor Cavalera, the debut album of CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. Let's see is SOULFLY's new album Conquer worth the waiting?

Who doesn't know Max Cavalera and what he achieved with his former band, SEPULTURA? Who can forget how sad we all were, when he left the band and formed SOULFLY? The first steps of the band were made back in 1997. Max is the only one from the original lineup. Conquer is their sixth album. Recorded at Porch Studio. Just halfway  the recordings, Max made a trip to Egypt, in order to record more sounds to integrate into the new songs. After three months, he returned to Orlando, to finish the new album.

I know that you probably skipped the previous paragraph, since we are here to review the album and not for history lessons! So on I go. The album's open track is not a mid-tempo one, like the one we were used to listen from this band as a “starter. Blood Fire War Hate is exactly what the title means, an aggressive track that put the listener in thrash-mode from the beginning. In this track, Mark Vincent from MORBID ANGEL is doing some additional vocals. The second guest appearance is from Dave Peters (THROWDOWN) in the second track of the album, and first single, Unleash. A typical, thrashy SOULFLY song that will make many heads to move up and down. I won't go through all the songs of the album separately. There is no point to that. In this album you will find everything you liked in their previous albums. Nice heavy riffs, combined with folk melodies, from Egypt this time. For example, the outro of For Those About To Rot is from a gypsy band that Max found, playing near the Nile.

If you liked the previous albums, you'll like this one too. Having some really good riffs, well some of them reminded me of CAVALERA CONSPIRACY but this is inevitable, and nice Middle Eastern sounds, Conquer will stay at your cd player for quite a while. I did distinguish some songs, like Unleash “Blood Fire War Hate and  Touching The Void, a song that is an ode to BLACK SABBATH with a really heavy doom riff in the beginning. SOULFLY are ready to Conquer your cd player. Don't resist, just join them in the war.