In a semi recent interview Max said that Marc was trying to get him to write a more Old-School Metal record which totally got me pumped up because I figured it would be a more Sepultura-esque release. Let's dig a little deeper to figure out what I found. Forward march!!!
No introduction is really necessary but I will give a short one. Soulfly started out in 1998 at which time they had Roy Maygora on drums, Logan Mader (ex-Machine Head) on guitar and Marcello Rapp on bass. They toured quite a bit and made Soulfly and then Logan wasn't working out, so Mikey Doling (ex-Snot) was brought in. Maygora left to join Ozzy's solo band. Primitive (2000) was then recorded and touring of course ensued with Joe Nunez on drums. Shortly there after Joe left and then Roy returned. The band then recorded 3 (2002) and toured with Slayer. The entire band decided to leave Max or were fired; can't figure out which. Then the current lineup comes in and ever since they have recorded 2 albums including the present one.
The first song on the album, not including the intro, is Babylon, definitely a good track to start with. This track sounds much more like classic Soulfly than the rest of the album. It just has that vibe of making you want to Jump The Fuck Up (hehehe). For the most part the rest of the album is kind of experimental, so to speak, for Soulfly but not for Max because they have gone a slightly different way with this one. The change of pace was supposed to be taking it back to a more Sepultura styled Metal, which I can obviously hear but I just think it sounds like only an average later day Sepultura album. I am a pretty big fan of Sepultura except for their straight Death/Thrash Metal albums Bestial Devastation'' (1984), Morbid Visions (1985) and Schizophrenia (1987). Granted those releases are satisfactory but I am just not a huge or even an average Death Metal fan.
One major complaint I have is the lack of the tribal influence, which is one of the highlights of the previous Soulfly releases. However, when I first looked at the track listing I saw a song titled Innerspirit and I knew right away that this song would have all kinds of tribal music in it before even hearing one track off the album. Innerspirit is obviously one of the highlights of the album for me. The track though is not all tribal drums and whatnot; there is still the heaviness that is normally present in Soulfly. Soulfly V, the album's ender, is easily my favorite instrumental track that Soulfly has ever done. It's truly outstanding and beautiful. The track is so harmonious that it just takes you away and totally relaxes you.
Another slight complaint is that there is more industrial work done on this album. For instance on the song Riotstarter it has a siren and a drum machine. It's not awful, it's just not my style.
Back to the heavier side though, Arise Again is another one of my favorites. I assume that with the idea of making this album more along the lines of a Sepultura album that song is a reference somewhat to Sepultura's Arise (1991). The song has everything that a Soulfly song should have as far as the heavy side of them, the chanting chorus to make you pump your fist and scream and the nice complement of the verses to give your lungs and voice a little bit of a break.
Dark Ages is a good Soulfly album though it has less tribal drums, which is the only major downfall. I think that it is possible that the album also got over hyped because I was hoping for a breath-taking release. Any fans of Soulfly and some fans of Sepultura should pick this one up, but for those of you that were hoping for a trip back to the Arise days, it's just not quite there.