By Kelley Simms
SOULFLY VALENTINE
I
t's been two-plus decades since Brazilian
groove metal band Soulfly debuted their
polarizing self-titled album, and the band
recently unleashed their 11th album, Ritual.
The fearless foursome now features Max
Cavalera (vocals, guitar, sitar), Marc Rizzo
(lead guitar), Zyon Cavalera (drums) and
Mike Leon (bass), which proves to be
Soulfly’s best lineup to date. Currently, on
the North American leg of the *Ritual* tour,
Soulfly, along with Kataklysm, Incite,
Alukah, Central Discover and Architects of
Ruin, will take the stage at The Forge in Joliet
on Feb. 14 for a Valentine’s Day metal mas-
sacre. Frontman Max Cavalera spoke with
Mosh: How would you spend Valentine’s
Day with your wife Gloria if you were at
home? Are you a romantic dude?
M.C.: Not that much. I’m kind of more
rugged, but Gloria kind of knows that. We’ll
be together because we tour together, and
we’ll probably just go out for some Chicago
(style) pizza together. That’d be a good date!
Souflfly
Photo: Char Tupper
Kelley Simms about how Soulfly pushed the
envelope of new musical boundaries on
Ritual.
Mosh: Soulfly is playing The Forge on
Valentine’s Day. What do you like most
about playing in Chicago?
Max Cavalera: I didn’t even realize (it was
Valentine’s Day), that’s cool. We’re really
excited because we just released the record
and we haven’t toured for that yet. So it’ll be
the first tour promoting Ritual, and we’re try-
ing to play a lot of stuff from the new album.
I’ve always loved Chicago. We’ve always
had great shows there - going all the way
back to the Sepultura days - [and] the whole
34 illinoisentertainer.com february 2019
Soulfly career. It’s an awesome kick-ass
crowd; they love their metal. Chicago is
famous for me for being a real metal city and
I love playing there.
Mosh: This tour is like a big family reunion
for you. Your son, Ritchie, sings with Incite,
and your other son, Zyon, is Soulfly’s drum-
mer. But I sense that there wasn’t any nepo-
tism and they both had to prove themselves
to get to this point.
M.C.: They work extremely hard for what
they get. Ritchie goes out every night and
tries his best. He’s been trying really hard
with Incite through the years, and he’s just
getting better and better. With Zyon, as far as
drumming, this is my favorite record we
ever did. The drumming is excellent on it.
He’s come a long way. I’m so glad that we
got to have this metal family because it’s
authentic and not fake or produced. It was
born this way; we just turned out like a metal
family. I wouldn’t say that it wasn’t planned
because I always wanted that to happen. But
I never knew it was going to happen like
that. But I’m really happy that [my kids]
actually turned out to be fans of metal. It’s a
lot of fun. I share the stage with Zyon every
night. I don’t take anything for granted, so
every moment on that stage I try to cherish
and enjoy it as much as I can.
Mosh: To me, Ritual sounds even more tribal
and ritualistic than any other Soulfly
release.
M.C.: We were celebrating 20 years of the
first album, and we thought it’d be cool if we
could make an album that’s really a true face
of Soulfly - if it had all the Soulfly sounds
that we love. And we came up with Ritual. It
has everything great about the metal I play. I
was joking when I was making it, and I was
calling it "tribal death/thrash." But it’s not
too far from that because it’s a tribal sound
incorporated with death metal and thrash
metal, which I love. It’s all those things
together. And the groove, the Soulfly groove
on top of it. The final result, and working
with Josh (Wilbur) was also great because he
came in as a fan, but he’s this big producer
who’s done all these great Lamb of God
records. So, it was like working with a sea-
soned pro. The album came out the way it
was supposed to.
Mosh: Briefly discuss the contributions from
Zyon, Marc Rizzo and Mike Leon. This ver-
sion of Soulfly is on fire!
M.C.: They’re really good musicians. Rizzo is
phenomenal, man. He always surprises me
with the crazy guitar things that he does.
He’s a shredder, and I know that, and I love
the shredding. But I really love it when he
does the weird sounds, crazy melodies and
the melodic parts he puts on every song. He
has a different ear than mine and picks up on
different vibrations and translates so cool
with my riffs that it just adds color to it, like
a painting. Then Mike is great. He’s a new
guy, but he comes from this new wave of
thrash metal that involves stuff like Toxic
Holocaust and Municipal Waste and of
course he was in Havok. He brings that ener-
gy and the spirit. It’s a great combination of
people. You never know what’s going to
work or not. But this reincarnation of Soulfly
works, the four of us together. You put us on
stage together, and it’s like you say, “on fire.”
Continued
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