Soulfly

On Soulfly album eight (oh, where does the time go?), the lil' caveman that could proves that he still can, this time with the help of ex-Borknagar drummer David Kinkade behind the kit. And this is a vicious album, no doubt about it. "World Scum" (isn't that the most Max-ish song title ever?) sounds like something straight off of Chaos A.D. "Treachery" is a thrash metal workout and the crawling, sludge-y parts of the seven-minute "Chains" show the power Max and crew have when taking things low and slow. The main complaint is the same as with anything he's ever done: 53 minutes is a lot of single-minded pummelling and Max is always heavy-handed in delivery. But (and I believe I say this every Soulfly album, so something significant must be happening) this is the band's best yet, as well as the least caught up in "look at this!" eccentricities, adding up to a solid outing, one that never quite gets to death metal, even with blast beats littered throughout. Instead, it's just huge, thick, thrashed-out, aggro-dude metal, but with, like, 20-percent less neon-dread content.