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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Energy in the purest form," indeed, March 5, 2005
"Energy in the purest form" isn't only a line shouted by Tom Araya in "Terrorist", it's also the perfect way to describe this album. "Primitive" is nothing short of sheer grade-A energy and excitement. Full to the brim with roaring riffs, energetic vocals and bouncy drums. After the opening acoustic guitar of the opening track, Max and Co. push the pedal to the metal and don't let up until track six.
In a lot of ways, "Primitive" picks up where Soulfly's debut left off (with its hard hitting songs, four chord guitars and tribal drums), but this album also encorporates a few new elements into Soulfly's wall of sound: keyboards, samples, and a slew of guest vocalists (Chino Moreno of the Deftones guests on "Pain", John Lennon's son Sean Lennon contributes vocals and keyboards to "Son Song", Corey Taylor of Slipknot shows up on "JumpDaF**kUp" and Slayer's Tom Araya helps out on "Terrorist".) If you think it's clever of Max to blend these things into death metal, you haven't seen anything yet (check out Soulfly's latest album "Prophecy.")
Highlights include:
Chino begins his cameo on "Pain" with a spittle-flecked rap, but, as the song progresses, he really lets loose. He and Max trade off yelling "You can't mask. Pain! My pain! Our pain!"
"Bring It" begins as an unrelenting monster of a song, but midway through an almost reggae interlude intervines. Don't fear, though, because all of the heaviness comes back after the interlude.
"Jumpdaf*ckup" is probably a personal favorite. If there was ever a song that was made for the mosh, this is it. Corey Taylor croons gently throughout most of the song, until he erupts for the chorus.
"Boom"'s chorus ("Whachu got, whachuwachu got, whachu got, boom!") will be stuck in your head all day long.
"Terrorist" has shredding vocals by the aforementioned Tom Araya. But his voice sounds like Slayer circa 2001, not 1986 (he is not yelling so fast, here, that you can't make out the words.)
The only two songs I could have done without are "Soulfly 2" and "In Memory of...". "Soulfly 2" is a six minute instrumental and, while it is nice to have an oasis after such hard hitting metal, this one is no where near as creative or pretty as "Soulfly 3" or "4." And "In Memory of..." has an almost hip-hop beat for a couple of guest singers (one of whom sounds like Fred Durst at one point) to rap over. This song has it's heavy points, but the rap just doesn't work, here.
Some skeptics say gathering a bunch of guest vocalists is a move a nu-metal band would make. I don't disagree with this statement, but "Primitive" is much more (and much more heavy) than a typical nu-metal album. I'd call it "tribal beat metal", "nu-death metal" or even "artsy metal".
To conclude, if you're looking for a fun, aggressive listen that gets your blood pumping, look no further than "Primitive".
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Woah, August 7, 2004
I am a lifelong fan of Max. I love and live by the first Soulfly album. When this came out, I was floored. Don't get me wrong, I do like this record. The thing is it seems more like a collection of b-sides and duets than a Soulfly album to me. There are some strong tracks, such as Bring It, The Prophet, and Back to the Primative, but there is a lot of pure filler here. The guest spots went way overboard. The troubling thing is the collaborations I most looked forward to turned out to be among the worst in Soulfly history. Most notably of these would have to be Tom Araya on Terrorist and Corey Taylor on JDFU. Son Song is nauseating waste of time to say the least. If you are a die hard fan, this disc may be hard to swallow, but you may be like me and feel incomplete without it in your collection, dispite it's flaws. If you are new to Soulfly, do not start here.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sit back, strap in and let the music blow you away !, October 26, 2000
The revolution continues ! This second album proves (at least to me) that Max picked up from where Sepultura finished up and carried on with the most impressive heavy metal revolution in years. If you enjoyed their first album, you'll love this one. If this is your first SoulFly album, please proceed to open your mind before listening to it, this is something radically different from what you might be used to. There's a masterful mix of latin and tribal backgrounds with fast, "take no prisioners" heavy metal and even some rap. Portuguese mix with English in a way that leaves you wishing you spoke both languages fluidly enough to sing along. As it is seems to be the norm with late Sepultura / Soulfy, there's an all instrumental track that provides a well deserved rest to your ears just before the frontal assault continues. In short, Max keeps improving upon his previous masterpiece and proves once and for all that he's one of the premier heavy metal musicians of this new century.
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