But the thing is, because I’m a nostalgic poser, I really only revisit those first 3/4 albums. I cannot tell you a single goddamn thing or recall a single song from those latter, recent albums. I sort of know they dropped the tribal/nu metal/ jumpdafuckup elements (go back to my poser comment) in favor of more harsh straight-up thrash/death metal. Then, with more recent efforts like Ritual and their last album Totem (which I have neither heard nor do I own), they started bringing back a little of the band’s early elements.

So, I’m sort of coming at Chama almost as a new experience, and with expectations this won’t be Soulfly or Primitive, but I wanted to see what Soulfly (now just a duo of Max and his son) were up to these days. Especially now, since everyone is friends and has made up since his split with Sepultura.

Well, the answer is yes- as on Ritual and Totem, they are back to mixing their traditional tribal sounds with the Machine Head meets Arise era Sepultura grooving thrash, if the mix is certainly less tribal than the first 3 efforts.

At 32 minutes, Chama is short, and 2 of the songs are the tribal intro “Indigenous Inquisition” and the now requisite instrumental in the continuous “Soulfly” chapters (which I always skip), which take up 5 minutes or so. But those 28 remaining minutes are effective as fuck, and might be the best thing Max has done in the last twenty years or so under the Soulfly moniker.

First off, the production, whereas Totem went for a rawer thrash tone, it appears that Max’s son, Zyon, who handles the production here, discovered Entombed and some HM-2 pedals, as there is a distinct but subtle Stockholm buzz in the guitar tone. And this is cemented by the hefty opening intro “Indigenous Inquisition”, and “Nihilist,” which is dedicated to LG Petrov (RIP), features Tood Jones of Nails, and could have come straight from Wolverine Blues in tone and riffage. But either way, this thing sounds fucking massive throughout.

Other influences are front and center for tracks like “Storm The Gates”, which delivers a stomping jumpadafuck up number reminiscent of the band’s early stuff, “No Pain=No Power”, where Dino Cazares shows up, and the track obviously shows a heavy Fear Factory influence, and “Ghenna”, where Arch Enemy‘s Michael Amott show up in a furiously short blistering number, that shows the band’s prior direct thrash based efforts.

Then there is the massive industrial chug and lurch of “Black Hole Scum”, which has that Stockholm buzz wafting around, “Favela_Dystopia”, a feral hardcore meets beatdown number, with an ending that could be from any recent The Acacia Strain album and the moody “Always Have, Always Will Be”.

The hefty title track buttons the all too short effort up with a little of everything, I just wish there was a little more, as what’s on display here is top notch and sees Max (who sounds energized) and his son truly soaring again with Soulfly.

“Bloodshed” opens the album with a real nice groove throughout the song.  Song gets a little too long, reaching close to 7 minutes with pretty much the same bouncy groove based beat.  The ending has a definite deathcore tinge to it, the way the song breaks into a slow breakdown and remains that way until the end.  This part was actually pretty interesting.  “Cannibal Holocaust” is up next and sounds like a leftover from Enslaved-the fastest track on Savages, that stays in a pretty fast beat throughout, again it would be nice to have heard a blast beat in here, but not happening.  Max sounds really good on this, with his vocals harkening back to his death metal roots and really reaching the deeper register.  Kudos to Marc Rizzo who has some killer solos on this and the rest of the cd.  Song is simple, catchy and features a nice chorus.

The rest of the album pretty much stays in mid paced territory throughout the rest of the album.  I wanted faster songs, and was disappointed.  The musicianship of Tony Campos, on bass, is outstanding.  Playing some of the best bass I have ever heard from him-great job. Max’s son Zyon is the new drummer, he’s good, nothing too special but he is a hard hitting drummer and Max sounds great on this album.  The production from Terry Date is the best thing the band could have done.  The sound is massive and this is one of the best sounding albums of 2013.  The bonus tracks are kinda meh. “Fuck Reality” sounds like the rest of the mid paced tracks and we get another “Soulfly” instrumental, that I do actually like.

However at the end of the day I am left wondering where do Soulfly go from here?  Are they turning into a Six Feet Under where they just flood the market with their releases year after year, all sounding too similar?  The album cover of Savages, for one, is bland and lacks energy, which is how some of these songs sound.  I really thought the intensity and strong output of Enslaved was going to be continued on Savages.  However the band rather made a regression.  This is not a stab at their musicianship, because they all sound wonderful and are talented.  It’s more a mark on the songwriting, which is kind of average on this.  C’mon guys, bring back the intensity-I know you have it in you.

Over the course of his past several records with Soulfly, though, Cavalera has slowly started to change that. The nu-metal trappings of the early records (complete with large, trendy lists of guest performers) started to fall away on 2005’s Dark Ages and even moreso on 2008’s Conquer. The trend continues with the band’s latest Omen.

“Bloodbath & Beyond” gets the album kicked off with a short, raging thrash-punk riff under Cavalera’s trademark roars, but a twist about halfway through adds some depth to it as guitarist Marc Rizzo adds a soaring, melodic lead that’s a welcome break. It’s a trend that’s repeated throughout the record. Rizzo’s clean, tasteful guitar leads serve as an interesting counterpoint to the tribal brutality of the music, yet it all works together well.

There are guests on the record, but they bring a little more metal cred than some of the past guests. Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan handles about half the vocal duties on first single “Rise of the Fallen.” I’ve never been a fan of DEP, but I enjoy Puciato’s work on this track, particularly in the slower portion toward the end of the song. The play between his reedier vocals and Cavalera’s grunts is interesting. The second guest is Prong’s Tommy Victor on the groove-laden “Lethal Injection,” which plays a bit like a cross between Pantera and Sepultura.

Not every song here is a winner. “Jeffrey Dahmer” is the primary offender for me. I have reservations about songs that glorify serial killers to begin with, but particularly when the lyrics are as banal as these. Cavalera also falls back into his long-time habit of shouting the title over and over as a chorus that sometimes gets annoying on songs like “Vulture Culture” and “Counter-Sabotage,” which is a bit of a shame considering the latter has a great groove portion.

The problems, however, are easy to overlook because of the upside of the record – a collection of solid thrashers that bring Cavalera a bit closer to his roots. “Great Depression,” for example, wouldn’t strike most people as out of place on Arise. The majestic guitar riff of “Kingdom” puts the spotlight back on Rizzo, as does the top-notch guitar work on the beginning of “Mega-Doom.” It shows that Rizzo deserves at least as much credit for the success of this record as Cavalera.

As always, Cavalera and Co. also deliver up a more mellow world music piece, and here it’s “Soulfly VII,” which closes the record. The song has some Latin and reggae influence, in addition to influence from 1980s instrumental shredders like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. It really becomes another showpiece for Rizzo, and while I usually prefer my album closers to be blistering numbers that leave the listener lying dazed in the dust trail of the truck that just hit them, I do really like this piece. As with most everything Rizzo does on the record, it’s very tasteful and appealing to the guitarist in me.

Omen continues Max Cavalera’s return to what made me a fan of Sepultura, and while it’s still not quite there yet, it’s getting closer. Like Dark Ages and Conquer, Omen still has a few leftovers from the more commercial sound of Soulfly’s early days, but they’re fading and easily being overpowered by the tribal thrash that we know and love. It’s another win for Cavalera, and another win for fans.

No, Cavalera doesn’t try to reinvent the band in any way. Most of what you’ll hear here you’ve also heard on previous soulfly releases. Take for example, the second track, “Unleash,” which reintroduces the tribal sounds and rhythms. Sure, we’ve heard it before, but it’s still really good. That’s kind of what I’d say about the whole record.

One of the big differences between this record and the Cavalera Conspiracy record is in the guitar work. This record is loaded down with big, memorable guitar riffs that stand out in your memory after the record is over. The loping opening riff of “Warmageddon” and the bouncing, squealing riff of “Doom” stand out. After a nice movie soundtrack opening, “Blood, Fire, War, Hate” also gets the album started off on a good note with a nice riff.

The best tunes on this record, though take a slightly different path. Cavalera has long experimented with world music on Soulfly records. Sometimes it’s worked, sometimes it hasn’t. When it does, it’s great, as on the opening of “For Those About to Rot,” where we get an unexpected blast of almost Primus-like sound to open, a nice, chunky bass line and then world music sounds scattered throughout. The best track on the record, “Touching the Void,” however, delves back into metal history, drawing inspiration from Sabbath for the slowest, yet most interesting song. The breakdown section here is spectacular, plodding, heavy and just catchy as hell.

The record also ends on a high note with the instrumental “Soulfly VI.” I’m normally not a fan of instrumental intros and outros, and there’s nothing particularly heavy about it, but there is something strangely calming and soothing, particularly after the violence of the previous tracks. It’s a good song to chill out with.

Cavalera continues to have some lyrical challenges. Yelling “scream motherfucker” five or six times doesn’t really constitute a chorus in my book, but lyrics have never been his strong suit and after this long, it’s tough to ding him for it.

Musically, this is a solid record, perhaps one of the best in Soulfly’s catalog. Certainly it contains some of the more memorable tunes they’ve done, and it just comes off as a little tighter and more cohesive than the earlier Cavalera Conspiracy release. Perhaps that record was a little more rushed, or maybe it will take a little time for the songwriting chemistry to return after the years apart. Whatever the reason, I’m surprised to say that I actually think Conquer is the better record. Both are well worth having in your collection, though.