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Artist: Soulfly
Title: Omen
Genre: Thrash Metal
Release Date: 21st May 2010
Label: Roadrunner Records



Album Review

So Max Cavalera and his guys have unleashed their new SOULFLY, titled ‘Omen’. After listening to the last CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, I had high hopes and took that album as a good omen for things to come - unfortunately, ‘Omen’ isn't all killer, but also a lot of filler. To make things worse, it also sounds a bit uninspired. That is not to say the album is bad - it is a good album, but it is also a bit pale compared with Max Cavalera’s other offerings.

There are no tribal or world music influences on this album whatsoever - except from the sitar sound on track 2, ‘Rise of the Fallen’, and the outro, ‘Soulfly VII’. It’s just in your face thrash metal, some good songs, some a bit boring. It is also probably the reason why this album is a bit irritating, as it doesn’t have any 90ies SEPULTURA vibe to it. Favourite tracks are ‘Mega-Doom’, ‘Kingdom’, ‘Jeffrey Dahmer’ and ‘Lethal Injection’ (yes, the serial killer who enjoyed drilling holes in the heads of his victims to turn them into sex slaves).

Some moments are blissful, the Death-like guitar work on opener ‘Bloodbath & Beyond’ turns the song from a three-chord romp to a nice mosh tracks, the other tracks mentioned have good sing-along and head-bob value. ‘Off With Their Heads’ is a good up-tempo, ‘Lethal Injection’ also has nice lead guitar work, a track which also works well with the guest vocals of PRONG’s Tommy Victor. Victor’s vocals stand in total contrast to those of DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s Greg Puciato, whose performance just doesn’t cut it on ‘Rise of the Fallen’ and simply sound rather awkward in SOULFLY’s musical setting.

All in all, a good album, with a few good tracks, yet it doesn’t stand out as a whole and it lacks a certain feeling which normally adds a touch of “magic” to Max Cavalera’s output. ‘Omen’ is recommended to SOULFLY fans. However, the CAVALERA CONSPIRACY album ‘Inflikted’ beats this offering by a mile, as does SOULFLY’s 2004 offering ‘Prophecy’ - if you already don’t have those albums, try those instead. If you however like straight-forward thrash brought to the point in three-and-a-half-minute songs, this will be something for you.


Tracklist

01. Bloodbath & Beyond
02. Rise of the Fallen
03. Great Depression
04. Lethal Injection
05. Kingdom
06. Jeffrey Dahmer
07. Off With Their Heads
08. Vulture Culture
09. Mega-Doom
10. Counter Sabotage
11. Soulfly VII


Line-up

Max Cavalera – Vocals, guitar
Marc Rizzo – Guitar
Bobby Burns – Bass
Joe Nunez – Drums

Guests:
Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Esc Plan) – Vocals on ‘Rise of the Fallen’
Tommy Victor (Prong) – Vocals on ‘Lethal Injection’


Website

http://www.soulflyweb.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/soulfly


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 7
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7 / 10


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