Single Slam – Ritual by Soulfly (Ritual)

Soulfly have released the second single from their upcoming 11th studio album, Ritual. This time we get the title track, Ritual, of the album due out on the 19th of October via Nuclear Blast.

Soulfly are by far Max Cavalera’s longest running band with 10 albums out so far and an 11th coming very soon. In comparison he only actually has 6 releases to his name with Sepultura and 4 with Cavalera Conspiracy. His two other main focuses. We have already had a very decent first glance at the new album, Ritual, with the single Evil Empowered. You can read our thoughts on that here.

Ritual, the album, will be the first Soulfly album in 3 years, following 2015’s Archangel. You can read our thoughts on that here. Soulfly formed way back in 1997 though only Max remains in the band from those early days. Joining him is his son, on drums, Zyon Cavalera. On guitars is Marc Rizzo and on bass is Mike Leon.

Ritual is just short of 5 minutes long and sees a bit more of the tribal side of Soulfly than on Evil Empowered which felt a little more like a Cavalera Conspiracy track. A little tribal chant starts the track off before it is overpowered by squealing guitars. The instruments join in one by one giving a nice layered start. The tribal chant is joined by a simple tribal drum beat. They are joined by the squealing guitars who are then joined by a chunky riff from the bass and rhythm guitar. Max then come sin a few seconds later with his familiar shout before finally the drums join in and the song is underway properly.

Ritual doesn’t stray very far away from the familiar. You could even say it is predictable. To be fair though, this is Max, and we all know what to expect by now. Gruff, shouted vocals lead the song. The guitars and bass pound out a groove leaden, thick sound that is sure to get pits bouncing and the drums are fantastic. They mix from a slower, thunderous groove to faster blasts to tribal rhythms fluidly. The chorus to Ritual is the best part of the song. The tribal chant from the intro is roared out with venom from the charismatic front man. Coupled with the heavy instruments it brings back flashes of the early Sepultura track, Ratamahatta. There are some interesting guitar lines and a decent solo. It all adds up to sounding predictable, yes, but good.

It is very fair to say that when a Max Cavalera’s band releases a song, you pretty much no what you are going to get and Ritual is no different. Don’t expect a sudden change of direction from a man who has been doing this for decades. There is no rap, no symphony, no dub step, no gimmick. It is just Max being Max, releasing a very decent song, this time under the Soulfly name.

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Ritual is available for streaming at all the usual platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. Preorders for the new album, also called Ritual, are available from Nuclear Blast here. Keep up to date with news from Soulfly at their website, Twitter and on Facebook.