Soulfly: The Globe
Less than 24 hours after the classic rock fest of Saturday at Steelhouse had warmed us on the mountains of Aberbeeg, I found myself with some of the MoM posse at The Globe for sweatfest 2015; yep, the arrival of Max Cavalera and La Familia to the ‘Diff for 85 minutes of absolute brutality. The Globe was sold out and if you've ever been there when it is sold out you’ll know that it is nose to nipple. Well, tonight, most of the nipples had substantial amounts of male hairiness surrounding them as the best part of 300 sweaty, heaving blokes smashed into each other.
Arriving on stage bang on time, the legendary frontman of Sepultura and all round metal legend Max Cavalera and his troops of doom immediately launched into the pulverising Frontlines; cue mayhem on the floor. “I don’t give a fuck” indeed. Max has been in the game a long time and in Soulfly he has honed and developed one of the most aggressive, punk edged metal bands on the circuit. There is absolutely no respite; huge riffs, demonic powerhouse drumming (courtesy of one Zyan Cavalera who nailed everything) and an all-out 100mph attack. The only respite of the night came from the short “Soulfly tribe” shout outs and the tribal edge of Umbabarauma from Soulfly. Either side of this it was just a smorgasbord of noise, with the tracks coming hard and fast from the full Soulfly back catalogue. Fire, Downstroy, Blood Fire War Hate and the immense Prophecy which predictably prompted Ant to lose his shit and spend the rest of the evening directing traffic in the middle of the pit, much to the amusement of the crew on the balcony.
As I've said, Soulfly don't fuck around one bit and the Welsh Soulfly tribe knew what to expect. When Blood Fire War Hate hammered home, you either get on it or get out of the way. We even got a new track from the forthcoming Archangel, the ludicrous We Sold Our Souls To Metal which unsurprisingly sounded as hard, fast and heavy as any other Soulfly track. Of course, with Max, you always get a couple of classic Sepultura tracks thrown into the mix. Refuse/Resist almost moved the building into the middle of Albany Road such was the reaction and the slamming of body into body was quite astonishing. In fact, I've struggled to think of another gig at The Globe which incited such a consistent pit. Max has always known his limits on the guitar, content to hit out riff after riff in the quest to provide concrete weighted rhythm whilst allowing long time lead guitarist Marc Rizzo to hit the shredding. On the other side of the stage, Igor Jr worked tirelessly with his brother to maintain the backbone of the band with powerhouse bass work.
Closing with a monstrous Roots, Soulfly returned for the absolute killer finish of Primitive and Eye For An Eye which I think had the staircase shifting sideways. I've never seen so many people jumping up and down in the balcony and at one point you really questioned if the most recent safety check had included a load bearing assessment. A final blast of Creeping Death and off they went, leaving a heaving, sweaty mass of totally bruised and damaged metal heads incredibly satisfied. If you don’t like your metal with the aggression of punk and hard core then Soulfly won’t float your boat one bit. However, when Max Cavalera makes the effort to come to your back yard, homage has to be paid and Soulfly never disappoint because they do (to coin a phrase) ‘exactly what it says on the tin’. Brutal but damn fine entertainment. 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment