Soulfly are cool fuckers, there’s no disputing that and their set ain’t half bad with grinding renditions of 'Roots', 'Eye for an Eye' and an amazing cover of Nirvana’s 'Territorial Pissings'; which to be quite honest is one of the best things I’ve seen in long a while. It’s good. Very good. Maybe it’s just that now I can see those incredible chains are probably made from plastic and coated with some aged metallic paint. Maybe now Soulfly don’t seem so C.R.A.Z.Y after having seen so many bands do this same type of thing.
He’s the man though, I keep telling myself. Max Cavalera. Looking around the stage I can see the world’s largest drum kit with sets and sets of cymbals ::everywhere:: and the beats are pretty mental. As for bass and guitar the duo sound fully righteous; pounding, soaring, metal, fuzzing rock. S.N.O.T stickers plaster Mickey Doling’s mighty guitar, reminding me that Soulfly is a breed apart from other bands; a superband if you will, filled through the years by either careerists or flakers (depending on how you see it) from Machinehead, Sepultura, Nailbomb, The Mist and Thorn whilst Chino Moreno, Burton C. Bell, Fred Durst and DJ Lethal have all collaborated with Cavalera at one point or another in the past.
::It all goes silent:: Roy Mayorga stays put, centre stage, maintaining what could be mistaken for a drug induced pulsating migraine ::Fuck migraines:: as drum solos and cymbal tricks flood out of him, slowly each member of the mighty Soulfly return to the stage, their stage - each carrying a different sort of tribal drum - each pounding in perfect rhythm - Soulfly are playing a whole song simply through the medium of drums and this, my friends, is incredible! What other metal bands could switch mid-gig into a rhythmical frenzy of drum based musical monotony?!! This is not dull aggro-rock. This is not angst or violence. This is pushing the boundaries of metal. It took me time to get over the ridiculous set design but more importantly – it’ll take me far longer to get over the magnificence of Soulfly.
Soulfly - Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH)
And what about the fact the band played roughly two Soulfly songs and littered the rest of the set with sepultura, nailbomb and other covers! I remember Paul from Medulla Nocte telling me about their tour with soulfly a few years back and how much they completely despised the guy afterwards - maybe the fact there were different AAA passes - a special one for Soulfly and their crew and then different ones for the support bands, so they couldn't actually interact with them!
Bah!
Re: Soulfly - Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH)
I agree they are money grabbin bastards tho.. Stampin ground were complaining cos Soulfly wud only let them sell SG tshirts for a higher price than soulfly ones. Soulfly did come out and talk to the fans after the show tho.. and they spent a good 5 minutes shaking peoples hands before they left the stage..
As for different types of pass I dont really know.. when i went to say hi to Stampin ground after the gig they were all sitting drinkin together and soulfly seemed really interested and grateful to know what i thought.. altho Max himself was nowhere to be seen... So don't blame soulfly collectively - but if u'd like point all the blame towards max?!!!