SOULFLY has launched the official dwell video for “Superstition”, the primary single from the band’s twelfth album, “Totem”, which got here out final August through Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2018’s “Ritual” was recorded at Platinum Underground in Mesa, Arizona by John Aquilino and Arthur Rizk with help from John Powers. Produced by SOULFLY mainman Max Cavalera alongside Arthur Rizk (KREATOR, MUNICIPAL WASTE, CODE ORANGE),the LP boasts visitor appearances from John Powers (ETERNAL CHAMPION),Chris Ulsh (POWER TRIP),and John Tardy (OBITUARY). Rizk was additionally accountable for enjoying lead guitar on the file. The paintings for the album was created by James Bousema.

Relating to the lyrical themes lined on “Totem”, Max instructed The Bogcast: “‘Superstition’ was impressed by Superstition Mountains. I ended up doing a whole lot of studying about it and the entire Misplaced Dutchman. Lots of people died there. It is a actually mysterious, mystic place, so I sort of made the lyrics sort of linked to that, which was fairly cool. Within the precise refrain, it says, ‘Superstition is tougher than stone.’ I am referring to the mountain itself. That is a tough mountain. It has been there ceaselessly and possibly will likely be there until the tip of occasions.

“The entire file is impressed by nature,” he continued. “That is why it is referred to as ‘Totem’. I do not know in case you guys noticed the quilt, however we have got this totem pole with a bunch of various animals in it. Supposedly it is sort of like our spirit animals somewhat bit and our indicators. There’s nearly like a lion combined with a warthog and there is a goat with the horns. And there is an owl, eagle on high of it. And it is within the forest.

“So, yeah, the file was impressed by nature — the spirits in nature,” Cavalera added. “I discover that fascinating. I like that. I feel the desert could be very non secular and really mysterious. And likewise the forest. We tour quite a bit, so we go to Iceland and Norway, and all of us see these stunning forests and stuff.

“So a whole lot of the file was impressed by, I assume you’d name it the worshipping of nature, nearly as a god. Numerous natives have that perception — that nature is sort of a god that you simply worship. So I feel that turned the sort of focus level for the file. There’s positively songs that cope with completely different matters on it. There is a actually cool tune that is towards most cancers. We misplaced so many good folks [to] most cancers. I keep in mind after I was writing the file, L.G. [Petrov] from ENTOMBED handed away, and Chuck [Schuldiner] from DEATH [died 20 years ago], and likewise members of the family that succumbed to most cancers. And so I used to be, like, ‘I wanna write a tune towards most cancers’ — a ‘fuck you, most cancers’-type letter, like a letter to most cancers: ‘Fuck you. You are not gonna deliver all of us down. We’re gonna combat you.’ It is referred to as ‘Scouring The Vile’. That is one of many heaviest songs on the file. Additionally there’s one which’s sort of somewhat bit about society generally, and it is referred to as ‘Filth Upon Filth’. It’s extremely, very ‘Reign In Blood’ influenced; I used to be listening to a whole lot of ‘Reign In Blood’ after I wrote that tune. The tempo of it’s a very killer SLAYER sort of groove. There’s one tune referred to as ‘The Injury Completed’. It is about all of the deforestation. I used to be studying quite a bit concerning the Amazon, how they’re simply raping and pillaging and destroying and that is just like the lungs of the world. It is sort of as much as us a minimum of to speak about a few of these matters, so I feel it was sort of cool to present it a shot.”

In keeping with Max, “Totem” closes with a 10-minute observe referred to as “Spirit Animal”. “It is a bit like an epic sort of tune,” he stated. “It is actually impressed by outdated heavy metallic tracks, like closers of BLACK SABBATH albums that had been actually lengthy, like eight [or] 9 minutes lengthy, like ‘Heaven And Hell’-type shit. I wished to write down one thing like that. So it is obtained a whole lot of components — tons of riffs. It is a riff fest. [Laughs] And it is nice, ‘trigger it is also obtained… Richie from INCITE sings on it, my [step]son. And we have got Chris from POWER TRIP doing the solos on it. He is additionally in MAMMOTH GRINDER. He is an important musician. So he did the solos on ‘Spirit Animal’, and it got here out sick.”

In a separate interview with the “Rez Metallic” podcast, Max acknowledged about “Totem”: “It was created somewhat bit completely different. The bulk was simply me and my son Zyon enjoying collectively, so we sort of wrote the majority of the fabric. After which I had an important producer buddy, Arthur Rizk; he labored with POWER TRIP and CODE ORANGE. Arthur is nice, man. And I used to be curious how Arthur would make a SOULFLY file sound if he was in cost [of] it. And we created one thing that, to me, feels sort of like… It is nearly like a biography of Max music. We cowl all the pieces from the early days all the way in which… So there’s some black metallic issues, there’s some loss of life and thrash, there’s some groove metallic — there’s all the pieces. So the file actually goes deep into all completely different areas of metallic. So due to that, the album feels very various. On the finish of the day, I simply wished to make a strong, full-on angle file that simply says, ‘We’re right here to fuck shit up.’ That is what we do. Because of this I like enjoying metallic, due to the vitality it offers me.

“I do not wanna describe the file an excessive amount of — I might moderately have folks hear it and see what they assume — however to me, it appears like that is only a actually, actually energetic SOULFLY file,” Cavalera added. “It is sort of cool to have that sort of… After so many data, in case you can nonetheless put an lively file out, it says one thing about your profession; you are not slowing down — you are going, really, the other approach. So I am extra within the trenches than ever with this one. It appears like [I’ve been] rejuvenated; I really feel like a younger child once more enjoying metallic. These are nice parts to have. Particularly whenever you’re getting older, lots of people go extra gentle and decelerate. I am not a type of folks. I wanna simply get much more wild, get heavier. However all the time with the SOULFLY groove, ‘trigger I feel that is a key aspect of SOULFLY; it is all the time been the groove. So we pay actually shut consideration to the… We really added a whole lot of percussion to it, so it sort of goes again to data like ‘Primitive’; a few of the grooves return to songs like ‘Primitive’ and ‘Increase’, however a few of the different stuff is tremendous aggressive and it is like a whole lot of the present excessive metallic that I hearken to proper now from a whole lot of different bands.”

In April 2021, Max instructed Chris Enriquez of Saint Vitus Presents: Age Of Quarantine that Rizk took the brand new SOULFLY challenge “tremendous significantly. He stated, ‘Hey, Max, I do not wanna do exactly one other SOULFLY file. I wanna do the very bestSOULFLY file,'” he recalled. ‘I used to be, like, ‘All proper. I take the problem. Let’s do it, man.'”

SOULFLY‘s present lead guitarist is Mike DeLeon, who joined the band in early 2023. Previous to hooking up with SOULFLY, DeLeon had been a member of PANTERA singer Philip Anselmo‘s solo band PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, which he joined in 2015 because the alternative for Marzi Montazeri. Extra not too long ago, Mike stuffed in for Zakk Wylde on the first rehearsal for the autumn 2022 PANTERA reveals.

In August 2021, SOULFLY parted methods with longtime guitarist Marc Rizzo because of private variations. FEAR FACTORY‘s Dino Cazares performed guitar for SOULFLY on the band’s 2021 and 2022 run of reveals.