MAX CAVALERA Says Next SOULFLY Album Will Be Conceptual Effort With 'Same Kind Of Feeling' As SEPULTURA's 'Roots'

Max Cavalera spoke to the "No Limits Music Show" about SOULFLY's upcoming follow-up to 2015's "Archangel" album, tentatively due in the middle of next year via Nuclear Blast.

"My goal is to bring some of the tribal [elements] back," he said (see video below). "A lot of people have been asking… I want it too, 'cause I love the heaviness of the drums with the guitars — it's amazing. We had it on [2004's] 'Prophecy', we had it on [2000's] 'Primitive', the first SOULFLY [album in 1998]. And that's kind of lost on the SOULFLY tours. After [2005's] 'Dark Ages', we really stopped doing percussion at all. So I think it's kind of cool now to bring it back — it's the perfect time.

"The album is gonna be deeply tribal, very spiritual," he continued. "There's a concept. I cannot tell you much about it, 'cause it's kind of a surprise. But there is a concept behind the record, and I have not done a record with a concept like this since [SEPULTURA's] 'Roots'. So this one has got the same kind of feeling that 'Roots' has."

Max added that he will complete the songwriting process for the new SOULFLY album once he is done with the "Point Blank With Soulfly" tour, where SOULFLY is performing NAILBOMB's lone studio album, 1994's "Point Blank", in full.

"I hope I can enter the studio around January," he said. "We've already got the producer, Josh Wilbur. He's the producer that did KILLER BE KILLED, LAMB OF GOD. An amazing guy, so he's gonna be amazing for this record. And it's, of course, 20 years since [the release of] the first [SOULFLY album]. So it's a great date — it's a special date. So we are hoping we can make a really special record, hopefully with some really cool guests. Again, SOULFLY continue the guest appearances. I don't know who I'm gonna get yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be really cool."

Max reiterated his belief that the next SOULFLY album will "be a special record, man. I have the feeling. When you have the feeling, you have the feeling," he said. "And I have right now… I feel it's coming along. I've just gotta work on the riffs real hard, get the best riffs possible — just like I did with [the new] CAVALERA [CONSPIRACY album]. But the difference is, with the SOULFLY record, I've got more room, I can do more stuff with it. 'Cause I've got the world music element, the tribal element, the spiritual element. They give me more room to go even further on what I can do with the music, so I'm very excited. I think it's gonna be a great record."

Max and his brother, former SEPULTURA drummer Igor Cavalera, have spent the last year celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the band's "Roots" album by performing the LP in its entirety all over the world.