Prophecy (Soulfly album)

Prophecy is the fourth studio album by the metal band Soulfly and it was released in 2004.

Prophecy
Studio album by
Soulfly
ReleasedMarch 30, 2004
RecordedFall 2003
StudioThe Saltmine Studio Oasis in Mesa, Arizona
GenreGroove metal
Length56:53
78:40 (Digipak)
LabelRoadrunner
ProducerMax Cavalera
Soulfly chronology
3
(2002)		 Prophecy
(2004)		 Dark Ages
(2005)
Singles from Prophecy
  1. "Prophecy"
    Released: February 14, 2004

This album is noteworthy for three features – the completely different line-up for the album apart from leader Max Cavalera, the world music influence from a stint that Cavalera spent in Serbia, and explicit spirituality themes on the album. The album has gone on to sell over 275,000 copies.

Musicians involved

Cavalera recruited a whole new line-up for the Prophecy album. Joe Nunez was back behind the drum kit having worked on the Primitive album with former Ill Niño lead guitarist Marc Rizzo. There are two bassists playing as members of Soulfly on Prophecy – Megadeth's David Ellefson and Primer 55's Bobby Burns. Cavalera took this decision to have a mixture of old school metal and death metal on the album.

Max Cavalera explains on Roadrunner Records website that he wants to use different musicians as part of the group for each album. "This is an approach that I've wanted to do for a while. I never wanted Soulfly to be a band like Metallica, with the same four guys. On every Soulfly album, we've changed the line-up and it will probably continue that way. In order to do that, I had to start from the inside out and bring in people who caught my attention, that I had never played with before, and create this."[1]

With the exception of Ellefson, Soulfly retained the same lineup until their 8th studio album, Enslaved, in 2012.

World music influences

In Sepultura, Cavalera had shown an interest in world music as shown on the 1996 Roots album featuring elements of the music of Brazil's indigenous peoples. This approach continues on the Prophecy album with Cavalera travelling to Serbia to record with traditional musicians. On the track "Moses", an explicit statement of his religious beliefs he works with Serbian band Eyesburn featuring reggae influences.[2] Other tracks on the album feature instruments from the Middle Ages, sheepskin bagpipes and Serbian Gypsies.

Spirituality influences

On the band's website, Max Cavalera said that he founded the band "with the idea of combined sounds and spiritual beliefs." The Prophecy album contains the clearest statement of his beliefs with "I Believe" containing a spoken part in the middle where Cavalera expresses his faith.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
ARTISTdirect[4]
Blabbermouth.net[5]
Rock Hard (de)9/10[6]

According to CMJ from 3/22/04 pg. 18, "[T]he tracks on Prophecy have worldly textures and a distinct vibe that furthers Soulfly's status as a fluid musical tribe." John Serba of Allmusic praised Cavalera for their most well-done album possibly since his career with Sepultura. He also praised that there are many organic influences, the album was tagged the "Bob Marley of metal."[3] Don Kaye of Blabbermouth says this album is "a strong, if disjointed effort, yet SOULFLY itself sounds more and more like a project searching for new ground, instead of a growing and developing rock act."[5] Vik Bansal of musicOMH noted that the album serves as testaments to legendary metal bands from the 1980s. According to Cavalera, Prophecy is dedicated "to God, the Most High", and is littered with religious art and professions of faith.[7] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters says "Although a bit inconsistent for about half an hour in the album's second half, the magic is indeed back."[8]

In 2005, Prophecy was ranked number 306 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[9]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Max Cavalera except where noted; all music is composed by Max Cavalera except where noted.

Prophecy
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Prophecy"  3:36
2."Living Sacrifice"  5:04
3."Execution Style"  2:19
4."Defeat U" (featuring Danny Marianino)Max Cavalera, Danny Marianino 2:10
5."Mars"  5:26
6."I Believe"  5:53
7."Moses" (featuring Eyesburn)Max Cavalera, Nemanja KojićMax Cavalera, Eyesburn7:39
8."Born Again Anarchist"  3:43
9."Porrada"  4:08
10."In the Meantime" (Helmet cover)Page HamiltonPage Hamilton4:45
11."Soulfly IV" (Instrumental)  6:05
12."Wings" (featuring Asha Rabouin; containing the hidden track " Marš na Drinu" at 5:05, written by Stanislav Binički and performed by Pearls From Vranje)  6:05
Total length:56:53
Limited Edition Digipack (Live at Hultsfred Festival 2001, Sweden)
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
13."Back to the Primitive"  4:09
14."No Hope = No Fear"  4:22
15."Spit" (Sepultura cover) Max Cavalera, Andreas Kisser, Paulo Jr., Igor Cavalera2:32
16."Jumpdafuckup/Bring It"Max Cavalera, Corey Taylor 4:26
17."The Song Remains Insane"  2:19
18."Roots Bloody Roots" (Sepultura cover) Max Cavalera, Andreas Kisser, Paulo Jr., Igor Cavalera3:58
Total length:1:18:29

Personnel
Soulfly
Additional musicians
  • Meia Noite - percussion
  • Ljubomir Dimitrijević - kaval, gemshorn, zurla, gajde, dvojnice, bagpipes, flutes on "Execution Style", "Born Again Anarchist", "Soulfly IV"
  • Danny Marianino - additional lead vocals on "Defeat U"
  • Mark Pringle - backing vocals on "Defeat U"
  • Asha Rabouin - lead vocals on "Wings", backing vocals on "I Believe"
  • John Gray - keyboards, samples
Additional personnel
  • Max Cavalera – producer
  • John Gray - recording, engineering, editing
  • Terry Date – mixing
  • Sam Hofstedt - additional engineering
  • Ted Jensen – mastering
  • Monte Conner – A&R
  • Gloria Cavalera – executive producer

Charts
Chart Peak position
German Album Charts[10] 24
Billboard 200 82
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gollark: Well, I might look at joining matrix or whatever then. One of the reasons I don't have any fediverse/whatever stuff set up is that I currently only have access to a free domain which might randomly decide to to unexist, and I don't want that to get stuck in remote config files everywhere.
gollark: I'd imagine it mostly attracts... open-source-stuff people, and also has smallish groups.
gollark: What sort of stuff actually is on there?
gollark: They do, but the question is how much Discord actually *cares*.

References
  1. SOULFLY - Prophecy CD Archived 2014-03-09 at Archive.today. Roadrunner Records.
  2. "Soulfly - Prophecy". Metal Reviews.
  3. AllMusic review
  4. "ARTISTdirect review". Archived from the original on 2004-08-24. Retrieved 2004-07-31.
  5. Blabbermouth.net review
  6. Kaiser, Boris. "Rock Hard review". issue 203. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  7. musicOMH review
  8. PopMatters review
  9. [...], Rock Hard (Hrsg.). [Red.: Michael Rensen. Mitarb.: Götz Kühnemund] (2005). Best of Rock & Metal die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten. Königswinter: Heel. p. 89. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. "charts.de". Retrieved 31 May 2013.
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