With hindsight...

[Sworntothecans]

Bush were another band they were falling over!

Which really pissed a load of the Brit press off too as they'd all written off Rossdale as a bit of a star fucker and bandwagon jumper from the London scene.
Then he fucked off to the states and did both and they had to grovel for the ad money from Interscope.

[Pentagrimes]

"Cradle of Filth are seriously good"

Once you give away your dignity, well, you can never get it back.

To be fair, at that point the actually were.

[Eoin McLove]

Yup. Up to and including(-ish) Cruelty they were great.

[Cosmic_Equilibrium]

One of my friends distinctly remembers that during the nu metal era in the late 90s most of the rock/metal press basically went Year Zero and automatically dismissed nearly all the classic metal bands as rubbish while saying how awesome nu metal was.

Then in the 2000s when trad metal became cool again all of a sudden MH was declaring themselves 'Defenders of the faith' and couldn't stop going on about how great all the 80s stuff was.

I haven't forgotten some of the reviews that turned up in K! and MH during the tail end of nu metal. For example, reviewing AC/DC at Milton Keynes in 2001 and giving them 2/5, and Megadeth (who were one of the support acts that day) got 1/5. I remember the K! letters page was inundated with people going "WTF, that AC/DC rating, are you serious?!?!?"

The most memorable one however was that when St. Anger came out MH gave it 9/10 then went through the Metallica back catalogue and declared that AJFA was their worst album.

I will however give a shout out to the late Malcolm Dome who didn't (from what I can tell) seem to care about what was cool or not; he just was enthusiastic about music and if he liked something, he liked it no matter what. Always had time for his reviews.

[Eoin McLove]

Oh yeah, big time. Metal Hammer used to really deride heavy metal in the mid to late 90s when I was reading it. I wish I had discovered Terrorizer back then instead and not wasted a few years on so much crap that MH was hailing as being the best. I think my young, growing record collection would have been spiced up a little more than was the case. One of life's regrets!

[The Heretic]

In the mid 90's Kerrang went to pure shite, Metal Hammer to a lesser extent, Kerrang wanted a bit of the Oasis action but couldn't go the whole hog so they had a foot in both camps, classic metal and britpop-ish stuff, I pretty much gave up on buying those magazines then and moved to Classic Rock magazine in later years. I only relied on tried and trusted reviewers, anyone else I paid no attention to their opinion.

Whatever about slagging off the 80's glam bands but fuck me that whole 90's nu metal era was fucking awful, at least the glam bands were having a bit of craic and doing some drinking and riding

 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

That "defenders of true metal" phase was even more cringe than nu-metal itself, especially since it was spearheaded by Machine Head, Trivium, Shadows Fall, etc., all bands who--love or hate or meh--were always more nu- than tr00.

[Trev]

Ah here, Shadows Fall were fucking great and didn't have a bit of nu in them, don't deserve to be put them in any category with Machine Head

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

didn't have a bit of nu in them

Now, now, don't be tellin' fibs    Shadows Fall are actually the band that almost pulled me in: got The War Within, saw the show, bought the t-shirt... but hold them up to, say, Nevermore (The War Within being released around same time as Enemies of Reality and This Godless Endeavor), and there's no hesitation in concluding that the actual musical standard-bearers of "true metal" at the time, even in the high production realm, were not those being given page after page of attention by MH, or self-proclaiming themselves the "defenders" of anything.

[Circlepit]

No way can Shadows Fall be considered Nu metal.
They are just a metal band, no frills.
Whether you think they are shit is a different thing.
They are one of the only bands from the NWOAHM tag that are still listenable.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Ok, technically speaking it's "metalcore" rather than "nu-metal". But surely that's splitting dreads 

[Circlepit]

Ok, technically speaking it's "metalcore" rather than "nu-metal". But surely that's splitting dreads 

Ah now, it's not metalcore either!
They wouldn't have that growl to the clean singing formula.
They have savage riffs and they can solo the shit out of it. I'm looking forward to what they are bringing out soon.

[Goosebumples]

That "defenders of true metal" phase was even more cringe than nu-metal itself, especially since it was spearheaded by Machine Head, Trivium, Shadows Fall, etc., all bands who--love or hate or meh--were always more nu- than tr00.

Some absurdity I recall from that era;

Bullet for my valentine were also pushed heavily in that category of metal saviours.

Machine heads the blackening being likened to master of puppets etc as THE seminal metal record.

Claims that job for a cowboy were single handedly revitalising death metal.

Used to read alot of total guitar magazine for the tabs around the time too and they often mirrored whatever kerrang said, bullet for my valentine were pushed heavily as some sort of true metal entity that was reinvigorating the scene.

All very convincing to some of my peers who never really delved too far outside of the bigger acts, endlessly amusing to my already corrupted teen brain that something so soft was considered the saviour of something that didnt really need saving 

[Pagan Saviour]

Tell me it's a paid for review without telling me it's a paid for review

Everybody loves Max Cavalera. For those who didn't get the memo, the Brazilian's contribution to the metal world over the last 40 years has been vast and far-reaching. From his days in SEPULTURA to his relentless metal mission with SOULFLY and an assortment of other noisy bastards, he has consistently been one of the purest souls and most militant devotees to the whole notion of heavy music. These days, he has no shortage of projects to work with, from historical reworkings with brother Iggor in CAVALERA, to the dirty punk-metal of GO AHEAD & DIE and the revived hostility of NAILBOMB. But what fans have often craved, particularly over the last decade or so, is a new SOULFLY album that hammers home the original ideas that the great man took with him, post-"Roots", into the next major stage of his career back in the late '90s. Recent albums have been great, 2022's vicious "Totem" included, but the eclectic nature of records like "Soulfly" (1998) and "Primitive" (2000) has been steadily replaced by a more all-encompassing, death/thrash hybrid that, while undeniably effective, has also stripped much of the originality from the band's sound. As a result, while the likes of "Ritual" (2018) and "Archangel" (2015) were warmly received, they were soon largely forgotten by all but the most devoted fans. "Chama" is the 13th album to bear the SOULFLY name, and as Max has regularly hinted, it is the first album in more than 20 years to adhere to the principles that made the band's first releases so revolutionary. Not so much a return to basics, but a restating of the code that informed some of his finest work, "Chama" is the most startling SOULFLY album in many years.


Anyone expecting a rerun of early songs like "Tribe" and "Quilombo" will be sorely disappointed by "Chama", but the tribal aesthetic that propelled them has been revived and given several thousand volts up its jungle-dwelling backside. Now effectively a duo, with Max accompanied by drumming son Zyon, SOULFLY have rediscovered groove, momentum and the wild spirit of esoteric heaviness. As an added bonus, all the death metal intensity and chaos of recent albums have been retained, possibly out of sheer spite, and the resultant hybrid is fucking monstrous. They have never been this heavy before, and it goes without saying that Max is in his absolute element throughout.

From the moment that "Indigenous Inquisition" bursts into life, with scabrous riffs and a general air of apocalyptic pugnacity, "Chama" is a grand reclaiming of territory. "Storm The Gates" was released as a single, and it's not hard to hear why. With loping, mutant riffs, underpinned by ferocious drums and topped with the frontman's all-out roar and a hefty dose of post-"Roots" exuberance, it sounds like early SOULFLY, but heavier, nastier and more firmly rooted in underground grubbiness. The grotesque, grinding "Nihilist" features guest vocals from NAILS' Todd Jones, but whereas albums like "Primitive" creaked under the weight of cameo appearances, "Chama" is furious and focused solely on wreaking havoc by any means. "No Pain = No Power" (a very SOULFLY title) is so determined to make fans bang their heads that it should come with a warning about potential concussions. When the invigorating clatter of ethnic percussion permeates the rolling barricade of riffs, it is a spine-tingling moment to savor.


Next, the two-minute "Ghenna" is a raging blast of disquiet, delivered with mad-eyed zeal; "Black Hole Scum" is a jarring pileup of riffs, screams and two-stepping brutality with a raw, death metal heart, and a nauseous, slow-burn sludge riff that spits and seethes amid howls of feedback and extraneous noise; and the hair-raising speed 'n' spite of "Favela – Dystopia" throws some gruesome thrash riffs into the mix, bolstered by intuitive tempo shifts and a huge, cavernous drum sound that rattles the rafters. Max's incensed vocals sit at the heart of the chaos, echoing into the void like threats of violence from scurrilous shadows, and turning "Always Was, Always Will Be" into a bellicose riot of reptilian menace and abominable dynamics. There is a red line that stretches from "Chama" to the first couple of SOULFLY albums, but there was nothing as punishing or as deranged as this on either of them. Even "Soulfly XIII", which continues the band's tradition of having an eerie, non-electric mantra on every album, is weirder and more sonically daring than any of its precedents. The closing title track, which is unapologetically noisy and hostile, sums up the approach brilliantly. As it morphs into a dub-inflected scamper through disorientating darkness, the idea that Max Cavalera might have worn his ideas a little thin over the decades simply vanishes. SOULFLY sound genuinely dangerous again.

Everybody loves Max Cavalera, and whether you have spent the last 30 years moaning about his departure from SEPULTURA, or clinging to his every inspirational word, "Chama" is the kind of rabid, unfiltered response to the passing of time that will make you love him even more. The best SOULFLY album since the debut? Almost certainly.

9/10

[Bürggermeister]

The best SOULFLY album since the debut?

A low bar indeed.