Ritual

Brazilian metal legend Max Cavalera returns to his roots on Soulfly’s 11th album, while also pushing to new extremes. <i>Ritual</i> features the ferocious grooves Cavalera first unleashed as leader of Sepultura (“The Summoning”), and even revives the thrash anthems of his youth (“Dead Behind the Eyes”). But it also ups the brutality with the double-bass drum beatdowns of death metal (“Under Rapture”) and hardcore tempos (“Feedback!”). And while Cavalera still roars menacingly as he approaches 50, the real star of <i>Ritual</i> might be his son, drummer Zyon Cavalera, whose mastery of both blast-beat assaults (“Bite the Bullet”) and mosh-ready breakdowns (“Evil Empowered”) gives the album its foundation.