Extreme Metal Godfather Max Cavalera Returns To His Roots With Latest Soulfly Record ‘Totem’

Coming off of a four year gap between their last LP, the extreme metal powerhouse Soulfly are gearing up for their 12th and quite possibly best studio album in over a decade. Totem is the band’s forthcoming LP, and unlike many of the band’s previous works Totem has founder/lead songwriter Max Cavalera dusting off his older, now, iconic songwriting and aggressive tendencies. Wielding what you could call an amalgamative blend 0f modern metal meets ‘old school’ metal, Totem sees itself more in line with early Sepultura records (Max Cavalera’s prominent band from 1986 to 1996) than it does 2000’s Soulfly groove-metal infused albums. Much of this is due to the record’s secret weapon — producer and guitarist Arthur Rizk.

Risk has established himself as an integral part of the recent ‘old school’ metal renaissance, which can be seen in the work he’s down with bands Power Trip, Creeping Death, Unto Others, and Eternal Champion (Rizk’s own band). In addition to laying down some fiery guitar solos on the record, Rizk collaborated closely with Cavalera in producing the sonic direction for Totem, and made a point to reignite the youthful more aggressive Max Cavalera heard on classic Sepultura records like Beneath The Remains and Arise. In doing so, Totem sets itself apart from previous Soulfly records with its approach to classic metal songwriting and crisp modern production, all the while staying true to what Soulfly’s mission statement for the last 20 years: savage riffs accompanied by a sore neck for its listeners.

Speaking more on how Totem came to be, Max Cavalera sat down to chat songwriting and his love for all things metal, be it classic bands or new bands from recent years.

How’s it feel to have this 12th studio album ready to go and Soulfly back in full swing? It’s certainly been a minute since the last record.

Yeah, 4 years has been the longest gap between Soulfly records, but yeah it’s been exciting man there’s something tangible about this record. It feels different from the other ones and maybe it’s the way that it was made because of the pandemic and also working with [producer] Arthur Rizk, which was incredible. To me he’s done one of the craziest records with Power Trip’s Nightmare Logic (2017). When that came out it kind of messed my head up, I didn’t know how it was possible for something new to sound that good but have an old school feeling to it, so I was very inspired by that for Totem. I told Arthur it would be cool if we could get something kind of like that with Soulfly, and capture old spirits and old vibes into a new sound, and I think Totem has a lot of that so I’m very thrilled for the record.

You’ve spoken previously that the writing process for Totem took a similar approach to how the early Sepultura records were written, specifically with your son Zyon (Soulfly’s drummer) who asked you personally how those early classics were made. In Actuality do you feel Totem’s writing process ended up paralleling those early albums in some aspect?

I spent a good chuck of time with him, it was like a year we spent just jamming and on the way to our jam pad it’s about a half hour drive. We would play tunes in the car, and a lot of the time we would play old stuff, my own old stuff, Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains, and he would ask me “damn, how did you write those f**king songs?” And I was like “I don’t know if I can explain to you in words, but if you sit on the drums and I have my guitar, we’re going to speak with our instruments, they will speak with each other and you will understand how those songs were born.” So he made a perfect example of that with a song like “Superstition.” To me it’s very close to something like “Arise,” it came from that same mentality of that kind of songwriting which is all about power and energy, and just going for it. That’s what was cool about Totem, just that relationship between Zyon being younger and curious about how I wrote the old stuff, and I was actually paying attention to him as a drummer and some of the stuff that he also wanted to try. Some things like time signatures he was really interested in, talking about stuff that he listened to, he was more into classic like Black Sabbath and he loves a lot Bad Brains, Deftones, and Gojira, especially Gojira. We would listen to some of the old Gojira in the car and some of the songs have odd time signatures, and I was never so much into that because I don’t know how to read music to start with, and that’s foreign territory for me. But I tried it, and there’s one song called “The Damage Done” where we did that and the part was actually counting “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, bam! 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, bam!” and that was cool! I’m sure I did that with Sepultura without actually knowing what it was, it was just instinct. But this time I actually knew what I was doing, and that was fun. I’m 50 years old still learning new things like that in the studio. I don’t claim to know everything man and I’m always open to learning, I love learning, I’m a student of metal, I love learning about metal!

How’d you end up working with Arthur Rizk? Beyond helping produce Totem he contributed to much of the record’s excellent guitar work as well.

Yeah this is one of the collaborations I’d done that really connected, he helped me throughout the whole record. He’s a producer but is also a musician, we were jamming together, we were sitting with the guitars and making riffs, talking about structures, and then later on he put a lot of badass solos into all of the songs, him and John Powers [from Eternal Champion], and even Chris [Ulsh] from Power Trip is on “Spirit Animal.” I wanted to make a different Soulfly record that was more close to my heart as far as sonic feeling. The older you get people can go different ways, some people go towards more mellow and easy listening and some people go heavier and more extreme, and I chose that road. I want to play fast, I want to go heavy and extreme, that’s what I listen to! A lot of the bands I listen to are all the classics, plus I love a lot of new stuff like 200 Stab Wounds, Gatecreeper, I love all of that so it was a no brainer that Arthur was the guy for this record. And it was cool because Arthur came very motivated, he even told me “I’m going to wake up that young, angry, pissed off old Max Cavalera.” And then he told me, “I don’t want to make another Soulfly record, I want to make the best Soulfly record.” And that’s a big bold statement, so yeah I mean it was so exciting, we worked on the tunes and I fell in love with classic songwriting on Totem of 2 and a half minutes. Short tracks that just kick you in the face and are amazing and feel great, like Reign In Blood style. There’s nothing like when you do a well made two and half minute song that has all of the elements that you need for a kickass track. So I think “Superstition,” “Scouring the Vile,” “Filth Upon Filth,” “Rot in Pain,” they all have that. Side A of Totem is one of the most savage side A’s I’ve done in a long time, and I can’t wait to play it live.

Given the size and stylistic diversity of Soulfly’s discography, how do you envision incorporating Totem and other eras of the band’s discography into the live performance?

What I’d like to do is actually play side A of Totem right off the bat. Six, or at least the first four songs right away, and then you can go into other stuff like “Primitive,” “Prophecy,” and “No Hope = No Fear,” and “Bleed.” Then towards the middle you can start adding “Damage Done” and then “Ancestors,” which has a huge Celtic Frost kind of vibe to it. I think “Totem” is the most groove Soulfly song on Totem, the opening riff feels like “Eye for an Eye” a bit and even with the drum beat, so that one has a really early Soulfly vibe on it. But yeah I think doing at least the first four tracks off Totem is going to be awesome.

Most Soulfly records seem to have an overlying theme whether from the title and artwork. How’d you land on the title and themes for this 12th studio record?

Yeah I didn’t have the name when I first entered the studio, I was just creating songs and “Superstition” is actually one of the early songs and it’s inspired by the Superstition Mountains here in Arizona. They’re just these big mysterious mountains where people die all the time and there’s like all this weird folklore, but the record was kind of going in that way with songs like that and “Ancestors.” One day I was doing some research and I came across the name Totem and I read what it meant and it was one of those moments where it was like “oh f**k yeah this is great.” For a lot of Native Americans it’s a symbol of strength, power, and connection to the ancient world and ancestors. I made this connection between the metal world where I think we all wear our shirts as our Totems, we have our band shirts and we start conversations with other metal heads because of our shirts. Like if I didn’t know you and I was at the airport, I’d start a conversation with you about Gatecreeper (Max points at the Gatecreeper shirt I’m wearing) “cool shirt man, I love that last record.” And that’s the totem you’re wearing of that band, you’re proudly representing that band. But the original title of this record was more black metal, it was Totem Obscurum. I love it but it’s more a Soulfly thing if it’s only one word, a lot of the other records have been one word records.

That’s a really awesome thought process, the metal community is certainly like that in how we wear our shirts and represent artists we’re passionate about.

Yeah I like that connection with the name and I think James Bousema did an amazing job on the artwork, and some people had even referred to me saying they think the Totem pole in the art represents the different eras of my music life, so like the goat and serpent are like the black metal days, and the warthog in the middle is like death-thrash, and of course the eagle is Soulfly. It wasn’t done with that in mind either, it was a pure accident that people made that connection, but I think it’s kind of cool. I can totally see it because the record was kind of done like that. I was talking a lot with Arthur about how it would be cool if we explored almost every phase of my life in a lot of these songs. You have a little bit of black metal from Morbid Visions, you have a lot of death thrash from Schizophrenia and Beneath The Remains, you have some tribal grooves from Chaos A.D., and even some industrial things from Nail Bomb, so I think it celebrates that. But overall I love the design the guy made, it’s amazing, and I think we’re going to try to actually have a backdrop of the forest and an actual real made Totem behind the drums. That would be cool, we actually had something like that on the Chaos A.D. tour, we had like a mummy upside down. I think there’s a live video in Donington, where the backdrop is an actual real mummy behind Igor [Cavalera’s] drum kit. So that would be kind of cool to do something like that for Totem, it’s the perfect record for something like that.

Totem marks Soulfly’s 12th studio album, which is only a fraction of the huge legacy you’ve built in the heavy music scene. With the sheer density of amazing albums and band’s you’ve given to metal music, how do you manage to stay so consistent with writing and performing as the years go on?

Well Part of it is just the metal fan in me, I just love this man I live and breathe metal, I either listen to new bands and get influenced by them or I listen to older stuff, all of it gives me influence. I was watching this Quentin Tarantino documentary and he said a line that really stuck with me, he said “I would die for any of my movies.” I felt really connected to that it was like, “yeah I would die for my records.” When I’m making records it’s a total commitment like if I die tomorrow, I have to be happy with this record, it’s got to be something worthwhile and exciting, otherwise I don’t do it. Don’t do it if you don’t have the joy of it. We have so much time on this earth and we’re all going to run out of time eventually, so while we’re here I want to make the best of my time, I want to create, so it’s like you’re inspired and you got the fires burning, go for it. And I won’t lie, with some of Totem I think anger and brutality came up out of situations, probably the Mark Rizzo situation (Soulfy’s former guitarist). Don’t f**k with me man, it’s one of those things where my guitar is my weapon and I’m getting ready to throw down. So those records like Totem and Soulfly I were records with a lot of struggle in it. Beneath The Remains also had that, and I think those records that had that struggle and drama tend to come out better than the others for some reason. When I’m comfortable making a record and nothing’s wrong, then the record is just okay. If I’m pissed off and s**t went wrong somewhere, then something good is going to come out of it. That’s just how it works.