Album Review: Dark Ages (Soulfly)

Each of the first four albums have the music that matches with the time on top with tribal sounds. Now it sounds like that  is ushering in the Dark Ages for Soulfly because witness the death of his two pals at around the same time in Dimebag Darrell of Pantera who was gunned down on stage by a deraged fan and his infant grandson Moses due to health problems. The album is like the “dark side of Arise."

The album begins with the sound of oncoming darkness with "". The next track " would go on and on and on and on and on as said in the lyrics. "" is essentially a homophone of "". It got thrash with a classical part in the middle. "" is so good track that it gives energy to my soul, exciting them. The track title “Arise Again}}" sound like getting out of the dark and arise with the rising light. But on this album, there’s no light nearby. "" would take us to Russia. It is the album’s shortest non-intro track, shorter than the flight from U.S. to Russia, maybe except for across the Bering Strait via a plane. "" has Slayer-like speed with lyrics full of fucks. "" has grooves slow enough for your spirit to enter your body. "" is regarded the creepiest song of this dark album. Though this song can be used to break the creepy silence of the surrounding. "" has two songs in one. The first has tribal percussion rhythms on top with berimbau, and the second part has industrial sounds with little bit of speed to it. "" marks the bleakest spot of this album, or the center of the “dark side of Arise}}". The outro of this song was taken from a church in Turkey that was built in a impressive style for its time. "" is the interlude sounding like that is marching towards war that usher in dark ages. During the war, someone drops a bomb that fuel the hate that takes place on Monday, July 16, 1945, 5:30am. Gotta act fast, that’s why the song "" has fast rhythms with Max singing fast. Then once it’s done, it slows down while staying strong for the next track. Then it starts to storm, forcing them not to do anything but listen. Once the storm lets up, the instruments begin play for a three-part song, the longest by Soulfly. It got repetitive new age melodies with acoustics. The church bells signal the end of this song and the album. That’ll do it, well, after omitting "" because I don’t like this song.

In conclusion, this album is dark, but it’s pretty good, telling me that dark is not always bad. I would definitely rather listen to dark music than living in dark ages. Dark music is often written when a musician had a dark time, or from inspirations of dark times of others or through stories.

7.5/10