As a big Sepultura fan who has followed Max Cavalera's entire career, it disheartens me that he continues to get so much credit for the supposed socio-political conscience in his work. I feel like Max's heart is often in the right place but it's about time reviewers (and listeners) challenged him more on some of the baffling inconsistencies and the crudeness of his ideas -- at least the way they come across in the music. During his Sepultura heyday, Max hit some incredible high notes with his observations on world issues, but since then has descended further and further into a wallowing and self-perpetuating state of victimhood devoid of the reflection necessary to even do justice to the interesting things he says in interviews. There's an excellent clip of Max from 2004, for example, talking to the Dutch website Face Culture (http://www.faceculture.nl/artist.php?id=895) and saying some really insightful things about what the images on US dollar bills say about the nature of American capitalism -- "that you can see it right there on the money." But Max's ultra-defensive lyrical posture offers little more than a "fuck you, you don't understand" rather than propose a coherent set of principles that we can understand, agree or disagree with in the first place. His continual referring to himself as a "prophet" sounds more like the attitude of a despotic king than a musician vying for social change. His equating of the worldwide metal community with oppressed people around the world on the song of "Rise of the Fallen," which is mentioned above, is a joke, and lyrics like "we've got to fight the real enemy" from 2000's "Jump The Fuck Up" are certainly rousing but carefully avoid telling us who exactly the enemy is. From the point of view of a dedicated metalhead whose life has been forever impacted and still gets a genuine rise out of Max's most powerful creative moments, I have to shake my head and say "gimme a break" at the suggestion that anything he's written during his Soulfly career works on the level of "commentary that resonates through the ages," as Phillip Miner suggests above. I think this review is more a reflection of Miner's thoughtfulness on social issues than it is on the depth of the album itself. It's cool that Miner hears these insights in the music, but I think the credit goes to him and what he's looking for ,i.e: reading into the music more than it goes to Max -- and I say that as a fan. That metal musicians well into adulthood get extra credit for just ejaculating unreflective anger into their work seems like a sham to me. As someone who cherishes metal beyond measure and who can not overstate the lifelong love affair I continue to have with this music, I say that we can expect more from it, hold it to higher standards, and look at it with honest scrutiny. I'm fine rocking out when these guys say dumb shit, but to give them undeserved credit for it is kind of a knock on metal's immense potential. In 2010, it's fair to say that Max Cavalera and others could do better, especially considering how much they clearly still have going for them. The fact that we don't push them probably has a lot to do with why they settle into a comfortable groove and still claim to be getting "heavier." If you want an example of an ultra-heavy album that "resonates through the ages," I'd recommend the 1991 Corrosion Of Conformity album "Blind," which to this day remains one of the most violently thrilling examples of what happens when music is enflamed with articulate political fury. When the bar has been set high, it's prudent to hold back a little on handing out those free passes.

Last line, I meant "when the bar has been set THAT high."