Concert Review: Soulfly @ Foufounes Électriques with Lody Kong, Noisem and Cannabis Corpse

Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera has recently been revisiting albums of his past. Last year, he toured the world with his brother Iggor, playing Sepultura’s 1996 album Roots in its entirety. Earlier this year, Max announced that he would be revisiting Point Blank by Nailbomb. Back in 1994, Max formed Nailbomb as a side project with Alex Newport (Fudge Tunnel). The project was short lived; they recorded only one album and performed live only once. Although Newport was not able to join Soulfly for the 2017 tour, Max brought along his two sons, Zyon (on drums) and Igor Jr. (on sample machine and backup vocals). Ever the family man.

The show at Foufounes Électriques opened relatively early with Lody Kong, Zyon and Igor’s respective band. Noisem followed, swinging their dreadlocks to and fro to the rhythm of the blast beats. However, I was most excited to see Cannabis Corpse, fronted by “Landphil” Hall of other Richmond, Virginia thrash acts like Municipal Waste and Iron Reagan. They mostly played tracks from their newest release Left Hand Pass, taking the time before each song to emphasize the song titles with marijuana-themed puns. At one point, their roadie jumped into the pit wearing a weed-nugget costume.

I listened to a lot of Soulfly during my Nu Metal phase in high school, yet I only recently did the research on Max Cavalera and learned how he influenced extreme metal with his previous work in Sepultura. Max is a metal legend in his own respect, and the second he stepped on stage, a sense of awe washed over the audience. I never knew of the existence of Nailbomb until I saw the poster for this show, but the audience seemed to know every word off Point Blank. Max looked like he was having a blast the entire time, whether he smiling admiringly at Igor Jr. while he was singing, or playing air drums along with his son Zyon.

Three intermissions were taken between songs where members stepped offstage, either for lead guitarist Marc Rizzo to shred a solo, or to play out an extended noise sample. Samples play a big part in Point Blank in setting up the chaotic tone of the album, like the repeating line “hate is reality” in the song “World of Shit.” There were times where I questioned whether Max’s guitar was even plugged in; I didn’t hear sound corresponding to what he was strumming. I wasn’t the only one wondering this as other concert-goers echoed the same question in the post-show cigarette-break recap. Regardless, to be graced by the presence of Max Cavalera and to be served a rare sonic delicacy that is Nailbomb’s Point Blank, the least I can do to show my appreciation is to raise my devil horns salute high above my head.