Getting superstitious: Soulfly kicks off tour in ABQ with mix of old and recent music

Max Cavalera is coming off a tour with his band Soulfly promoting its album “Totem.”

The tour took the band to Australia, Europe and the United States. This time around, the band will be including a mix of older music from its inception and newer music from its 2022 album, “Totem.” The “Superstition” U.S. tour kicks off in Albuquerque on Saturday, Oct. 19, at Sunshine Theater.

“We love starting in Albuquerque,” said Brazilian-born Max Cavalera, Soulfly founder and frontman. “It’s always a great crowd to start the tours. It makes everybody hyped up, everybody excited. We always get a really good reaction. I love the city. We love the vibe of the city, so I think it (will be) great.”

The tour concludes in Tempe, Arizona, with the Max Cavalera Dynasty Show that features Soulfly as well as Cavalera’s other project Go Ahead and Die with his son Igor Amadeus, and the return of Max Cavalera’s band Nailbomb. Also on the bill is Max Cavalera’s son Richie’s band, Incite, and Igor Amadeus’ band Healing Magic.

“That should be a magical night,” Max Cavalera said. “We are hoping that, if it works, we can take the Dynasty show to other parts, even maybe Albuquerque in the future ... It’s a lot of bands, and I think there’s four local bands, so it is kind of like a mini festival. It’s a whole day of metal for people. I think people are gonna love it. I’ve never done three bands in one night, so that’s gonna be a first for me, I’m a bit nervous, but I think it’s gonna be okay.”

This tour will close the cycle for the Soulfly album “Totem” and will open the door to prepare for a new album. Cavalera said the band is in its early stages of making a new album and hopes to release it in the summer of next year. It will be the band’s 13th album, hence the name of its current tour, “Superstition.”

“I call it the planting seed phase,” he explained. “We’re just putting the seeds in the soil right now and we have to watch them grow. So it’s pretty much collecting riffs, creating a lot of riffs right now, getting a lot of ideas.”

Cavalera added the music on the upcoming album has strong influences from the band’s early music.

“I have mentioned to some people that some of the record is a bit of a return to the tribal sound of Soulfly, early Soulfly,” he said. “I’m really into that because I love Soulfly, when we first started. We were heavily influenced by tribal ideas and Indigenous culture ... It feels great. Now more than ever, there’s more of a focus on Indigenous culture around the world, and I think it’s time to make a record that is more of a return to that spirit.”

Cavalera said sound wise, the new music has a bigger sound than “Totem.”

“I think ‘Totem’ was great, but it was a bit more on the thrash side,” he stated. “The new album is going to be bigger sounding like big drums, big percussion, like real big grooves ... They just want to make your head bang. We’re very excited for it.”