Three years have passed since Soulfly issued Archangel, though Max Cavalera has remained busy, touring in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Sepultura's Roots, performing Nailbomb's Point Blank in full on another tour and he dished out a new Cavalera Conspiracy record last year. With his attention now back on groove mongers Soulfly, the band has readied Ritual, their eleventh studio album. Get your first taste with the new song, "Evil Empowered," above.

With groove as Soulfly's true north, they manage to keep their sound fresh from album to album and on "Evil Empowered" there's a more prevalent sense of hardcore. Stunted riffs throw elbows in the groove's pocket and there's some steady double kicks to supercharge these bruising moments.

The album, out Oct. 9 on Nuclear Blast, was produced, recorded and mixed by Josh Wilbur and features Lamb of God's Randy Blythe and Immolation's Ross Dolan as guests. Pre-orders can be placed here.

Eliran Kantor painted the cover art (seen below with the track listing) and Max Cavalera commented, "The Ritual artwork is very mystic and captures the vibe of the album perfectly. For this one, we really tried to retain the groove of early Soulfly as well as my love for the heavy, fast stuff I'm into, like death and black metal and some hardcore." He also praised booklet artist Marcelo Vasco, saying he was "really stoked" to be working with both him and Kantor.

"Working with Josh Wilbur for Soulfly this time around has been amazing. He's a huge fan and added a lot to the record," Cavalera elaborated. "I would fight for the fast songs and he would always push me to add more groove. I think in the end we created a really cool mix of songs that covers a lot of ground in my career. Let the Ritual begin!"

Josh Wilbur reflected on Max Cavalera's influence on him growing up, stating, "Before I had ever recorded a record, in my formidable years, Max released the holy trinity that was (at least to me) Chaos A.D., Roots and Soulfly. I wanted to make a record that captured what I loved about those when I was growing up! Those records inspired me and introduced me to heavy metal. Fast forward to now and I was given the opportunity to make the record I wanted as a fan! So I set up some mics, recorded some riffs, we banged on some galvanized metal, roto toms, djembes and anything else we could get, then I told Max to 'BRING DA SHIT'!"

Soulfly, Ritual Artwork + Track Listing

Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast
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01. Ritual
02. Dead Behind the Eyes (feat. Randy Blythe)
03. The Summoning
04. Evil Empowered
05. Under Rapture (feat. Ross Dolan)
06. Demonized
07. Blood on the Street
08. Bite the Bullet
09. Feedback!
10. Soulfly XI

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