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Primitive
Primitive
2nd album by Soulfly
Released on JPN: July 26, 2000
UK: September 18, 2000
ROTW: September 26, 2000
Record label Roadrunner
Produced by Toby Wright, Max Cavalera
Number of tracks Standard edition: 12
Lim./Jap. edition: 16
iTunes: 16
Duration Standard edition: 52:19
Lim./Jap. edition: 73:57
iTunes: 70:12
Genre(s) Nu metal, groove metal, death metal
Previous album
Soulfly
Next album
3
Limited edition cover
Primitive special

Primitive is the second Soulfly album, released in 2000. The album has the highest peak on US Billboard 200 of any Soulfly albums to date, reaching #32. Like the first album, Primitive is predominantly a nu metal album featuring plenty of groovy riffs and tribal sounds but with influences of rap and experimental music. The album is collaborated by a handful of musicians from bands that are familiar in the metal music community, such as Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour, Tom Araya of Slayer, Chino Moreno of Deftones, and even John Lennon's son Sean.

Notable songs on this album are "Back to the Primitive", "Jumpdafuckup", "Son Song", "Terrorist", "Pain", and "In Memory of...".

Background[]

Lineup[]

Although it is the second Soulfly album, their lineup is not exactly the same as the debut album. The returning members are frontman Max Cavalera performing vocals and rhythm guitar and Marcelo Dias playing the bass. Guitarist Jackson Bandeira left the band following the release of the first album to return to his former band Nação Zumbi and was replaced by Logan Mader of Machine Head before Mikey Doling took over lead guitar for Primitive. The original drummer Roy Mayorga left the band before Primitive was recorded to join with the band Medication and was replaced by Joe Nunez, who was in his former band Fleshhold. But Mayorga rejoined Soulfly for their next album.

Production[]

In January 2000 after touring for their debut album, they entered the Saltmine Studio Oasis in Mesa, Arizona with producers Toby Wright and Sean Lennon to begin making the second Soulfly album. They took four months to write and another month to record the album. After they're finished, the recordings were sent to New York for mixing and mastering.

Release[]

Primitive was released in Japan on July 26, 2000, then the rest of the world exactly two months later on September 26, 2000 via Roadrunner record label (it was released in UK eight days earlier). The one released in Japan contains 16 bonus tracks, while that edition is sold for the rest of the world as limited edition. The standard edition released outside of Japan has 12 tracks. Primitive on iTunes has 16 tracks with three of the different bonus tracks as Japanese and limited editions.

Charts[]

The album reached #32 on the US Billboard 200 chart, the highest peak of any Soulfly album to date, and #11 on the US Independent chart, the only Soulfly album to be charted on the Independent Albums chart. The album remained on the Billboard chart for five weeks, tied for the most weeks with three other countries — Netherlands, Germany (which had the highest peak of any chart at #16), and New Zealand. Primitive is one of just two Soulfly albums that was charted on the New Zealand Top 40 chart, the other is Omen.

Chart Weeks Peak
Australia Top 100
4
#26
Austria Top 75
4
#28
Belgium Ultratop 200 (Flanders)
3
#20
Belgium Ultratop 200 (Wallonia)
2
#48
Dutch Top 100
5
#39
Finland Top 50
2
#22
France Top 150
2
#20
Germany Top 100
5
#16
Italy Top 100
1
#48
NZ Top 40
5
#22
Sweden Top 60
2
#48
Swiss Top 100
3
#76
UK Top 100
1
#45
US Billboard 200
5
#32
US Independent 100
1
#11

Title and cover art[]

The album title for the second Soulfly album was confirmed on March 31, 2000. Primitive was titled because of an important description of tribes that they are primitive societies and is appropriate to title one of the early albums since primitive means early stage of development. According to Max, this title shall propel Soulfly into a long-lasting career, which later turned out that it is.

Comparing contents of artwork
Primitive Soulfly
sky color yellow turquoise
sun color red white
silhouette phoenix Max Cavalera
platform flame rock
surface grass sea
image type art photo

The colorful album artwork shows silhouette of a phoenix standing on the flame, reminiscent of that of the debut album which shows silhouette of Max Cavalera standing on the seaside rock. The standard edition cover shows the reddened sun in the yellow sky, while the limited edition cover shows the moon in the dark blue sky at night. Artwork for both of these editions were created by Neville Garrick and his 17-year old son Nesta Garrick. The artwork was inspired when Nesta drew that picture when he was little and suggested his dad to produce an album artwork based from it and then he accepted it.

Music and lyrics[]

Primitive continues their musical style from the previous album with combination of heavy metal and tribal music. Nu metal is dominant on this album, with additional elements of groove metal, alternative metal, and hip hop is especially dominant on the track "In Memory of...". There are plenty of experimentation in this album as well, such as in the track "Son Song". Primitive utilizes percussions, keyboards, drum programming, and audio effects, producing rich array of sounds.

Primitive features lyrics mainly about aggression, pain, hatred and soul, but there are political lyrics about the government, terrorism and protest, such as in "Back to the Primitive", where it has the lines 'Fuck all your politics', and "Terrorist".

Songs[]

The first track of Primitive is "Back to the Primitive", where Max plays the berimbau to begin the song and the album. "Back to the Primitive" is first of three singles released from the album. "Pain", which is the second Soulfly song where Chino Moreno of Deftones is featured, tributes to the deaths of Max's stepson Dana Wells, and his father.

"Bring It" has aggro-metal riffing and reggae interlude. "Jumpdafuckup", the album's third single, features Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour on vocals, and sludgy guitar riffs. "Mulambo" features Max's two little sons at the time of album's release, Igor chanting 'daa daa' to begin this song while Zyon (now an everyday drummer for this very band) playing foosball. This song, hence the title, features The Mulambo Tribe.

"Son Song", released as the third single of the album, features Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon, who was assassinated, while Max's father, Graziano Cavalera, died from a heart attack. In tribute to their fathers who both died at age 40, Max and Sean sing this song together. Musically, "Son Song" has Alice in Chains-like grungy riffs and Sean's Layne Staley-like vocals. The song appears on the Valentine OST, although not played in the film.

"Boom" is where the album's producer Toby Wright performs additional vocals. "Terrorist" incorporates lyrics from songs recorded by other bands — "Inner Self" by Sepultura and "Criminally Insane" by Slayer. In addition, "Terrorist" features Slayer vocalist Tom Araya.

"Soulfly II", the first of many sequels to the band-titled song, uses many instruments, including Congo drums, piano, sitar, twang, and various wind instruments. "In Memory of..." contains a lot of rap in it and featuring members of Cutthroat Logic. Asha Rabouin makes her first Soulfly appearance on the final standard track "Flyhigh", singing in lines like 'Just let my soul fly free'. The standard album ends with the same instrument (berimbau) that begins it.

Both limited and Japanese editions as well as iTunes have four additional tracks of Primitive. "Soulfire" is a techno remix of "Fire", track of the previous album. The Universal Spirit mix of "Soulfly" contains vocals by Dayjah, unlike the instrumental regular version.

Tracklist[]

  1. "Back to the Primitive" (alt. titled "Primitive") (released as single) – 4:21
  2. "Pain" (feat. Grady Avenell and Chino Moreno) – 3:39
  3. "Bring It" – 3:21
  4. "Jumpdafuckup" (released as single) (feat. Corey Taylor) – 5:11
  5. "Mulambo" (feat. The Mulambo Tribe) – 4:19
  6. "Son Song" (alt. titled "Dust") (released as single) (feat. Sean Lennon) – 4:17
  7. "Boom" – 4:55
  8. "Terrorist" (alt. titled "Confront and Destroy") (feat. Tom Araya) – 3:46
  9. "The Prophet" – 2:56
  10. "Soulfly II" (instrumental) – 6:04
  11. "In Memory of..." (feat. Babatunde Rabouin, Deonte Perry and Justus Olbert) – 4:36
  12. "Flyhigh" (alt. titled "Flyfree") (feat. Asha Rabouin) – 4:47

Limited and Japanese edition bonus tracks

  1. "Eye for an Eye" (live at Roskilde Festival 1998) – 3:50
  2. "Tribe" (live at Roskilde Festival 1998) – 6:24
  3. "Soulfire" (remix of "Fire") – 5:13
  4. "Soulfly" (Universal Spirit mix) – 6:08

iTunes bonus tracks

  1. "Terrorist" (Total Destruction mix) – 4:39
  2. "Back to the Primitive" (Dub Shit Up mix) – 4:33
  3. "Bring It" (Armageddon mix) – 3:26
  4. "Soulfire" (remix of "Fire") – 5:13

Tentative tracklist[]

On the tentative track listing of Primitive as of May 10, 2000, three pairs of tracks were swapped for the final track listing — "Terrorist"↔"Jumpdafuckup", "Soulfly II"↔"The Prophet", and "Flyhigh"↔"In Memory of...".

  1. "Back to the Primitive"
  2. "Pain"
  3. "Bring It"
  4. "Terrorist"
  5. "Mulambo"
  6. "Son Song"
  7. "Boom"
  8. "Jumpdafuckup"
  9. "Soulfly II"
  10. "Prophet"
  11. "Flyhigh"
  12. "In Memory of..."

Trivia[]

  • Some say the album cover looks kiddish.
  • Primitive is the most swear-infested Soulfly album.
  • It is the only one of the first five albums that has only one nonmetal track.

Reviews[]

  • ViciousFriendlyFish of Encyclopaedia Metallum (65%) – "Primitive showcases Max Cavalera still working to find a true musical path for Soulfly."
  • Kingcrimsonprog of KingcrimsonBlog (2.5/5) – "Primitive saw the band continue the formula established by their debut self-titled album from 1998 and also Sepultura's Roots album from 1996 to an extent. The sound mixes tribal percussion and additional instruments in with a mixture of heavy groove metal riffs and bouncy nu metal riffs. Although the album has worthy moments, it is largely forgettable and too dated."

Personnel[]

Band performers

Guest/session performers

Songwriters

Engineers

Supervisors

Cover artworkers

  • Nesta Garrick – cover artwork, package design
  • Neville Garrick – cover artwork, package design, photography
  • Glen La Ferman – photography
  • Gloria Cavalera – additional photography
  • Kevin Estrada – additional photography
  • Zyon Cavalera – CD label
  • Leo Zulueta – Soulfly logo

Booking agents

  • Gavin Hitt – booking (USA)
  • Rod MacSween – booking (worldwide)
  • Scott Thomas – booking (worldwide)

Album navigation[]

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