Prophecy

Prophecy is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Soulfly, released in 2004. It is noteworthy for three guest artists – the completely different line-up for the album apart from leader Max Cavalera, the world music influence from a stint that Cavalera spent in Serbia, and explicit spirituality themes on the album. The album has gone on to sell over 275,000 copies. Lineup change Cavalera recruited a whole new line-up for the Prophecy album. Joe Nunez was back behind the drum kit having worked on the Primitive album with former Ill Niño lead guitarist Marc Rizzo. There are two bassists playing as members of Soulfly on Prophecy – Megadeth's David Ellefson and Primer 55's Bobby Burns. Cavalera took this decision to have a mixture of old school metal and death metal on the album. Max Cavalera explained on Roadrunner Records' website that he wanted to use different musicians as part of the group for each album. "This is an approach that I've wanted to do for a while. I never wanted Soulfly to be a band like Metallica, with the same four guys. On every Soulfly album, we've changed the line-up and it will probably continue that way. In order to do that, I had to start from the inside out and bring in people who caught my attention, that I had never played with before, and create this." However, with the exception of Ellefson, Soulfly retained this lineup for four consecutive studio albums, with Burns and Nunez departing following the release of Omen, in 2010. World music influences In Sepultura, Cavalera had shown an interest in world music as shown on the 1996 Roots album featuring elements of the music of Brazil's indigenous peoples. This approach continues on the Prophecy album with Cavalera travelling to Serbia to record with traditional musicians. On the track "Moses", an explicit statement of his religious beliefs, he works with Serbian band Eyesburn and includes reggae influences. Other tracks on the album employ instruments from the Middle Ages, sheepskin bagpipes and Serbian Gypsies.