“An album is not just music, it also has artwork. You should rate the whole package,” some dude demanded in the comments under an album review on this site.

And as a person with an iron faith in democracy I can't ignore the people's demands and will instantly remove two points from the otherwise justified mediocre rate of the new Soulfly album because of its absolutely retarded cover. Done. And now about the music...

I'll also have to admit that I'm about to be completely unfair towards Max Cavalera.

For a decade now the man has been moving in the exact musical direction I had hoped he'd go after he was finished playing around with the tribal and world music crap from Soulfly's first albums. And I mean he's been moving towards gradually heavier and more sinister metal in the vein of old Sepultura.

And 'Enslaved' is exactly Soulfly's heaviest and most sinister album to date.

'World Scum' even has blastbeats and a guest appearance by the vocalist of fucking Cattle Decapitation. It could hardly get more extreme than that, and this is merely the first song – from there on it is all angry vocals, fast riffs, double bass drums and guitar shredding.

In the meantime 'Enslaved' is also the most boring and tired piece of music I have head in a long time. The songs last about four or five minutes which usually isn't too much, but here they seem to drag on forever due to the excess repetition of simple ideas ('Gladiator').

Here and there there's rays of light in the form of some catchy riffs – like in 'Revengeance,' a song that also features Igor Cavalera. But then you take another look at the song title and before you know it your forehead sinks into the palm of your hand.

And since the new Soulfly album is as exciting as 12 hours of TV on a Sunday, I broke my principles and did something I never do – I read other people's reviews before I wrote my own.

“Soulfly have never been closer to the truth,” was the ecstatic conclusion in one of them. Brilliant! 'Enslaved' is exactly for the kind of people who are OK with half-assed attempts at something. Have fun listening to this!