Soulfly

Soulfly at the Birmingham Academy: Luckily the Friday night traffic in Birmingham didn't stop me catching a blinding performance by support act Skindred.

Formed from the ashes of Ragga-Metal crew Dub War (who I saw tear the roof off the Tunbridge Wells forum in 1997!), Skindred hit the stage running, straight into 'Bruises', probably the heaviest track off debut album 'Babylon', and they didn't let up. As they only had half-an-hour they didn't indulge in any of their slower, more emotional songs. Instead we got all the best bits from said album - 'World Domination', 'Nobody', 'Set It Off', 'Babylon' and new single 'Pressure' - and singer Benji showing why he is one of the best - and most underrated - vocalists in rock today. Fantastic!

When it was time for Soulfly to hit the stage, anticipation was high. Skindred had warmed the crowd up nicely and people wanted more. Starting with 'Inner Babylon' from the recent 'Dark Ages' album, Max Cavalera and co. delivered a pulverising set of cutting edge thrash and pounding tribal rhythms. Following on with 'Prophecy', 'Seek & Strike', 'Jumpdaf*ckup', 'Refuse/Resist' and 'Living Sacrifice', the band never let up - and the crowd loved it!

With the band having recorded two albums in a row with the same line-up, the songs all flowed like they had always been played by these players - even the old Sepultura stuff sounded fresh, and Max was obviously having a blast playing them.

The only obvious quibble that one could have was 'Where was the duet with Benji?'Having guested on Soulfly's debut album, you would have thought that he might have joined them onstage to run through 'Prejudice'.

Minor quibbles aside though, on this showing it's obvious that Soulfly will move on to bigger and better things. Maybe recapture some of the glories of Max's former band? Time will tell.