Prophecy by Soulfly

Prophecy, Soulfly's fourth studio album, hit the racks on Roadrunner in March 2004, and Max Cavalera cleaned house to make it: apart from the ex-Sepultura frontman himself, the lineup is new from top to bottom, with Marc Rizzo and Bobby Burns among the fresh recruits. Three guest artists drop in along the way.

The real twist is geographic. Cavalera had spent time in Serbia, and the world-music colors he soaked up there bleed into the band's usual stew of alternative metal and Brazilian tribal thunder, so the riffs stomp while the melodies wander somewhere far from Phoenix. Lyrically he leans hard into faith and the spirit, plainly and without apology, which gives the record a strange, almost devotional heaviness. It moved more than 275,000 copies, and the title track was the one that cracked the countdowns.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.