Watch SOULFLY Debut A New Song Called "Favela Dystopia" Live

Soulfly has unleashed a brand new track titled "Favela Dystopia", performing it live for the first time on July 8 at Maimunarnika in Sofia, Bulgaria, and again on July 10 at Dorćol Platz in Belgrade, Serbia. Fan-filmed footage of the latter performance has already begun circulating online, giving fans an early taste of what's to come from the band's next chapter.

The new song is expected to appear on Soulfly's upcoming studio album, the follow-up to 2022's Totem, which frontman Max Cavalera says is tentatively due in late 2025 or early 2026.

In a recent interview with MetalUnderground.com, Cavalera gave fans a deeper look into the project's progress and spirit: "We're working on the new record right now. It's going good, man. We're taking our time to do it right. We are in the process of finishing the recordings right now, and then we're gonna start getting stuff mixed and finding the songs that are gonna go on all the socials, Spotify, and all that jive. But, yeah, I'm very proud of the record."

According to Cavalera, the direction of this new material marks a conscious step back to the band’s beginnings: "The record, it's cool. It feels to me like it has the adventurous spirit of the first record [1998's Soulfly]. Sonically, it's pretty different from the first record — it's more intricate and maybe even heavier, heavier grooves. But in terms of spirit and attitude, it's similar to the first record, which I think is cool that I got to figure out a way to put my mind back at that time and what made me create that record and use it again on a new record.

"It's pretty fun. It's kind of hard to do, but I think it was an exciting thing to tackle. It was kind of, like, 'Let's try to do this. Let's see if you can use your first album as somehow some kind of inspiration for your thirteenth record. [Laughs] And that was great, man. I love that. I love that kind of vibe that the record has."

While earlier records like Dark Ages, Conquer, and Omen leaned into a more aggressive and thrash-heavy identity, Cavalera sees this album as a spiritual homecoming: "That's the cool thing about this record. It's kind of, in a way, a return to what me and fans of Soulfly fell in love with Soulfly for. And then throughout the years, many of the other records had a lot of different vibes in them. Some of them went more thrashy with stuff like Dark Ages [2005], Omen [2010], Conquer [2008].

"So, to me, making a record that sonically is inspired by the first thing that you did as a band, it was a challenge — there's a challenge in that — 'cause it's easier said than done. Because I don't wanna just copy that first record either. There's no point in doing that. I'm just using it as inspiration. It's really just full-on for metal inspiration. The songs [themselves], they're gonna have their own personality and their own vibe. But, yeah, it's coming out quite interesting. I'm excited to hear what the fans are gonna think about this one."