Wednesday, Aug. 18; Sunshine Theater (all ages, 8 p.m.): Prophecy is not my favorite Soulfly album, but no one can deny that Max Cavalera continues to push the boundaries of metal as hard and as relentlessly as any other artist in the game. Cavalera, who established himself as a powerful musical force with Sepultura before creating Soulfly, is an expert in harnessing the spiritual thunder of tribal music and Latin influences, and shackling them to knee-weakening metal arrangements. The results are complex—classic thrash giving way to hardcore, tinged with everything from flamenco and Moroccan aesthetics to, in the case of Prophecy, Serbian folk music. But regardless of the different sounds he chooses to use in a given song, Cavalera always makes a point of pouring down your throat in molten form. You always know what you're going to get from Soulfly—stunning unpredictability.
