At best, Soulfly are an awesome summation of what would become the now, much-mocked genre of nu-metal. At worst, they are a repetitive, self-indulgent solo project that has lasted for over six years. The group has managed to survive by applying some core values of diversity, capricious style and generally wearing one's heart on one's sleeve. The musical technicality is habitually at a fairly base level, but this is a predicament delightfully eclipsed by the utter intensity of drum battering and string-thrashing rage that contributes to the collective distorted din.

As a retrospective career spanning release, The Song Remains Insane is a monster mix of material in varying formats, inclusive of predictable hits and true fan favourites alike. The more indigenous mellow tracks are, however, painfully misrepresented. In the eardrum-bursting department, not too surprisingly it is the earlier Soulfly material that sounds the sweetest, with the odd Sepultura cover (e.g. Roots Bloody Roots) eclipsing most of Max's post-millennial efforts.

Eye For An Eye and Tribe perhaps sound so good because they could have been played by Sepultura without anyone batting so much as an eyelid. This said, no matter how high a pedestal you place Mr Cavalera on for his musical achievements, it's songs like Jump The F**k Up which bring him crashing back down to wrestling soundtrack level.

For the committed, this package will not fail to impress, with an deep insight into Mr Cavalera and his "tribe". With a back catalogue of video promos, live performances and some bonus live clips too, thankfully, the majority of the focus is on the music. However, it should be noted that most of the live tracks, whilst appearing visually impressive, sound like a dodgy mic has been placed in a bucket of mud beneath the stage to record the event for posterity. I'm sure if you were there it was great, but in the comfort of my front room with a mug of tea and a biscuit, most of the live tracks came across as a mess.

The main part of the interview material consists of Max sat in the desert with a stick, talking about how unique his music is and how he always makes unpredictable choices when making his records. This may well be true, as his latest "zany" move was to re-staff his entire group upon the commencement of recording their latest record Prophecy. Hmm, there's unpredictability - and then there's ego.

For a man who has previously labelled himself the John Lennon of heavy metal, some would say the Latin ruffian is either verging on prophetic or pathetic. However, having worked with everyone from the expected (Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Cypress Hill) to the downright weird (Cher's son Elijah Blue and Serbian reggae groups), and having even found time to guest with Lennon's son, Sean, you can't knock the man for trying. And try he shall no doubt continue to do, with a seemingly high success rate.

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