As this year’s Ozzfest winds down, Soulfly [ tickets ] frontman Max Cavalera can honestly say that the festival is going well, though he can’t say he’s seen a lot of it. "Walking around acting like a rock star is not my gig,” Cavalera said.

“It’s been great, the crowd reaction has been amazing," he said. "They love the songs from the new record and we’ve been playing them quite often, like 'Back to the Primitive' and 'Boom.' [But] I’ve done this so many times with Sepultura and Soulfly. You don’t see me walking around too much. I’m like a caveman. I stay in the bus, watch a lot of movies, do my show and go back."

Soulfly's “Primitive,” set for release on Sept. 26, features several high-profile guests, including Sean Lennon, Deftones lead singer Chino Moreno and Slayer frontman Tom Araya. Lennon and Cavalera, both of whom lost their fathers at the age of nine, teamed to write “Son Song.”

“We got together and went to the mountains out in the desert. We got acoustic guitars….It was just two guys jamming. We put it together and showed everybody else, [we added] the bass and drums, and boom, [we] recorded it just like that. It’s a very fresh, uncompromising kind of track with a lot of emotion because of the fact that both of us have been dealing with a lot of similar things.”

Cavalera’s passion for letting elements of Brazilian and world music bleed into heavy metal inspired the band to use everything from Jamaican vibes to the one-stringed berimbau during the recording of the 12-song album at Salt Mine Studios in Phoenix.

“I think it’s like taking things further than people expect. With the berimbau, we were able to mix different sounds with hip-hop. I believe it to be the first time that instrument has been used with a hip-hop song. It’s exciting. Five years from now, or 10 years from now, people will look back at that and say it’s the first time anyone did such a thing. For me, it’s like making history.”

Post-Ozzfest, Soulfly will headline a U.S tour with Slaves on Dope and Primer 55.