Ritual is the eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Soulfly, released on October 19, 2018, through Nuclear Blast. It is the third Soulfly album with Max Cavalera's son Zyon on drums and the last to feature lead guitarist Marc Rizzo. It features musical guests Randy Blythe of Lamb of God, Ross Dolan of Immolation, and Mark Damon of The Pretty Reckless. Four singles were released from the albumâÂÂ"Evil Empowered", title track "Ritual", "Dead Behind the Eyes", and "Under Rapture".
The album was produced by Josh Wilbur. Max Cavalera stated "For this one, we really tried to retain the groove of early Soulfly as well as my love for the heavy, fast stuff I'm into: like death and black metal and some hardcore. Working with Josh Wilbur for Soulfly this time around has been amazing. He's a huge fan and added a lot to the record. I would fight for the fast songs and he would always push me to add more groove. I think in the end we created a really cool mix of songs that covers a lot of ground in my career".
Ritual sold 3,600 copies in its first week of release in the US and is the first Soulfly album to not debut on the US Billboard 200. It is their first album since 2010's Omen to have its installment of their self-titled song series on the standard edition.
Ritual received generally favorable reviews by critics, with the aggregate score of 75% on Metacritic. Prior to release, Wall of Sound writer Jim Birkin rated the album 9/10, stating: "There is undoubtedly some old school Cavalera creeping into his music these days and that can only be a good thing. May all future Soulfly albums contain Josh Wilbur in its production." This album was awarded a 2018 Metal Storm Award for Best Thrash Metal Album.