Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rolla is a 2014 single released by Soulfly. The song was first released on the album '' Savages'' in 2013. The song's title was inspired by a quote from the film ''

Mad Max 2 ''Mad Max 2'' (released as ''The Road Warrior'' in the United States) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the ''Mad Max'' franchise, with Mel Gibson reprising his role a ...

.'' The song features Neil Fallon of

Clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

, providing clean vocals in addition to roars by

Max Cavalera Massimiliano Antonio "Max" Cavalera (; born August 4, 1969) is a Brazilian musician. He co-founded the heavy metal band Sepultura in 1984 with his brother Igor Cavalera, and was the band's lead singer and rhythm guitarist until his departure i ...

. The song contains elements of

Southern metal Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar specula ...

in the

Pantera Pantera () is an American heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas formed in 1981, and currently comprised of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-kn ...

style. Fallon has thoughts about himself and Cavalera singing together, "I am stoked to have been asked by Max to participate on the 'Ayatollah of Rock 'N' Rolla' track! Max brought Clutch out on some of our earliest and most formative tours and this brought back some very fond memories of singing with Max all those years ago." Cavalera quoted about his likeness to '' Ghost Cult'' magazine, "A song like 'Ayatollah of Rock 'N' Rolla,' it was something totally new. I never did anything like that before. It starts with like this country, cowboy riff, and Neil starts talking over it and it was so killer! And of course that line in the chorus 'Ayatollah of Rock 'N' Rolla' is from Mad Max. It's probably my favorite song on the album. I don't want to make the same record over and over." Cavalera commented to Songfacts about why he wanted Neil Fallon to join him, "I thought it was a great idea to do a song with Clutch, and mixing Soulfly and Clutch together in the same song for me sounded just so amazing and unusual and wild and exotic, which was great. We did it and it sounds killer."

Personnel

;Band members *

– vocals, rhythm guitar * Marc Rizzo – lead guitar * Tony Campos – bass *

Zyon Cavalera Zyon Cavalera (born January 19, 1993) is an American drummer, best known as the son of ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera and as the current drummer for Soulfly and Lody Kong. Background Zyon Cavalera was born on January 19, 1993. His father M ...

– drums, percussion ;Guest * Neil Fallon – co-vocals ;Other staff * Terry Date – production, engineering, mixing * Sam Hofstedt – assistant engineering *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

– mastering * Max Cavalera – writing

References

External links

Lyrics
{{authority control Soulfly songs 2014 singles 2013 songs Songs written by Max Cavalera Nuclear Blast Records singles