Rock 'N' Roll Survivors: Soilwork - Selling the Drama
Ben Morrow
Issue date: 3/28/05 Section: Entertainment
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When most twenty-year-old guys think about Sweden, well our thoughts are normally about gorgeous blonde girls with cute accents and maybe, maybe some nice scenery or something. However, this European nation has one other prolific entity: the ability to produce some of the loudest and most brutal metal bands around, and this fact is certainly not lost upon some of us. Chief examples of this ambitious little country's contributions to the rock industry would be In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, The Haunted, and now Soilwork.
Initially formed in 1997, Soilwork exists as a six-membered chain reaction of guitarists Peter Wichers and Ola Frenning, Ola Flink on bass, Sven Karlsson on keyboards, drummer Dirk Verbeuren, and singer/screamer Bjorn "Speed" Strid. After penning two records for Listenable Records (1998's Steel Bath Suicide and 2000's The Chainheart Machine), the band was picked up by Nuclear Blast Records, which helped to bring their name across the pond to America. Work had immediately begun on what would become A Predator's Portrait (2001), and with definitive skill-honing and a major label backing them, the Swedish sextet made their American debut that year at the Milwaukee Metalfest. Next came Natural Born Chaos (2002) and Figure Number Five (2003), two albums that were undeniably powerful and intense as the dual guitar attack started ripping right from the first tracks, and the appearance of more keyboards and eletronics filled in what few gaps were left to patch. The first American tour for the band was set between these two albums in support of Killswitch Engage, and as a result Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles Magazine chose the band as their "Brave Pick Of The Year." Subsequent touring with other metal frontrunners like Bleeding Through and countrymen In Flames had also helped the band to claw their way towards the top of the American metal scene, ultimately progressing to their new album, Stabbing the Drama, and a spot on Ozzfest 2005.
Stabbing the Drama is the most defined and well-written album the band has released. Period. Speed is and has been a great vocalist from day one, but with Natural Born Chaos, melody started to become a potent factor in his delivery, substituting all-out growling for some more lyrical notes. And this is how Soilwork have remained important and shown that they matter. Even the best metal bands have to change over time to keep from becoming stale and releasing the same album every time out. Right from the first song on the album, the title track, the tone is dark and downright huge. With dramatic building up of the intro and the suspension in the verse, the churning sounds begin to entice the listener into a sense of orchestrated destruction. While this hard beating pace keeps up throughout the next eleven songs, each of which is equally magnificent and devastating at the same time, two songs jut from the shear rock face of this solid album. The first is "Nerve," as electronic-laced track with towering vocals and effectively well executed solo. "Blind Eye Halo" would be the other standout, a brisk little tune of death metal fury that in less than two and a half minutes delivers a viscous roar that is performed with the utmost technically skillful guitar perfection. At just over forty-five minutes, this is one album and band that will highlight the stages across America this summer, spreading forth the good word of Swedish melodic heavy metal.
Initially formed in 1997, Soilwork exists as a six-membered chain reaction of guitarists Peter Wichers and Ola Frenning, Ola Flink on bass, Sven Karlsson on keyboards, drummer Dirk Verbeuren, and singer/screamer Bjorn "Speed" Strid. After penning two records for Listenable Records (1998's Steel Bath Suicide and 2000's The Chainheart Machine), the band was picked up by Nuclear Blast Records, which helped to bring their name across the pond to America. Work had immediately begun on what would become A Predator's Portrait (2001), and with definitive skill-honing and a major label backing them, the Swedish sextet made their American debut that year at the Milwaukee Metalfest. Next came Natural Born Chaos (2002) and Figure Number Five (2003), two albums that were undeniably powerful and intense as the dual guitar attack started ripping right from the first tracks, and the appearance of more keyboards and eletronics filled in what few gaps were left to patch. The first American tour for the band was set between these two albums in support of Killswitch Engage, and as a result Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles Magazine chose the band as their "Brave Pick Of The Year." Subsequent touring with other metal frontrunners like Bleeding Through and countrymen In Flames had also helped the band to claw their way towards the top of the American metal scene, ultimately progressing to their new album, Stabbing the Drama, and a spot on Ozzfest 2005.
Stabbing the Drama is the most defined and well-written album the band has released. Period. Speed is and has been a great vocalist from day one, but with Natural Born Chaos, melody started to become a potent factor in his delivery, substituting all-out growling for some more lyrical notes. And this is how Soilwork have remained important and shown that they matter. Even the best metal bands have to change over time to keep from becoming stale and releasing the same album every time out. Right from the first song on the album, the title track, the tone is dark and downright huge. With dramatic building up of the intro and the suspension in the verse, the churning sounds begin to entice the listener into a sense of orchestrated destruction. While this hard beating pace keeps up throughout the next eleven songs, each of which is equally magnificent and devastating at the same time, two songs jut from the shear rock face of this solid album. The first is "Nerve," as electronic-laced track with towering vocals and effectively well executed solo. "Blind Eye Halo" would be the other standout, a brisk little tune of death metal fury that in less than two and a half minutes delivers a viscous roar that is performed with the utmost technically skillful guitar perfection. At just over forty-five minutes, this is one album and band that will highlight the stages across America this summer, spreading forth the good word of Swedish melodic heavy metal.