Fucking hell Soilwork are good! Seriously, great great band! I first heard this band on Triple R's 'Hard Report' 'back in the day - which I guess wasn't REALLY back in the day, but hey I was sort-of- young so give me a break! The year was 2000. Mr Andrew Hoag used to always play the song The Chainheart Machine from the album of the same name. I quickly purchased said album. This was my first real taste of thrash metal. YES EVEN BEFORE I HAD HEARD AT THE GATES!*SHOCK*! And from then on I was hooked on ye olde Swedish metal.
'Predator's Portrait' came out the following year and OH MY GOD! Thrash! Melody! Clean vocals! It had it all. So ahead of their time (probably not but fuck ya'll!).
The year after that came ‘Natural Born Chaos’ and my god! No words can describe. They took the melody from Predators to new heights on this record AND enlisted (my then and current idol) Devin Heavy Devy Townsend to produce the thing. What an amazing album. Sure, it wasn't as fast as previous records, but it was in a whole league of its own as far as song writing goes. Devin and Soilwork!? Is there anything better?
Then came the album I don't like to talk too much about. ‘Figure Number Five’. *SHUDDER*. I get a chill down my spine just thinking of this bastard of a record. Sure, there were a few catchy songs but what the fuck happened? The production was gooooone! Actually, it was nonexistent. It was muddy, lifeless and uninspired. Ugh.
How many bands can say they put out a career defining album (‘Natural Born Chaos’), then a career ending album (‘Figure Number Five’), THEN put out an album nearly as good as the career defining album? Which leads me too....
'Stabbing The Drama'. Wow. I really didn't expect much when I first grabbed this. All my doubts were laid to rest in the first 30 seconds of the opening track. New drummer? Check. Good production? Check. Epic sing-along choruses? Triple check. What a record! That new drummer fucking kills it. Genius.
The latest effort, 'Sworn To A Great Divide', is...Well, let's just say I have mixed feelings about it. The production is OK. The songs are above average. It's still great I guess, but I don't know. I think they have reached their peak. But man did we have some good years guys!
My favourite albums in order:
The Chainheart Machine (Nostalgia Thrash & sweeping duel solos = happy in the pants)
Predators Portrait (Wow!)
Natural Born Chaos (Devin, will you marry me?)
Stabbing The Drama (Great return to form!)
Sworn To A Great Divide (I can deal with it)
Steelbath Suicide (Good first record, not great)
Figure Number Five (Ew)
Soilworkers unite!
