Review by Andy Valentine
Soilwork is a good band. Actually no, fuck that. Soilwork is a great band.
Now, to be fair, a whole lot of fans considered their previous studio effort Stabbing the Drama to be a misstep for the band. For sure, earlier works like Figure Number Five and Natural Born Chaos were verifiable masterpieces. While Stabbing the Drama had a couple of really strong tracks, most notably “Nerve,” the album lacked the Scandinavian Death-Melody style that made the previous efforts so damn good.
Now Soilwork is back with their seventh studio record Sworn to a Great Divide. Although many fans had been fearful because of founding guitarist Peter Winchers’ departure from the band, his replacement, Daniel Antonsson has truly hit the ground running. Sworn to a Great Divide is far and away better than its predecessor, and almost reaches the pinnacle quality of Soilwork’s earlier works.
Right off the bat, the riff thundering off the opening title track bounces right into the listener’s ears. The second track, and first single “Exile,” is equally as good, although not the most standout track on the record. It’s a wonder why superior tracks like “Your Beloved Scapegoat” were not considered as the first single.
Soilwork’s greatest strength, in my opinion, has been the sheer vocal ability of frontman Bjorn “Speed” Strid. The guy is a fucking dynamo. He’s the sort of person born with a set of pipes like he was destined to become a metal god. Seriously, a guy like this, there’s no way he wasn’t going to become a heavy metal hero. On stage, the guy delivers with the precision of a hummingbird and the presence of a prize fighter.
Although on earlier records Speed’s voice has been fantastic - on this record, he goddamn shines. For the first time in 7 studio attempts, Speed is finally starting to play a little with his vocal style. The vocal sessions for this record were laid to tape with the assistance of the legendary Devin Townsend. The work he’s done with Speed really shows through. Truly, the vocal delivery on this record is beautiful. It’s as if the rest of the band has to struggle to keep up.
In this vein, tracks like “Sworn to a Great Divide,” “Your Beloved Scapegoat,” and “Martyr” have a vocal style unlike anything you’ve heard on a Soilwork record before. It’s a sort of rhythmic break-bit delivery that only someone, like I said, precise as Speed Strid could pull off. If and when the rest of this band catches up to Speed (so to speak), Soilwork will be fucking unstoppable.
You know, world domination, and so on.
This album will not disappoint Soilwork fans. In fact, it may even please some of the ones where left out in the cold the last time the band cut a studio record. This is all around good shit.
I do have a pretty significant gripe though, in the fucking endless limited editions that are distributed in different parts of the world. The copy I’ve reviewed, I had a single bonus tracks, “Martyr,” and it rocks. The Japanese get two different tracks, but not the one I’ve got. If they’ve recorded these songs, put them all on the damn record so everyone can hear them. I don’t want to have to track down some overpriced import discs just so I can hear a couple of tracks that should have been included on the original studio release.