Soilwork Discography - Pt 1

Soilwork... for the better part of a decade was my favorite band. They still are top 3 honestly, and I find myself lost in their discography from time to time, but the new age we live in honestly keeps them out of the loop - since their cadence is usually 2-3 years per album. The crazy era we live in, just buries them under the massive amounts of music that comes out by the week. Regardless, they are a relentless group, constantly putting out albums every couple of years, touring, new album, touring, and you get the idea.

So how would you even describe them? Melodic death metal I think is a good place to put them, but they aren't your typical melodeath band. They are very heavy on the melody, not just having a melodic guitar lick in every song, but rather around building melodies into everything they touch. It's not just a riff, it's a melodic riff. It's not just a chug, it's a melodic chug. Not to mention they change their sound all the time, which can really divide fans. You honestly just can't pick an album and understand who they are in full. They are a band where when you hear them, you know it's them, but it's not the same album over and over in the same style.

I'll refrain from talking about the music and lyrics in the introduction for now, but I will mention a very interesting thing I noticed in their discography, which is that the albums they put out come in pairs; the first album is usually an introduction to a new style, and the second of the pair is usually a far more refined version of it. That doesn't make it better necessarily, so it's not like you're always looking for the "even number" album. Think of it more like a soup - you make a really good soup from a recipe, and then you make it a couple of more times, and eventually it becomes something different than it originally was.

So I have another discography review written, but not release yet, so not sure if this or the other one will come first, so I'll mention it here, that this isn't a chronological or favorite album list. It's a history of my personal discovery of the band. Consider it like... my history with the band plus some short reviews to go along with it.

Okay, let dump on you the amazing band Soilwork.

The Beginning

Instead of just diving in here, there's a little bit of history on how I got into the band. I was really starting to get into metal in the late 2000's/early 2010's. My favorite bands at the time were bands like Amon Amarth, DT, Trivium, COC, Pantera, and Metallica. I had heard of Soilwork from my uncle, but I hadn't really dug into anything. I had heard a couple of cool songs here and there.

Here's where a strange pivot happened. My uncle was really into "Sworn to a Great Divide" when it came out. My uncle had always loved Soilwork, and he played guitar, I did too, so we learned a song or two, but even at that time... this wasn't in my list of favorite bands, or even anything I'd listen to honestly.

Well, some time later, he then burned me an album of theirs, to which still brings back some good memories of connecting with this band.

Natural Born Chaos

This album was interesting on first listen. It was fun. It was catchy. It was pretty technical with finesse. The choruses were hooks. The solos were memorable. Everything about the album just really hit me. At the time, I also had a lot of friends into metal and they loved certain tracks off the album too.

This album is a trip, and it is #4, which is a more refined version of it's predecessor, A Predator's Portrait (which I'll get to). If you recall early melodeath in the early 2000's (think In Flames - Jester Race) and what it would become in the late 2000's (think Black Dahlia Murder), you'll know that part of melodeath scene that really attracts folks is the "death" part of the genre. Most of the popular bands in the genre appreciated it's extreme take on melody. Soilwork on NBC here, isn't really that. Guitars are catchy and groovy, but not ripping fast. Song structure is very standard as opposed to other's in genre. Drums were focused on tempo and groove, not so much on blasts and drills.

I've said it twice now, this album is melodeath... groove. It takes a spin on the melodic nature of melodeath and metalcore, combines it with Pantera/Metallica/Machine Head like grooves, and tops of everything with just a spice of death metal. Lyrics were less of a concern for me at the time as much as the music was.

However lyrically, this album is a bit of a trip lyrically. Bjorn does rip some pretty fast vocals, but there are some tracks that just emotionally hit - like As We Speak, Mindfields, The Bringer, and Song of the Damned. It's pretty clear there's themes of death, redemption, hopelessness, and addiction in there, but man does it work to connect on a deeper level.

Oh and Black Star Deceiver has Devin Townsend guest vocals in it... the screamy kind.

A Predator's Portrait

From Natural Born Chaos, I did at first just go through their previous records. Their first two... were just a little bit too raw for me at the time, didn't make much sense, but when I heard "Like the Average Stalker" I was taken aback. The guitar lick was what amazed me from the get go. Immediately, I had to learn it. I found it was actually way harder than it sounded. Then the rest of the album started to hit me.

Where NBC was an angry lion in a cage, a spectacle to be seen, APP was the lion in the wild. This is the first in the pair, album #3, and it shows. The riffs, the melody choices, and some of the guitar work just absolutely blew me away. The break in the middle of Grand Failure Anthem. The chorus sweeps in Bastard Chain. The transitions and mid riff changes, all very complex. This is by no means a "tech death" band, but there's a level of guitar playing only young adults with talent can do with enough exploration. Even slower songs like The Analyst, just listen to the pre chorus, it's got stuff in it! Drums were a tad light, but the drummer knew how to hit things properly for the song. Oh, and this album does have a few drill and blast moments.

Vocally and lyrically, the album seems to be centered around drug abuse and terrible people. There's a lot of songs that feel more personal than they should, especially being as general as they are. Bjorn even early on, really knew how to write relatable lyrics and deliver them in such a way that they both hit and connect.

And the bonus track, Asylum Dance - has the dude from Opeth guest vocals on it, the clean singing.

Most of my friends at the time, didn't like this album like they did NBC, so I was more left to enjoy this album more by myself. It's still honestly to this day, top 3 Soilwork albums for me. It's so good.

Sworn To A Great Divide

I know we're jumping around a bit in the catalog. This is album #7. However this is my history with the band, not so much any sort of organizational method. This is just how their discography laid out in my life. At the time, I had bought this CD, but it had sat for months without a single spin. After listening to the title track a few times, I gave the rest of the album a chance.

Okay so y'all - the vocals on this record are produced VERY well (turns out Devin Townsend did them with Bjorn), however... the rest of the album not so much. There's a notable absence of low end and low mid. The drums and vocals cut through pretty hard though. The general sound of the music is missing a lot, and sometimes it's really hard to listen to, especially now in an age to where modern music sounds near perfect, and most guitar, drums, and bass tones sound great almost out the box.

What saves this album is just how great the album is written, like honestly. Now keep in mind... I didn't know of everything in between NBC and this album yet, but these songs were... well were great written songs that flowed very well. There's also a shock factor; the drums in this album are MIND BLOWING compared to any of their previous work. Faster, more technical, more groovy, more forefront in the writing, taking stabs at complimenting and syncopating guitar and vocal work. Why you may ask? Dirk Verbeuren joined. He's now known for being in Megadeth, but Soilwork is where I found him.

Musically, it's just not as heavy as the rest, but since I missed a few albums here, I noticed Bjorn could sing so much better. Like actually sing, not just hum out a chorus like he did on the previous records. His lyrics were a little less... heavy now and more insightful, which I connected to a lot more, though there was definitely no absence of harsh vocals.

So when I wrote this... I took a listen to verify my thoughts. Sigh... so for every great song on the album, there's a miss too. Most of the songs off this album I don't go back to. The production eats away as it's time tested. Out of their whole discography, this is pretty close to the bottom of the list for me, even though it's still a good album and I'd listen to it over 95% of other music out there.

The Panic Broadcast

Okay album #8; the internet is a thing now, and I was well aware of this album coming along. Two Lives Worth of Reckoning and The Thrill were dropped, and there was a drum video of Dirk playing Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter. Like what? I can't even describe at the time what I was hearing. Dirk during this album cycle became my favorite drummer of all time - and still is to this day because of his work in Soilwork.

Instantly amazingly produced, super catchy, and an emotional roller coaster, this album has something about it that I can't explain. It's raw and unfiltered, unlike it's predecessor, but it's got the same melodic, uplifting drive of STAGD. Every guitar riff is memorable, it's got a little more power and intensity behind it. Drums are blistering the whole album, as well as the guitars.

Vocally and lyrically, we get this amazing performance from Bjorn. He still managed to keep his metal edge, while also pouring out beautiful melodies and insightful lyrics. This album has an overall theme of invasive, maybe even narcissistic people and the effect and rebellion against it. There's also some more depressing tracks like Epitome or Let This River Flow, but they come as more of an uplift than outright sad.

At this point in time, I was less concerned with their guitar work, because the tuning was compatible with my guitars at the time. Being into Sylosis and stuff at the time, I was a bit too far away only having like 1 guitar having to tune it all the time to play anything. I actually saw them on this cycle, it was awesome.

So the discography of Soilwork spans 12 albums. I think 3 parts of 4 albums is probably a solid point to stop without overwhelming you with a 10k word article.

Stay tuned for the next one!