Artist: Soilwork
Title: A Whisp Of The Atlantic
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 4th December 2020
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
SOILWORKS latest release deals with an interesting topic that affects us all in times of social distancing, streaming concerts and the uncertainty what’s coming up next: alienation.
”If you came from a different realm, like the Atlantis, how would you experience our world? Or, how do we deal with the fact that our planet is a very different place because of the pandemic, and that we all have things that we miss that we might never get to experience again in their original form? Or is the world we live in now actually already the sunken world, from the ruins of which we might one day be able to build something better? I’ve always felt that SOILWORK was a bit underrated as band, and that no one really understood what we were able to do. So, I’ve had this dream for quite a few years to write a really epic song and show off what this band was really capable of”, David Andersson states.
While the album is built around one of the primal elements: water, its also closes SOILWORKS circle of the ‘The Feverish Trinity’.
‘A Whisp Of The Atlantic’ is not only the title track, but was also chosen as an opener. This opus lasts more than 16 minutes and won’t let you down for a second. The excellent production highlights everything SOILWORK is capable of. Melodies focussing on piano are contradicted by guitar and drum blasts, melodic parts that will see you raining your fists and banging your head, midtempo but enchanting guitarwork and effortless changes in techniques between all the parts of this opus. To see this live on stage, will be a blast for sure. Since this song swallowed nearly half of the EP’s running time, it’s interesting to see which aspects of SOILWORK and Björns and Davids side-project THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA will be merged on this EP.
‘Feverish’ is a Heavy Metal blast but with some interesting synths in the background. ‘Desperado’ has a fantastic heaviness and an interesting part in the background that’s sound like strings but might be synthies and this combination of heaviness and melodic aspects comes pretty straight forward, while ‘Death Diviner’ comes very slow but builds up a bit of strength and heaviness until the last chorus that really kicks some serious ass. The last track ‘The Nothingness And The Devil’ kicks off with a riff that reminds you of the epic 80s Rock songs and the keyboards pick up the tune and gives you that time-machine feeling. The vocals remind you a bit of THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA’s style until the drums kick in and dire you back in to SOILWORKS world.
All in all it’s an interesting combination and the EP has really nice parts, but somehow you get the feeling that the album lacks a bit of structure. SOILWORK set out to conquer new fields and prove their abilities, but somehow those synthies elements gives you the impression that Björn and David might have mixed up the songs they wrote for their side-project and the ones they intended to write for SOILWORK. The lyrics tackle really many ideas and theories but the topic is not always underlined by the music and not every listener might be ready to consult written sources about the topics the lyrics seem to deal with.
Tracklist
01. A Whisp Of The Atlantic
02. Feverish
03. Desperado
04. Death Diviner
05. The Nothingness And The Devil
Line-up
Björn “Speed” Strid – vocals
David Andersson – guitar
Sven Karlsson – keyboard
Sylvain Coudret – guitar
Bastian Thusgaard – drums
Website
https://www.soilwork.org / https://facebook.com/soilwork
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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