Artist: Soilwork
Title: Övergivenheten
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 19th August 2022
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
SOILWORK being one of the pioneers of Melodic Death Metal recently released their twelfth album ‘Övergivenheten’ via NUCLEAR BLAST. During the last years, the band gradually shifted from Melodic Death Metal towards what can be best described as Modern Metal, leaving the Thrash they had mixed into their music in the past behind. I was really curious what I would get to hear, when I gave their latest release a first spin.
The album opens with title track ‘Övergivenheten’ and the band makes it clear that they are the spearheads of Melodic Death Metal. The song comes with an acoustic prone intro and if you listen close, you will find a banjo in the instrumentation, then SOILWORK invite you into their own cosmos with energetic hooks, intense riffing and leading vocals that sometimes come with a brutal harshness just to pick up the melodic approach a few moments later. Chapeau! After this almost six minutes long track, SOILWORK continue with the atmospheric ‘Nou Sommes La Guerre’. No worries, not the whole song comes with French vocals, only a few spoken word elements of the language can be found. The track is quite strong on synthies and you will also some of the AOR elements, SOILWORK often used to create their unique sound, while the Metal section is reflected by the riffing and the hook line that drives the song straight forward.
‘Electric Again’ is the perfect title for this track, that blasts from you speakers directly into you years, reminding you of the band’s heavier days back in time. The heaviness is still there, but the band set other priorities over the years, just to remind you, that they didn’t forget their early days. With ‘Valleys Of Gloam’, SOILWORK give a nod to Power Metal just to remind the listener of the amazing ‘The Ride Majestic’ era, full of blasting beats ‘Is It In Your Darkness’ is a highlight of this album and the guitar shredders set highlight after highlight with riffing and solo parts and many changes in loudness and tempo.
‘Vultures’ is the complete opposite, a lengthy track with inconsistent sound and melody, skip it. ‘Morgongåva / Stormfågel’ is a wonderful instrumental track, that kind of marks the halftime of the album. ‘Death, I Hear You Calling’ might not be everybody’s cup of tea, as you can hear some influences of Björn’s side-project THE NIGHTFLIGHT ORCHESTRA and it somehow feels out of place on this album. If you love atmospheric choruses, then you will fall for ‘This Godless Universe’ that also comes with excellent melodies that offer Björn Strind to show the amazing dimensions of his voice. ‘Dreams Of Nowhere’ is strong coming to the rhythm section and comes with broad riffing patterns that give the song a certain heaviness.
The next track called ‘Golgata’ as such is a nice track, if they just had let out the Prog elements, it would have sounded even better. You can hear SOILWORK at their best, merging all the decades of the band’s sound in ‘Harvest Spine’. Wonderful guitar work, excellent riffing, great melodies and a heavy groove in the leading vocals passages and Björn’s voice shining all over the track. This is gonna be one of the fans favorites in the future for sure. With ‘On The Wings Of A Goddess / Through Flaming Sheets Of Rain’ the band merged almost every style they displayed on this album in one track, you will find AOR, amazing guitar solo parts and the bands trademark Melodic Death Metal, but somehow an arc of tension is missing and it feels a bit, as if the parts just have been glued together, soe every style and every band member get a spot.
‘Övergivenheten’ starts with a blast and bans the listeners attention during the first part of the album, afterwards there are a few experimental elements and tracks that are a bit lengthy, if you give the album several spins. SOILWORK gave their dedicated fans an unexpected variety of songs and styles and many of the tracks will become highlights being performed live on stage.
Tracklist
01. Övergivenheten
02. Nous Sommes La Guerre
03. Electric Again
04. Valleys Of Gloam
05. Is It In Your Darkness
06. Vultures
07. Morgongåva / Stormfågel
08. Death, I Hear You Calling
09. This Godless Universe
10. Dreams Of Nowhere
11. The Everlasting Flame
12. Golgata
13. Harvest Spine
14. On The Wings Of A Goddess / Through Flaming Sheets Of Rain
Line-up
Björn “Speed” Strid – vocals
David Andersson – guitar
Sven Karlsson – keyboard
Sylvain Coudret – guitar
Bastian Thusgaard – drums
Website
https://www.soilwork.org
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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