Soilwork
The Living Infinite

I've been following Soilwork since their debut with Steelbath Suicide, and although the Swedes now play a completely different genre (let's be honest, just having blast beats and double pedal as a base for fast, then melodic riffs, alternating with clean vocals doesn't define an album as "melodic death metal"), I admire them for two reasons; the first is that they have managed to maintain their own sound unlike some of their compatriots, and the second for having achieved the goal of releasing a double CD of original songs.

Recording and composing a double album isn't something just anyone can do - no matter the musical genre - but the flip side of this release's coin immediately reveals a big mistake... the inconsistency! "The Living Infinite" is nothing more than a mix of metal tracks interspersed with more rock tracks; it would have been wiser to put all the metal tracks on one CD and all the rock tracks on the other. An example? Tracks number 2, 9, and 10 on Disc 1 ("Memories Confined", "The Windswept Mercy", and "Whispers And Light") seem like fish out of water among the other 7 songs, just as the closing track on Disc 2 ("Owl Predict, Oracles Stand Guard") seems inserted purely to reach a total of 20 tracks as I can't find any connection with the rest of the album.

I will avoid a "track by track" analysis because with a double album I would go on endlessly; "Spectrum Of Eternity" and "This Momentary Bliss" are the first two singles released through the Nuclear Blast channel and (setting aside yet another CD intro of strings followed by drum blast beats now in vogue), listening to them before buying the CD could make you think of an interesting return to the ideas conceived in A Predator's Portrait but don't expect anything like that; despite the Helsingborg band receiving new musical inspiration with the entry of guitarists Sylvain Coudret / David Andersson and the excellent drumming of Dirk as a superb replacement for the historic Henry Ranta, the rest of the album (except for episodes like "Vesta" and "The Living Infinite pt.2" - with an almost country flavor thanks to their acoustic openings - "Long Live The Misanthrope" - for which the band even shot a video, in my opinion, pointless except for the old man headbanging - "Antidotes In Passing" - which I personally love for its Opeth-like sound - and "Loyal Shadow", an instrumental where the band draws from prog/rock influences that seem to echo "In The Dead Of Night" by U.K.) is a continuous echo of the shadows of Natural Born Chaos ("Tongue", "Rise Above The Sentiment"), Figure Number Five ("Memories Confined", "Whispers And Light" and "Parasite Blues") and Stabbing The Drama ("Let The First Waves Arise", "Leeches") interspersed with brief moments where the Soilwork of The Chainheart Machine resurface.

That said, the audio production is excellent as usual (perhaps Bjorn Strid's clean vocals are overly effected on some occasions) and good arranging work; recommended for open-minded listeners but not for long-time fans.

PERSONAL NOTE: If I worked for the Highway Service, I would recommend it as a travel album.