{"id":10474,"date":"2013-02-27T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=10474"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:52:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:52:37","slug":"album-review-soilwork-the-living-infinite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-soilwork-the-living-infinite\/","title":{"rendered":"SOILWORK – The Living Infinite (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOILWORK
The Living Infinite<\/strong><\/span>
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\nNuclear Blast (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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After a confusing couple of albums in Sworn To A Great Divide<\/em> (2007) and The Panic Broadcast<\/em> (2010), Soilwork return with The Living Infinite<\/em>. Suffering a second loss of guitarist Peter Wichers, the band sounds like they have had enough of indecision and are ready to take Soilwork into their own, apparently very capable, hands. The album is a double-disc dose of, huge, melodic, aggressive, pure Swedish metal.<\/p>\n

What everyone wonders most is, of course, can the guitarists handle the task? Sworn To A Great Divide<\/em> couldn\u2019t rise to the occasion, it\u2019s true. This time around though, everyone plays like their career depends on it.<\/p>\n

Take for instance, the massive melodies, yet total heaviness of \u2018This Momentary Bliss\u2019. It sounds huge<\/em> and just sounds like pure Soilwork; grunting vocals coupled with soaring melodic choruses and tremendously intricate guitar work that could likely keep your attention all on their own.<\/p>\n

\u2018Spectrum Of Eternity\u2019 and \u2018Long Live The Misanthrope\u2019 are similar in sound, offering that inspiring edge Soilwork have always been good at without sacrificing the aggression that makes it metal music.<\/p>\n

The band aren\u2019t afraid to get down and dirty either though. \u2018Let The First Wave Rise\u2019 is a fast-paced headbanger that reminds me of the band\u2019s early work with its dark, ugly aggressiveness. \u2018Parasite Blues\u2019 isn\u2019t super-fast paced but the bottom end is heavy as hell and it\u2019s neo-industrial guitar work and filtered vocal make for an interesting clank.<\/p>\n

\u2018Owls Predict, Oracles Stand Guard\u2019 features doomy guitars and rhythms with a dissonant vocal that makes for a great combination. A lot more creative than your average Soilwork song, this is one of the moments where the band really steps up and tries to offer something new. Some fans will predictably \u201chate it\u201d but I love hearing the band trying to go to new places. <\/p>\n

\u2018The Living Infinite I\u2019 and \u2018The Living Infinite II\u2019 (one on each disc), are the highlights among highlights here though. \u2018I\u2019 kicks off with an acoustic intro before launching into a Gothenburg sound with a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll guitar twist. It reminds me a great deal of the band\u2019s early work sans all the macho bravado of the times. \u2018II\u2019 has a bigger melodic edge to it but is an obvious continuation, something I didn\u2019t expect. It would have been interesting to hear this as a ten-minute epic instead of split up. The guitar solo alone in \u2018II\u2019 will be enough to win you over, even if you don\u2019t like all the melody. <\/p>\n

I have to admit that while I love Soilwork, not much they have done in recent years compares to Natural Born Chaos<\/em> (2002) and The Chainheart Machine<\/em> (2000). There was just something really special about that time and how it was one of the moments where everything sounded so new and fresh. The Living Infinite<\/em> has that same spark. It just feels like the band is firing on all cylinders, like they can\u2019t be stopped.<\/p>\n

This will certainly restore your faith in the band if you found yourself losing it. If you have never heard Soilwork before, this is a great place to start, especially with two discs worth of material. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOILWORKThe Living Infinite Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 9\/10 After a confusing couple of albums in Sworn To A Great Divide (2007) and The Panic Broadcast (2010), Soilwork return with The Living Infinite. Suffering a second loss of guitarist Peter Wichers, the band sounds like they have had enough of indecision and are ready to take Soilwork […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,536],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-soilwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12095,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}