PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Swedish death metal time, and in the Pantheon of the “greats” of the genre we have Soilwork. Now, while I prefer the overall output of In Flames, Soilwork are an enjoyable band and have a very impressive body of work to put a live set from. So going into this one I was optimistic.
With a set pulled from their full career, fans of this will be into this from the opener of “The Momentary Bliss” into “Like The Average Stalker”. I popped big for the material from the “Stabbing The Drama” record. Personal my favourites here were “Weapon of Vanity” and “Nerve”.
The live performances from the band overall were great; but were really hurt by the substandard singing from frontman Björn Strid. This is odd as most will tout him as one of the best singers in the Swedish death metal genre in particularly when compared to Andres of In Flames. I didn’t hear it here; it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t as good as the rest of the lads. The backing vocal were fine throughout.
The mix of the live band from a guitar and bass standpoint was fantastic. The played perfect and there was nothing that I could point to as a low point in their set. One of the best examples of their tightness as a live band was in the “Let This River Flow”; I loved this song and it was played so well. The groove of the bassline is perfect and the drums have a nice crisp sound.
I have to, of course, give a special mention to bassist Ola Fink. His work as a live bassist is everything that it needs to be to carry the songs forward and be a standout on its own. His work on this live album is a really good example of how to play within the pocket of death metal. It can be done and Fink proves it.
NOTE: I reviewed this as an MP3 release it comes as a 2 CDs and a Blu Ray set.
Soilwork are:
Björn “Speed” Strid – Vocals
Ola Flink – Bass
Sven Karlsson – Keyboards
Dirk Verbeuren – Drums
David Andersson – Guitar
Sylvain Coudret – Guitar
TrackList:
CD1
01. This Momentary Bliss
02. Like The Average Stalker
03. Overload
04. Weapon Of Vanity
05. Spectrum Of Eternity
06. Follow The Hollow
07. Parasite Blues
08. Distortion Sleep
09. Bastard Chain
10. Let This River Flow
11. Long Live The Misanthrope
12. Tongue
CD2
01. Nerve
02. The Chainheart Machine
03. The Living Infinite I
04. Rise Above The Sentiment
05. Late For The Kill, Early For The Slaughter
06. Rejection Role
07. Black Star Deceiver
08. As The Sleeper Awakes
09. Sadistic Lullabye
10. As We Speak
11. Stabbing The Drama
- £20.99
