Soilwork - The Panic Broadcast (4/5)

01. Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter 04:09 02. Two Lives Worth of Reckoning 04:56 03. The Thrill 04:33 04. Deliverance is Mine 03:50 05. Night Comes Clean 05:11 06. King of the Threshold 04:57 07. Let This River Flow 05:20 08. Epitome 04:45 09. The Akuma Afterglow 04:29 10. Enter Dog of Pavlov 05:36

Swedish melodic death metal stalwarts Soilwork recorded their last album, 2007’s ‘Sworn to a Great Divide’, without founding lead guitarist Peter Wichers, but overcame his departure to turn out a surprisingly decent effort; the band didn’t try to copycat his distinctive technical guitar style (well, apart from maybe on “The Pittsburgh Syndrome“), but instead focused on their other strengths, like Bjorn Strid’s impressive vocal range. As a result, there were a lot more big, catchy choruses, and Sven Karlsson’s keyboards played a slightly more central role - fair enough, it may have been a slightly more “commercial” approach, but it was still recognisably Soilwork, and it was still pretty damn good. However, Wichers returned almost as quickly as he’d left, and is very much a driving factor on the band’s latest (eighth) album, ‘The Panic Broadcast’.

One might be tempted to expect the return of Wichers to simply see the band revert to the style they were pursuing before he left, to just carry on like ‘Sworn to a Great Divide’ hadn’t happened. To their credit, though, they’ve continued that sound to a great extent, but at the same time re-integrated the technical guitar wizardry of their founding lead guitarist. It’s a real progression, a step forward for the band, and a pleasing sign of a band willing to push forward and pursue evolution in their music. Which is all well and good, as long as the music is also up to scratch - and happily for all involved, ‘The Panic Broadcast’ is also a good collection of songs.

“Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter” effectively carries the sound of Pete Wichers kicking the Soilwork door down and racing in all guns blazing. He’s back, and he means business…this is probably the most aggressive and intense song on the album, totally devoid of clean vocals, with Wichers providing the melody through his searing guitar lead, which includes an almost joyous guitar solo soaring above the tumultuous sea of double-bass and thunderous riffs.

“Two Lives Worth of Reckoning” follows, and is slightly more indicative of the band’s style on this album; fast, heavy choruses with harsh vocals - kind of an American hardcore style shouty approach from Strid - coupled with melodic choruses and clean vocals. There’s no real evidence that Sven Karlsson is in the band at this point, as Wicher’s guitar takes centre stage alongside Strid’s vocals - and of course there’s another epic guitar solo. This is one of those “ain’t broke don’t fix” templates that can be found in several songs on the album.

“The Thrill” continues this trend in the meantime, with Wichers crafting deliciously meaty yet complex riffs, and Strid stretching his impressive vocal wings still further. “Night Comes Clean” is almost the album’s first change of pace, taking a more mid-tempo approach in the choruses, where Sven Karlsson’s keyboards make their first real impact - there are definite traces of synth in the verses, to boot. That said, Dirk Verbeuren’s vicious drumming still makes the whole thing sound heavier and more aggressive than a pissed-off bull elephant.

“Let This River Flow” is a much more mid-tempo, groove-based number, opening and closing with an acoustic rhythm and clean guitar lead melody. It also features perhaps the album’s most anthemic chorus, with Strid proving he’s every bit as proficient at clean vocals as the more extreme variety. This song is a great example of a band trying something a bit different, perhaps just a bit outside of their comfort zone, but succeeding magnificently. Closing track “Enter Dog of Pavlov” also toys with the format somewhat, opening with a sort of instrumental jam for the first two minutes, before settling into a breakneck number which ends the album in much the same spirit as “Late for the Kill…” opened it, taking no prisoners, at absolute full speed.

In addition to returning on lead guitar and writing several of the songs, Wichers has taken on the production duties for the album too, and has done a pretty competent job; the whole thing sounds pretty robust and well-polished, with a slightly thicker tone than found on ‘Sworn to a Great Divide’. He may have been just a little guilty of prioritising his own guitars over the keyboards in the mix, which are often barely audible no matter how you tweak the EQ - although their significance does grow as the album progress. There is space aplenty for Dirk Verbeuren’s drums, which alongside the guitars are the driving force that keeps the entire album ticking at a frantic pace, and it all comes together as a convincingly solid and overbearingly heavy package.

If you want to simplify the issue, what we’ve got here is ‘Sworn to a Great Divide’ with more guitar solos. Which is by no means a bad or negative description, but it belies the fact that almost every facet of Soilwork’s music has just gone up a notch on this effort; Strid and Wichers in particular have invented new stops to pull out, and Dirk Verbeuren is an absolute dynamo behind the drum kit. To reiterate the opening point in this review, this is an evolution, a step forward for Soilwork. This is not a band standing still or resting on their laurels; while they’ve played an important part in the history of melodic death metal genre, this release proves that they’re also very much part of its future.

The Panic Broadcast is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Melodic Death Metal

Article by Phil Sim