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Soilwork | Natural Born Chaos

Good, but still crushed under the weight of the brilliance of The Chainheart Machine.
CD, Nuclear Blast/Suburban

Tekst: Brian McManus

Publicatiedatum: 25 juni 2002

Soilwork has a problem. A BIG problem. You see, two years ago these musical demons from Sweden released an album called The Chainheart Machine. That album is quite possibly the greatest of the New Wave of Swedish Death Metal since Slaughter Of The Soul. You may be wondering where the problem is. Well, that was their second album. Whereas, in At The Gates' case, Slaughter Of The Soul was their final album. Recording an album of such greatness as The Chainheart Machine so early in the band's existence means that every album Soilwork release thereafter will not only be compared to it, but will be expected to exceed it.

And this is where we stand today: two years and two albums later. In Februrary of 2001, A Predator's Portrait was released and was well received by the underground media. But the main thing that was running through my mind was "it's good, but Chainheart Machine is better." Not to say that it was a bad album; only that it didn't carry on where The Chainheart Machine left off. And now, with the release of Natural Born Chaos, it appears to be more of the same. Great music, catchy tunes, awesome riffs... but it still pales in comparison to Chainheart Machine.

It is difficult to impartially review an album of a band you know and love. One comes to expect certain things, and cannot forget about previous releases... the reasons why a person loves a band. But here is an attempt: The first 20 seconds of the first song, Follow The Hollow, show some great potential. Once the chorus kicks in (22 seconds into the album is a bit early, no?), it reveals itself as following in the footsteps of A Predator's Portrait. Still fantastic music and keeps the listener interested, but this reviewer's mind could not help but say "it's good, but Chainheart is better." There is less of the thrashiness and speed that made Soilwork one of the best in the NWOSDM genre.

The second song, As We Speak, leads us along with more of their breed of melodic death metal. A bit of Borknagar squeezes through at the beginning, but vanishes after the intro. It seems that after these first two songs, however, that Soilwork implements a bit more of the melodic, thrashy death goodness they are known for. For the most part, No More Angels and Song Of The Damned fill in where the rest of the album missed. Though the keyboards occasionally go too far.

Overall, it's not fair to say that they have pulled an In Flames on us, as the album definitely contains many parts where the 'old' sound of Soilwork shines through (I can remember yelling "Now there's a Chainheart riff!!" aloud). This album, while still lacking a bit in comparison to Chainheart Machine, is a step forward from A Predator's Portrait and definitely shows that Soilwork is here to stay. It's not quite enough to make one forget about Chainheart Machine, but it's a fair shake at upholding the Soilwork name. And considering they have released three albums in three years, things could have turned out much worse.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/soilwork/natural-born-chaos/1646/
Meer Soilwork op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/soilwork