The veteran Swedish metal group's tenth studio long-player,
Verkligheten arrives via its cinematic title track, a slow-burn instrumental that evokes
Bring Me the Horizon by way of
Ennio Morricone.
Soilwork have been infusing punishing Gothenburg-style death metal with European power metal majesty since the mid-'90s, and
Verkligheten doesn't disappoint on the latter end of the equation, delivering a meaty 12-track set that's spilling over with soaring guitarmonies and horned hand-soliciting choruses. While vocalist
Bjorn Strid and guitarist
David Andersson's retro hard rock side project
Night Flight Orchestra looms large over the proceedings, the band can still turn out unholy slabs of seismic Scandinavian melodic death metal, as evidenced by the terrific blastbeat-basted "When the Universe Spoke" and the sleek groove metal banger "Bleeder Despoiler." That said,
Verkligheten leans significantly harder on the AOR side of the hard rock spectrum, with only cursory nods to the band's metalcore-leaning sixth full-length effort -- and biggest commercial success --
Stabbing the Drama. Embracing the pomp of power and neo-classical metal via stadium-ready rockers like "Full Moon Shoals," the Tomi Joutsen- (
Amorphis) assisted "Needles and Kin," and the powerhouse "Nurturing Glance,"
Soilwork have crystallized their sound into something unapologetically familiar and over the top, yet refreshingly sanguine. ~ James Christopher Monger