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"Verkligheten" is the eleventh studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork, released on 11 January 2019 via Nuclear Blast. It is the first album to feature drummer Bastian Thusgaard as the replacement of longtime member Dirk Verbeuren. The album's release also marks the longest gap between Soilwork studio albums to date, with their previous album, The Ride Majestic, having been released nearly three and a half years earlier.
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“Verkligheten”, Swedish for ‘reality’, now faces the unfortunate task of continuing the band’s current upward trajectory. Luckily, the leap that the Swede’s make is even larger than any they have made previously between albums. What distinguishes this vast progression is the small intricacies that subtly decorate their otherwise stereotypical sound. For, at face value, “Verkligheten” appears as nothing more than another great Soilwork album and a logical successor to “The Ride Majestic”. Songs such as “The Nurturing Glance” and “Witan” exhibit the typical mellifluous guitars and lofty vocals Soilwork’s audience has come to expect, however, the songs now have this tangible retro attitude gravitating around them. Once you notice this vintage façade, they crop up everywhere throughout the album. Stabbing NWOBHM guitars in “Full Moon Shoals”, swaggering rhythms in “Bleeder Despoiler” and the not so secretive homage to Thin Lizzy, titled: “The Wolves are Back in Town”. These are traditional Soilwork songs but have been influenced by the classic era of rock and roll where songs simply revolved around playing great riffs and anthemic vocals, much to their benefit.
Regardless of diving headfirst into these retro territories, Soilwork has effectively progressed their sound rather than abandoning it by magnifying their newfound focus on operatic cleans, dazzling guitar hooks and frantic drumming. Overall, “Verkligheten” is a wonderful way to start the new year and oversees the band unlocking a sense of potential that has been waiting patiently to be exploited for just shy of the past 10 years. That potential has enabled them to reinstate themselves as a fantastic melodic death metal band that shows no signs of tiring 20 years into their career, and it’s not often that a band this far into their career is capable of returning to their former glory.
Reviewed by Chamberbelain for sputnikmusic.com.
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