Soilwork - Verkligheten

Artist: Soilwork
Album: Verkligheten
Year: 2019
Rating: 76/100

With a long and illustrious career behind them now, Helsingborg melodic death metal stalwarts Soilwork gear up to give us their eleventh studio album, "Verkligheten" (in English: Reality). This also gives them the opportunity to announce new drummer Bastian Thusgaard, who replaced Dirk Verbeuren when he went to join Megadeth. So how does this one stack up?

The title track "Verkligheten" sets the tone for what comes before "Arrival" launches itself into life with a barrage of blastbeats, buzzsaw guitars and Björn "Speed" Strid's ability to switch between a mid pitch scream and his excellent clean tones. We get a few other gems among the standard Soilwork fare, like "Bleeder Despoiler", "The Nurturing Glance", and "Needles and Kin", featuring a solid guest growled vocal turn from Amorphis frontman Tomi Joutsen. Elsewhere, Arch Enemy frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz appears on "Stålfågel", one of the more interesting numbers on the album.

"Verkligheten" is a solid album on the whole, but it's not an album that will win Soilwork any new fans, unlike some of its more spectacular predecessors like "The Chainheart Machine" and "Natural Born Chaos", or even "The Living Infinite". However, it serves as a solid introduction to the band for new drummer Bastian Thusgaard, who can deliver some solid blastbeats as well as the slower numbers.

Track listing

1. Verkligheten (instrumental)
2. Arrival
3. Bleeder Despoiler
4. Full Moon Shoals
5. The Nurturing Glance
6. When the Universe Spoke
7. Stålfågel
8. The Wolves are Back in Town
9. Witan
10. The Ageless Whisper
11. Needles and Kin (featuring Tomi Joutsen)
12. You Aquiver (featuring Dave Sheldon)