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Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait [Nuclear Blast - 2001]Soilwork's previous album "The Chainheart Machine" was were hailed by me as a good album. The songs were great, the musicians played tight and the production was good, still there was something missing on the album and soon it started to collect dust on my shelf. Now Soilwork is back with a new album called "A Predators Portrait" and this cd has the parts which I missed on the previous album.Soilwork plays a mixture of death metal and heavy metal, you might not want to call it 'the gothenburg sound' since there is so much more on this album and besides, they do not copy In Flames blatantly. "A Predators Portrait" is an album with different faces. Soilwork did their best to give the songs some variation and it works. This might be one of the few albums in this style that won't bore me after a couple of songs. The songs are mighty improved now. It seems that the band concentrated more on the song itself instead of the heavyness of the record. There is quite some catchy stuff to be found here and that's a compliment.The album has ten tracks and lasts 45 minutes. It starts with an agressive song called "Bastard Chain", which is a great way to start the album. Really fast guitars and agressive powerful vocals, grunts of course... Next up is "Like The Average Stalker", which has some heavy metal influences and is quite catchy. Song 4, called "Neurotica Rampage" is my favourite song, it combines agression with a great refrain. Really catchy, but also a great song to play live since this would do good in a pit. Next up is "The Analyst", which starts quite slow and turns into a midpaced song with again some cool clean vocals. For the first time Soilwork is using clean vocals on an album and I wish they did this before, since they are great, powerful and not overused. A great surprise is to hear Mike Akerfield from Opeth perform on two songs too.I can go on about all the other songs, but I guess you just have to hear it for yourself. Most of the tracks stand out and the musicians are playing really tight. The production is crystal clear, heavy drums and a great guitar sound, even the keyboards are great, not overused either. This might be my death metal record of the year, maybe a little bit too early to say, but I won't be surprised if Soilwork will play on all the big festivals this summer and become one of the public favourites. A must have!    Niels van Rongen
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|  | | Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait | Soilwork's previous album "The Chainheart Machine" was were hailed by me as a good album.
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