Album number 8. I’ve got all of them and I can tell you that “The Panic Broadcast” is recognisably Soilwork. Large dollops of killing Melodic Thrash and huge climactic moments are what I’ve become used to, and I’ve always been amazed how Soilwork have managed to re-work the same formula and come up with something bigger each time. Ok, they’re commercial, too much so on “Natural Born Chaos” in my humble and largely solitary opinion, but the catchiness of the harmonies and melody are the source of the appeal. They’re also aggressive and capture this on album as they do on stage. Soilwork are the face of modern Melodic Metal. In short, they have a lot to live up to on this album.
The first track “Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter” was a surprise. This is old school Thrash Metal and harks back strongly to the first two albums “Steelbath Suicide” and “The Chainheart Machine”. Strid sings himself hoarse. “Two Lives Worth of Reckoning” takes us to the more modern version of Soilwork. Strong on Thrash, it has a very commercial harmony. In fact if anything it’s too clean. The track has interest though and at one stage soars to the heights. What is different compared to previous works is the pace. Verbeuren drums at a million miles per hour, so the guitarist has to keep up. There’s a solo and melody aplenty. “Two Lives Worth of Reckoning” tells us there’s plenty of life in the old soil. The next two tracks suggest a more technical edge. On “The Thrill”, Strid supplements the aggression and technical lead by shouting at us. Nothing new there. On “Deliverance is Mine”, the difference is in the rhythm. Again it’s faster and more technical than previous albums. The harmony is subtler, the interjections are good and as ever it holds together well. Widdling is on a high level but it’s ok. “Night becomes Clean” is a variation on a previous musical theme. It’s preached, like the impeccable “Sick Heart River” on “Sworn to a Great Divide”. The harmony is slower this time. If there was a Soilwork “I Spy” book, we would have ticked all the boxes by now. “King of the Threshold” is fast again and a more complex track. There’s a lot of ranting … but where’s it all going?
So where are the killer tracks that we might expect from Soilwork? “Let this River Flow” isn’t one of them. After an acoustic beginning it cranks up and is promising but the strength simply isn’t maintained. There’s a growl here and there but the harmony is, frankly, a bit girly, at one point sounding like Spandau Ballet. It’s unexpected but not what I was hoping for. What’s going on here? “Epitome”, the next track is basically a pop song with an insistent beat. It does beef up a bit but this and the preceding track have no edge. Rhythmically, it clatters on like a train and it’s not entirely without merit but it’s the power that’s missing. If the aggression was taken away, I could imagine this one being re-worked as a pop duet on X Factor or something. The guitar work is good. The structures on the other hand are not exciting. The guitar goes round and weaves webs on “The Akuma Afterglow” but it’s a pedestrian track as if the album is running down. Strid takes care over the harmony but I didn’t detect any passion as traditionally there is on a Soilwork track. Instrumentally “The Akuma Afterglow” is strong and I quite liked this one but once again it lacked excitement. The final track “Enter Dog of Pavlov” has more promise to start with – hey, there’s an idea, how about a bit of Eastern influence to sound really different. Actually, this is a proper traditional Metal opening and it’s all the better for it. There’s a mixture of “Sadistic Lullabye” on “Chainheart Massacre” and there are traces of “A Mirror Behind” by Disarmonia Mundi, one of Strid’s other bands, but unlike the latter or previous Soilwork material in general we’re not caught up in a powerful metal tornado. The track does pick up well though and there’s a sinister feel but it comes to an end before it’s properly got going.
I just don’t know what Soilwork were trying to do here. “The Panic Broadcast” is ok but not much more than that. I’ve listened to it a few times and it’s just not exciting. There are no huge impact tracks as so many have been in the past – “Nerve”, “Overload”, “Needlefeast”, “Sick Heart River” and countless others, to quote some of my own personal favourites. In case I’d forgotten something, I listened to its predecessor “Sworn to a Great Divide” and it once again raised my passion and anger. “The Panic Broadcast” doesn’t have the same inner strength. In summary I thought it was disappointing.
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