I plan on going to Ozzfest this year, despite the unusually lackluster lineup (I'm really only going to see In Flames, Mastodon, Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, Mudvayne, Maiden, and of course Sabbath), so I've been trying to get into more bands that are on this year's tour. I've heard nothing but good things about Soilwork (this was before this particular album's release), and I knew they were (supposedly) melodic death metal, and being that melo death is more or less my favorite genre of metal I decided I've give them a shot, but I waited for the release of this album, which I had seen advertised, before I actually purchased anything, as I wanted to get this first. That worked with Dark Tranquillity ("Character" is a jaw-dropping album), but maybe I should've started with an older release with Soilwork.

After all the rave reviews I've seen of their past albums, and simply their label of melodic death, I expected to hear some complex and beautiful music on this album. I really didn't get it. While I'm not saying that Soilwork doesn't have talent, I'm just saying that if they do have it, they're not showing it as much as they should be on this record. The songwriting is bland as can be, like a pop rock record: most, if not all, of the songs are in intro riff, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus formula (with a few exceptions), and most of the riffs are fairly simple and frankly uninspired, not at all melodic death-like. Well, at this point I realize Soilwork, at least on this record, isn't really a melodic death band anymore. While In Flames abandoned their classic melo-death sound long ago, I still believe that they make great, though less complicated and though-provoking, music, "Soundtrack to Your Escape" being one of my favorite albums of 2004. But it just doesn't work with Soilwork. I honestly can't listen to this album long without getting bored and putting in something else. Lead vocalist Speed no doubt has a good voice, but it bores me, it just seems too much like something you'd hear on a commercial radio rock album. And I have no problem with clean vocals in metal, but Speed's voice really just doesn't do anything for me. He sings on the majority of the album, but he'll also scream every now and then, but I don't see anything special in that either.

The main problem with this album is it's just too predictable, too dull, too uninspired, too generic, and way too simple. The album has some catchy tracks (the choruses to "Weapon of Vanity" and "Nerve" have gotten stuck in my head at random times ever since I first heard them), they just don't stand out too much. If you're gonna be a metal band, you gotta make yourself noticeable and show all the talent you've got, and when you have bands like Mastodon and Children of Bodom to compete with, you've really gotta give it all you got. Maybe I'm just judging too hard, but I've given this album time to see if it grew on me, and I still have the same opinion of it I did when I first heard it. But since I've heard so many good things about their past releases, I'll probably pick one of them up sometime in the future, because I really do want to get into Soilwork before I see them at the `Fest.
I plan on going to Ozzfest this year, despite the unusually lackluster lineup (I'm really only going to see In Flames, Mastodon, Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, Mudvayne, Maiden, and of course Sabbath), so I've been trying to get into more bands that are on this year's tour. I've heard nothing but good things about Soilwork (this was before this particular album's release), and I knew they were (supposedly) melodic death metal, and being that melo death is more or less my favorite genre of metal I decided I've give them a shot, but I waited for the release of this album, which I had seen advertised, before I actually purchased anything, as I wanted to get this first. That worked with Dark Tranquillity ("Character" is a jaw-dropping album), but maybe I should've started with an older release with Soilwork. After all the rave reviews I've seen of their past albums, and simply their label of melodic death, I expected to hear some complex and beautiful music on this album. I really didn't get it. While I'm not saying that Soilwork doesn't have talent, I'm just saying that if they do have it, they're not showing it as much as they should be on this record. The songwriting is bland as can be, like a pop rock record: most, if not all, of the songs are in intro riff, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus formula (with a few exceptions), and most of the riffs are fairly simple and frankly uninspired, not at all melodic death-like. Well, at this point I realize Soilwork, at least on this record, isn't really a melodic death band anymore. While In Flames abandoned their classic melo-death sound long ago, I still believe that they make great, though less complicated and though-provoking, music, "Soundtrack to Your Escape" being one of my favorite albums of 2004. But it just doesn't work with Soilwork. I honestly can't listen to this album long without getting bored and putting in something else. Lead vocalist Speed no doubt has a good voice, but it bores me, it just seems too much like something you'd hear on a commercial radio rock album. And I have no problem with clean vocals in metal, but Speed's voice really just doesn't do anything for me. He sings on the majority of the album, but he'll also scream every now and then, but I don't see anything special in that either. The main problem with this album is it's just too predictable, too dull, too uninspired, too generic, and way too simple. The album has some catchy tracks (the choruses to "Weapon of Vanity" and "Nerve" have gotten stuck in my head at random times ever since I first heard them), they just don't stand out too much. If you're gonna be a metal band, you gotta make yourself noticeable and show all the talent you've got, and when you have bands like Mastodon and Children of Bodom to compete with, you've really gotta give it all you got. Maybe I'm just judging too hard, but I've given this album time to see if it grew on me, and I still have the same opinion of it I did when I first heard it. But since I've heard so many good things about their past releases, I'll probably pick one of them up sometime in the future, because I really do want to get into Soilwork before I see them at the `Fest.