SOILWORK - The Ride Majestic

August 28, 2015, 8 years ago

(Nuclear Blast)

David Perri

Rating: 7.5

review heavy metal soilwork

SOILWORK - The Ride Majestic

Over the span of its first four records, Soilwork was a blaze in the northern sky that could do no wrong. Beginning with 1998's Steelbath Suicide and culminating in 2002's Natural Born Chaos, this Helsingborg collective wrote focused, engaging albums that were amongst the best of their class. In 2002, it wasn't out of the question to imagine that Soilwork might even at some point surpass the legacies fellow countrymen In Flames and Arch Enemy were clearly forging for themselves. As 2003's Figure Number Five emerged, however, Soilwork was on its way to losing the plot, as that effort seemed both rushed and derivative. And, though the group remained popular, its mid-late '00s output consistently sounded like Speed and co. were treading water, as each subsequent record came and went without making the impact of the early material. By the time a double (!) album, The Living Infinite, was announced in 2013, the first thought that came to mind was simple: "why?"

But, despite being predictably too long, The Living Infinite impressed (especially "This Momentary Bliss" and "Let The First Wave Rise" - both in league with the band's best songs - as well as the duo of "Leech" and "Rise Above The Sentient"), and Soilwork regained its status as a vital part of the extreme metal world. The accompanying tour saw the group in strong form, manhandling both early material and tracks from The Living Infinite with the energy of a seasoned pro who, suddenly and unexpectedly, seems like he has something to prove. Better late than never, they say: Soilwork was finally fulfilling the promise of the first four albums and all was forgiven (incidentally, Max Cavalera is also the benefactor of this particular side of extreme metal's generosity, though Soilwork's transgressions were never at all as grave as Max's).

The Ride Majestic is, unbelievably, Soilwork's tenth album, and the band arrives at the landmark in strong form. Though The Ride Majestic isn't a return to the first four albums (and is especially nowhere near Steelbath Suicide or The Chainheart Machine), it stands with The Living Infinite as a representation of a collective renewed and ready to keep moving vertically, as opposed to the horizontality that characterized too many of this group's mid-era albums. The Ride Majestic begins in heavy, and heavy-handed, ways, as the opening duo of the title track and 'Alight In The Aftermath' are high-energy and feature prolonged blasts. Soilwork even pulls a cool little Opeth trick here, having Speed sing clean vocals over the blasts, which leads to a surreal quality that works as well for Soilwork as it did for Mikael Akerfeldt's crew (in its previous incarnation of course, before the complete prog takeover). There are other surprisingly aggressive moments here, including "The Phantom", "All Along Echoing Paths" and “Shining Lights”, which will have Soilwork's original fanbase more excited than it ever expected to be by the prospect of this band in 2015. Combine that with the memorable quality of many of these songs, and you've got an album that's going to get much your attention, especially if you let it.

That said, The Ride Majestic is still the home to too many of Soilwork's mid-'00s trademarks, including the cotton candy, poppy choruses and the sometimes way-too-twangy clean vocals. As well, this record, at moments, relies too heavily on proggy keyboards that threaten to create Dream-Theater-without-the-math moments, a perennial Soilwork weakness. And "Petrichor By Sulphur" might even be Soilwork's first ever disco track, the group channeling their Swedish forefathers in Abba at many of its moments (we're only slightly exaggerating). But, then again, in combining elements of both old and not-so-old, Soilwork has written an album that sits in the middle of its catalogue, even if it doesn't chronologically come at the centre point. Much like Children Of Bodom's Hatecrew Deathroll, The Ride Majestic is a summation of where Soilwork has been in its various identities and, like Bodom, this record doesn't apologize for its wanderings. Almost 20 years into any career, does someone really care enough about what others think to say "I'm sorry" if they don't feel they should?

Even before the renewed vigor of The Living Infinite and The Ride Majestic, Soilwork had firmly established itself in the annals of extreme metal as a band that has played an important and, early on, interesting role, one which will surely be remembered by subsequent generations. But with the many gasps (err, growls) of new life that define The Ride Majestic and The Living Infinite before it, Soilwork has boldly declared that it doesn't just want to be remembered. It wants to be respected, and maybe even revered. 



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