Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
"i started really giving this band attention with The Panic Broadcast, thought Epitome and Enter Dog of Pavlov were their best songs"
based and true, the panic broadcast is really what kicked off their modern period, very diverse and underappreciated album.
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"So, we all suffered through that dark period after Stabbing the Drama."
I gotta say, I really like Sworn to a great divide, and I think it's time to re-evaluate that album!
I think the guitar tone and the generally slightly more rough mixing is what turns most people off, but when you look under the hood, the songwriting is incredible throughout the album, certainly not any worse than on Stabbing.
Looking at individual songs, you can't tell me that As the sleeper awakes isn't a monster of a song (heavy as shit yet an exceptionally epic chorus), that the opening riff of the title track isn't wonderfully knotty and slithering like a dark serpent (still incredible chorus, just like most of the songs on here in fact), that Sick heart river isn't somewhat heart-breaking with its yearning chorus. And those are just the absolute highlights imo.
Maybe Exile wasn't the best choice as the lead single, as it might have primed the audience to see the whole period in a somewhat "cheesy" light, or just turned off listeners from the album altogether (the video certainly didn't help either XD). But the album is in many ways heavier, or at least rawer, than the three albums preceeding it, not least bc of the mix, which I actually happen to like a lot. It certainly has its very own character, whereas everything since TLI kinda blends together mix-wise (those albums do sound great, but they are a bit more your standard modern metal fare, whereas the sound of Sworn was a conscious decision to try to find a unique sound, if I remember correctly).
Sworn is imo also more extreme than the albums before it: It is similarly heavier, poppier AND more progressive. Maybe that doesn't sit well with many listeners, I happen to really like Soilwork in this iteration, and I think that The ride majestic and Verkligheten are way weaker as albums (while still having insanely good highpoints, don't get me wrong!)
Well, if you haven't listened to Sworn in eternity and wanna give it even only a quick chance, make it either AS the sleeper awakes or Sick heart river. Can't go wrong with those!
Cheers and thank you, Soilwork, for being consistently awesome!
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