Review Summary: Soilwork succeeded in the risks taken here but they needed to fully enter the deep end.
In 2013, Soilwork released
The Living Infinite which displayed a new, fresh sound from the classic Swedish melodic death metal group. However, all the records since then have been recycling the same formula and it is starting to get slightly stale. Fortunately, Soilwork has taken a somewhat new approach on their most recent release,
A Whisp of the Atlantic, with two standout tracks.
By far the most unique and inspired song on the EP is the title track. It is an almost 17 minute long progressive metal epic and Soilwork attempt on this style is very successful. The track opens up with a Ghibli-esque piano melody that then introduces the guitars and strings. This creates a strong atmosphere that carries on for the rest of the 17 minutes. Björn Strid’s vocals are incredible here. His cleans are just as great as always but this song features some of his most fierce and intense screams amongst Soilworks discography.
A Whisp of the Atlantic incorporates a variety of instruments that have either rarely been used or completely new to the bands career such as piano and strings but the best use here was the saxophone at the end of the track. Despite the lengthy runtime, the track does remain engaging throughout due to it’s balanced mix of interesting instrumentation and catchiness. Some of it could of definitely been cut in order to keep the song more concise but it is hard to spot what moments should have been left out in the cutting room floor.
The other standout on the EP is
Death Diviner. This cut contains Björn Strid’s most impressive and powerful vocal work to date, particularly during the songs insane and memorable chorus. Additionally, this track is chock full of creative riffs and solo’s making it one of the bands most unique and re-playable songs. My one and only nit-pick is the overuse of the double bass pedal during the chorus and even throughout the EP in matter of fact. The drumming style feels too binary and I wished Bastian Thusgaard switched things up a bit.
The other three songs off
A Whisp of the Atlantic is where Soilwork returns to their fairly standard and formulaic style melodic death metal. The songs are very well performed by all of the band members and
Feverish and
Desperado even have some earwormy hooks but they lack much originality due to their last few albums having a very similar style. Even though these songs are pleasant listens they are forgettable and all sound familiar. As a consequence, these songs blend in with their previous material.
Soilwork tried to have their cake and eat it too with
A Whisp of the Atlantic. They experimented with new and risky ideas and went outside of their comfort zone creating two excellent songs while also having three songs following their safe and recognizable formula. This made the EP seem conflicted on which direction it wanted to go. It neither fully explored the progressive ideas from the title track nor was the EP completely and utterly safe. They could of gone all out on this record and it would have been some of their best material but the decent albeit unremarkable songs keep this EP down greatness.
