Review Summary: Taking one step back and two steps forward.
Soilwork stunned the metal community back in 2013 when they released their masterful double album opus “The Living Infinite” after the loss of their lead songwriter, Peter Wichers. The record was a culmination of hard work that shone with it’s aggressive and catchy-as-hell riffing, yet meaningful and melodic vocals and lyrics, and it was a huge comeback as it was dubbed by many as the band’s best release, ever. However, after hearing the Swedish melodic death metal sextet’s newest release, “The Ride Majestic”, it is evident that they did the thing no one thought was possible, which is top their last album.
Something that “The Living Infinite” had (which was a blessing and also at the same time sort of a burden) was a massive amount of content. With 2 discs that clocked in at over 40 minutes each, it was a long listen. With this album, the band took a step back to create a succinct, yet accessible listen, with the record being less than 50 minutes long. Not only is it a shorter listen than their last record, but it is packed to the brim with an overall improvement in most areas. The one sacrifice that it makes is that this album has lost some of the extremely catchy accessibility that the last record showed very persistently. However, the chief cause of this is because the band has written much more musically complex songs, that have a darker, edgier sound to them. The track “Death in General” shows a very good balance with this, having a catchy chorus that is easy to sing along to, while having riffs and structures that convey the bands improvement in songwriting skills.
“The Ride Majestic” is a complex, heavy, listen. The drums are furious, with blast beats, thrashy double bass pedals, and precision that few modern metal drummers can top or even try to match. Strid’s vocals do his signature switching between clean melodic vocals, and harsh growls that give all of the songs a very good dynamic. Like the other instruments present here the guitar work is on point as ever, and most notably, on this record the chord progressions here are more creative than most of anything Soilwork has ever put out. “Enemies in Fidelity” in particular has a very interesting and absorbing structure that showcases the experimentation that was done while writing this record, that succeeded very well. The best track on the record is the second part of “The Ride Majestic (Aspire Angelic)”. It contains the best chorus from Soilwork, and one of the best in the last few years in all of music. A truly astounding track that will surely be a huge hit with fans, and will become a staple of their live set as well.
The best metal record of 2015 has not yet been widely decided as the year has not yet concluded and there are releases to come that could very well contend for the spot. However, if you are searching for the best metal release this year, this record is definitely a good place to start. A huge leap forward for the band as a result of extremely hard work, dedication to the fans, and an overall improvement in all of the areas that matter the most.
