Soilwork - Figure Number Five
- Thread starter JayKeeley
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bloodfiredeath
kaiju eiga
Finally, Royal Carnage gives a bad review to an album (well, at least among the ones I've read).
Oh, and I think you are too kind.
Oh, and I think you are too kind.
bloodfiredeath said:Finally, Royal Carnage gives a bad review to an album (well, at least among the ones I've read).
Oh, and I think you are too kind.
Dude - have you heard it then?
Also, forgot to mention, but the Soilwork INTERVIEW will be on line soon. I thought to be fair on Peter Wichers, we'd let him have his say on the new album.....
The interview was conducted by Chief B - we wanted to separate the interview and review staffing to be more objective on the whole piece.
bloodfiredeath
kaiju eiga
Yeah, I have it.
I downloaded it out of curiousity, and I couldn't sit through more than a few songs. I don't like it, but I'm not all hard on it like alot of people. It's not really my thing, and I never had any love for Soilwork before, so I'm not that good of a judge.
My main point was to just point out a bad review on RC.
I downloaded it out of curiousity, and I couldn't sit through more than a few songs. I don't like it, but I'm not all hard on it like alot of people. It's not really my thing, and I never had any love for Soilwork before, so I'm not that good of a judge.
My main point was to just point out a bad review on RC.
Intersting review and I certainly do not have anything to nitpick with it, but you brought up a point in the qoute above that has been bothering me lately, and this is the perfect time to bring it up.
See, me for instance, I am 32, been into Metal for 18 years and grew up with Metallica so I know that Load / Reload is a boring musical dissapointment, but I am beginning to see how people like those records ... by the Soilwork example below.
For me, the first record I heard from Soilwork, was NBC and absolutely thought it was brilliant. The hooks in each track are priceless and the record has an amazing re-playabilty. After NBC, I listened to the older releases as well, but they did not capture me the way NBC did. Yes, they are heavier and crunchier but do not have that something that NBC has (hooks, melody, soaring vocal lines)
So what am I trying to say ... I am not sure ... ahahah ... but I think it matters a lot if the listener has been exposed to the bands material before, or NBC or Figure Number Five is the first thing they hear. Sounds like Soilwork is using the same formula as on NBC but so do a lot of other bands ... as soon as something works they milk it for a few releases.
Personally, based on the first 2 releases, I think the band would not be on the same level if they continued playing the same style, and I think they sound more natural playing this newer material than the old stuff ... but this is just me
lurch70 said:
Agreed. I love NBC and it even made my top ten list of 2002.
You'll be surprised when you hear it I think. You see, most people will suggest that if you hate NBC then you will also hate FNF. That is not true in my case. I love NBC, and yet I dislike FNF. So with all that logic, whether you love or hate NBC, chances are you'll still not like FNF either way!! Go figure.
I also started with NBC and made my way backwards. It took a while, and perhaps my tastes changed over time, but I now consider A Predators Portrait to be their best album. It's a wicked concept album, the guitar solos are glorious, and the melodies exist in just the right quantity. And Soilwork present themselves as melodic and aggressive.
Those are the two attributes that Soilwork lost for FNF, and so it just turned out to be a bad album. Period. It's a shame though.
Demonspell
cheating the polygraph
Agreed with the assembly line metaphor...the band has basically condensed the elements of NBC into a formula that emphasizes the obvious over the latter's album subtleties, and suffers additionally from increased nu-metal leanings...
Nate The Great
What would Nathan do?
Is nu-metal even popular in Scandinavia. Everybody was crying about In Flames sounding more nu-metalish with R2R, but they obviously were trying to say they sounded more pop. I haven't heard FNF, but I can't believe there are ANY elements of nu-metal on it . . . other than some harsh vocals mixed with sung vocals.
npearce said:
nu-Metal has even infiltrated the UK, so I'm assuming it's spreading like a Starbucks franchise. Concerts such as the Reading Festival are now being headlined by bands like Linkin Park, whereas a few years ago that spot would have been reserved for bands like Blur or Radiohead.
I guess it depends on what you interpret as nuMetal. I mean, the album sounds like something P.O.D would have put out. Speed no longer screams, he shouts in time to the percussion so it's dangerously close to rapping at times.
Either way, comparing it to nuMetal isn't always derogatory I guess. I like some nuMetal - early Korn, System of a Down, and Tool (although people keep saying Tool are not nuMetal).
I would choose "Korn", "Toxicity" or "Aenima" over FNF any day of the week.
J.
Old Fart
phyre said:
Indeed. I've been saying this for years.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha...........
.....and that Soilwork were able to get Devin Townsend to produce NBC. Why he wasted his time on these wankers, I'll never know. Maybe he needed money, or wanted to visit Sweden.
Nate The Great
What would Nathan do?
ChiefB
The Truth Seeker
NBC was a huge musical leap for Soilwork, that when you actually look at their back catalogue, NBC was also a big risk project. They received a lot of slack for that album, but in some ways they also opened their music up to a newer audience, which is great, more people hear new Soilwork stuff. I for one, voted it as No.1 album of 2002, because the sound was so daring, plus the tracks were brilliantly crafted, drawing influences from other music genres.
Listening to FNF, they have moved their music into a different direction, which I personally feel has lost some it's edge. It does not have the same gritty texture which makes you want to grab the air guitar and go nuts. It is nu-Metal which you could use in advertising commercials. The music does not have any qualities which you associate soilwork with, you could infact rebadge SOILWORK as some other band !!
I have a feeling that whatever slack they received for NBC, they will most probably receive the same for FNF.
I am also a little shocked at how quickly this album came out, to release an album within 12 months is pretty hard work, so I am wondering did the quality get lost somewhere in between?
Chief B
Listening to FNF, they have moved their music into a different direction, which I personally feel has lost some it's edge. It does not have the same gritty texture which makes you want to grab the air guitar and go nuts. It is nu-Metal which you could use in advertising commercials. The music does not have any qualities which you associate soilwork with, you could infact rebadge SOILWORK as some other band !!
I have a feeling that whatever slack they received for NBC, they will most probably receive the same for FNF.
I am also a little shocked at how quickly this album came out, to release an album within 12 months is pretty hard work, so I am wondering did the quality get lost somewhere in between?
Chief B
ChiefB said:
I'll bet any money that it took longer to produce than it did to write. Having a songwriting formula makes it easy. It becomes like a methodology.
Papa Josh
Minister of Propaganda
bloodfiredeath said:My main point was to just point out a bad review on RC.
Read my Despoilment review.. :Spin:
What's the lowest score we got on the site? 4/10 for Despoilment and Kampfar.
But Chief B is gearing up for a 0/10...I won't say who, but I will say they're Italian Power Metal. (And Chief B likes Power Metal!).
But Chief B is gearing up for a 0/10...I won't say who, but I will say they're Italian Power Metal. (And Chief B likes Power Metal!).
Demonspell
cheating the polygraph
Demonspell said:
No.
I already reviewed their last one. I liked it very much, but you know I like those Mighty Warriors...
Their new one isn't out until the fall.
Well I just downloaded a few songs of FNF and they left me pretty ... blah!
I don't think they turned nu-metal, I think this is just boring and uninspired, much like the latest HAUNTED release.
I am sure that it might grow on me, but I am not a card carrying member of the Soilwork fan club and find it a very lazy release more than anyhting.
I don't think they turned nu-metal, I think this is just boring and uninspired, much like the latest HAUNTED release.
I am sure that it might grow on me, but I am not a card carrying member of the Soilwork fan club and find it a very lazy release more than anyhting.
lurch70 said:
Comparing it to nuMetal is subjective, but I agree, the album is basically just boring. It doesn't matter what else they've done, this is just a boring run-of-the-mill album. Why they rushed to make it, I don't know.
And agreed - that latest Haunted release is just terrible. You could feel their boredom in the studio even after one spin.
Other than FnF, I like generally don't mind Soilwork. And on the contrary, FnF never began to grow on me - it got more boring with each listen.
I hope I was able to articulate that in my review.
Demonspell
cheating the polygraph
I agree, the album sounds more like a watered down version of its predecessor than anything else...I just wrote a negative summary of it in which I refrained from using any nu-metal comparatives...
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