Soilwork"I'm not sure how the pressure got there, but when I joined, I started touring with them for (2003's) Figure Number Five and went through to (2005's) Stabbing The Drama,” Soilwork sticksman Dirk Verbeuren explains. “I would say that definitely at that time, certain band members had got to this point where they wanted to kind of simplify things a little bit, and make the music more accessible. Which ultimately produced some really great songs for us, I think… I'm not really trying to criticise that, I just think that in the event of that happening, the initial feeling of the band may have got lost a little bit.
“The band initially started out being this melancholy, melodic, epic metal band and some of that kind of got lost because I think we more simplified our stuff. So over the years, I didn't fight that because I was one of the people that wanted the band to have just more angles. You could have some songs like that, but not every song needs to be like that… You can't be one of those people who can really voice their opinion in the band; you don't do that the week you join the band. But eventually over time I became more vocal about those things, and I think now we're definitely at a point where everybody gets to truly express what they feel about stuff, and other people will listen to them and not just dismiss them, which in the past may have happened.”
After the aforementioned period whereby they lost sight of their initial modus operandi, the Swedish sextet sought to redress the balance. The inaugural step was 2010's excellent The Panic Broadcast, which was rammed home by this year's The Living Infinite, touted as melodic death metal's first double-album. The progressive effort contrasts their signature shred-fests and 260BPM hyper-blasts with much tantalising ear candy. What makes tackling such an ambitious venture more admirable is it represents their first long-player since founding guitarist, songwriter and producer Peter Wichers' latest exit. Verbeuren chuckles when the “first ever melodic death double-record” tagline is raised, suggesting while it could be correct, it was merely a label promotional tool. “For us, it was really just about making a statement in the first place to ourselves. We've been through some turmoil in recent years with the line-up, and just the band being a little bit torn musically in different directions. For us The Living Infinite and this new line-up was really something where we wanted to prove to ourselves that we still have a lot to say. We can still grow, become a better band and even take it to the next level.”
The result was a two-LP set projecting a far more collaborative ethos. “Peter was a very active songwriter and did write a lot of classic music for us,” the drummer admits. “Peter's talent is undeniable, but I think every musician in this band is very proficient as far as what they do, and that includes songwriting. After separating with Peter for the second time, we definitely wanted to prove that, 'hey, Peter's not just the only guy who makes Soilwork what it is'.”
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Further galvanizing the troops was the only prior Wichers-free long-player, 2007's Sworn To A Great Divide being widely viewed as a creative nadir. “That's definitely a record that I personally feel is flawed because the band was torn between musical directions. Some people wanted to go one way, some people wanted to go another way, and we didn't really manage to fit those things together. Even though there's some great tracks on that record, in the end I don't think it came out as well as it could have, if we had been more on the same page.”
Nowadays, they are. Obviously any double-album risks someone's vision being compromised or quality of material being diluted. They weren't unaware of this prospect: “We first had the idea to do a double-album, pretty much before we had a note of music written. We didn't want to have filler; we didn't want to compromise anything. If it was going to be a double-album, we needed it to be a strong double-album. That was the first requirement for us. So we started writing. We got a bunch of demos together, looked at it, and said, 'there's so much variety here, there's so many different ideas; this can work'. That's when we sealed the deal on it.
“I would definitely say that starting with Panic Broadcast, we really had that spirit, where there's not a worry about radio songs, singles or this or that. It was just to write kick-ass tracks. If it's a good song and we're all feeling that, we're gonna put our heart and soul into it.”
