Soilwork
Sworn To A Great Divide
Nuclear Blast/ Riot


Along with In Flames, Soilwork remain one of the top selling so called Gothenburg Death Metal bands, and also join the ranks of such luminaries as Arch Enemy, Darkane and Dark Tranquility. I have personally never worked out why Soilwork in particular have been more successful than, say, Dark Tranquility, especially considering that Soilwork have not been in the game for as long as their fellow Swedes. It seems that these days it does not matter how much money you put into marketing, or how good you actually sound, a lot of a bands success does indeed come to being in the right place at the right time.

This is not to say that Soilwork aren't good, because lets face it, the level of musicianship on both 'Sworn To A Great Divide' and the bands previous albums is beyond doubt. My only contention is that this music has always been so generic and many of these bands could easily be mistaken for any other in their genre.

Having made the above point I can also see why this would appeal to many metalheads, including those younger fans that are also into Metalcore and Roadrunner's 'New Wave Of American Heavy Metal' bands, and probably are not even aware of the band that started it all - At The Gates. I did not get to see Soilwork recently, but I can imagine all of those kids jumping up and down like a pogo stick. It is obvious that the band do also have more commercial appeal as can be heard on Exile, The Pittsburgh Syndrome and particularly the last song, 20 More Miles.

Mark Grimshaw