Soilwork is a Melodic Death Metal / Alternative Metal band from Sweden. They started off as a straight melodeath act, but they had started incorporating Alternative Metal elements starting with their fourth album, and increased them overtime while still keeping a melodic death metal edge. They are considered one of the most important acts in melodic death metal, particularly in the Swedish scene. Their sound change led to a Broken Base, with many feeling that they simplified their sound and sold out. Despite this, most metal fans respect the band and do not seem to care, as their songwriting has been praised by many. They are led by vocalist Bjorn 'Speed' Strid and were also led by guitarist Peter Wichers until he left in June 2012. The band is also known for being an influence to metalcore, to the point where some have even considered them part of the genre, although their unique sound has for the most part kept them from avoiding the label, at least negatively. They have released 12 albums to date.
Discography:
- Steelbath Suicide (1998)
- The Chainheart Machine (2000)
- A Predator's Portrait (2001)
- Natural Born Chaos (2002)
- Figure Number Five (2003)
- Stabbing the Drama (2005)
- Sworn to a Great Divide (2007)
- The Panic Broadcast (2010)
- The Living Infinite (2013)
- The Ride Majestic (2015)
- Verkligheten (2019)
- Övergivenheten (2022)
Current Lineup:
- Björn "Speed" Strid – vocals (1995–present)
- Sven Karlsson – keyboards (2001–present)
- Sylvain Coudret – guitars (2008–present)
- Simon Johansson – guitars (2023–present)
- Bastian Thusgaard - drums (2017-present)
- Rasmus Ehrnborn - bass (2022-present)
Soilwork provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: The video for "Rejection Role" features the band as rivals of In Flames. In real life, the members of both bands are friends.
- Alternative Metal: Starting with Natural Born Chaos and expanded upon with the rest of their discography.
- But Not Too Foreign: Despite Speed's unusual given name and Swedish origins, he literally has a completely American accent. This is justified, as many Swedes pick up on English through American media, and the band has toured the United States several times.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Speed looks like he could be related to Billy Corgan.
- Genre Shift: From Melodic Death Metal to a hybrid of that and Alternative Metal.
- New Sound Album: Their first two albums were straight-up Melodic Death Metal. A Predator's Portrait, while still a melodeath album, was their first album with clean singing incorporated. Natural Born Chaos was when they started to incorporate Alternative Metal elements into their melodic death metal music. Figure Number Five was their evolution into a straight hybrid of the two genres.
- Soprano and Gravel: Starting with A Predator's Portrait. Since then, Speed alternates between clean singing and fairly comprehensible shouts in most of their material. He's more than capable of the usual Death Metal growl, but he is rarely heard using it except on a few select songs, most notably on another artist's song.
- Their cover of "Burn" features female guest vocals while Speed is on full shout mode.
- Three Chords and the Truth: A lot of their riffs are fairly simple to follow.
