Released: 2005
Soilwork has been a favourite around the Sound Celler for a number of years. The albums from The Chainheart Machine through to Natural Born Chaos virtually epitomised the modern Swedish metal sound in almost the same kind of way that At the Gates and Edge of Sanity had done ten years before and it was clear that the band was destined to erupt from the shackles of mere cult appreciation at some point. The relative disappointment of the commercially-aimed Figure Number Five showed Soilwork beginning to pander to a wider audience, but even that failed to prepare me for the watered-down, generic travesty they were to become with this, their sixth album.
Stabbing the Drama is a weak, boring pop-metal album, but it’s not because it’s pop-metal that it’s weak and boring. It’s weak and boring because it is so formulaic and safe there’s nothing to surprise the listener or to keep them interested. Each song repeats the same harsh verse-clean chorus-breakdown-chorus recipe again and again, while being completely devoid of ideas, hooks or anything like real riffs. It’s bad enough when bands recycle bits of previous albums, but it’s much worse when they start recycling the same songs, especially when those songs aren’t very good in the first place. After a couple of good albums, a couple of great ones, and one that was just okay, Soilwork was due for a stinker, and Stabbing the Drama is it.
- Stabbing the Drama
- One With the Flies
- Weapon of Vanity
- The Crestfallen
- Nerve
- Stalemate
- Distance
- Observation Slave
- Fate in Motion
- Blind Eye Halo
- If Possible
Rating: 20%
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