SOILWORK — Stabbing the Drama (review)

SOILWORK — Stabbing the Drama album cover Album · 2005 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Stabbing the Drama" is the 6th full-length studio album by Swedish metal act Soilwork. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in February 2005. It´s the successor to "Figure Number Five" from 2003 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as drummer Henry Ranta has been replaced by Belgian drummer Dirk Verbeuren.

Stylistically "Stabbing the Drama" marks a slight change in musical direction as it features quite a few chugging start/stop type rhythm guitar riffs, a more polished vers/chorus songwriting formula (the polish amplified by the use of keyboards), and a generally more heavy groove laden playing style. So the album features a strong metalcore influence, although it´s still in some ways a melodic death metal release (the album generally features few harmony leads though). The change in style came gradually over the course of the last couple of albums, but on "Stabbing the Drama" the change was complete. Most tracks on the album feature a similar style (the style described above) but "Blind Eye Halo" stands out from the remaining tracks for being fast-paced and aggressive. Other than being different it´s not a particularly standout track though.

I´d mention tracks like the title track and maybe "Distance" as some of the highlights, but "Stabbing the Drama" is overall a consistent quality release. The songwriting is solid, the musicianship is on a high level on all posts, and the sound production is clear, polished, and powerful. The icing on the cake is as always lead vocalist Björn Strid, who performs both aggressive shouting raw vocals and clean vocals with conviction and great passion.

So upon conclusion "Stabbing the Drama" is a good quality release, but when that is said, it is one of the least remarkable releases in the band´s discography and the metalcore influences/elements of the sound sometimes come off a little generic, and if I should be a little provocative in my critique, I could accuse Soilwork of jumping on the very successful contemporary metalcore bandwagon by using those elements, but on the other hand, it was maybe just time to try something new. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.
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