### Soilwork: The panic broadcast

#### 08/10/10 || MikzorTheFirst

I walk into a room full of metalheads after a few minutes of aimlessly wandering in the hall outside, gathering my courage. I proceed cautiously, knowing full well what I am to expect from the impending confrontation. I keep myself between the door and the host of people who I’m getting ready to address. I let out a slight cough and consequently the mass of unkempt hair turns its attention to me, which is convenient as it was one of those coughs. I hesitate for a bit before hurriedly tossing the following words into the anticipating atmosphere. “Umm… it’s like, “Stabbing the drama” might be the best Soilwork-album.” With the aforementioned hesitation all but gone I retreat immediately. Curiosity killed the cat. I’m not a cat. I killed the cat.

It’s true though, about “STD”. I loved it to bits back when I got it from your mom. It caught on easily and to this day the symptoms re-appear ever so often. This, apparently being a sentiment shared by the mallcore-kids and the boss man around here, puts my refined metal-sensibilities into an awkward position. However, it’s been long since I displayed any sort of social tact anyway, so I’ll roll with this.

Rambling aside, let me see then; while “STD” was a total speedball pit of auditory pleasure, it didn’t go down well with an accountable slice of the actual metalhead-populace.

Innocent fun combined with the ecstatic awe-induced horror and euphoria of catching a glimpse of heaven and facing God himself (and challenging him to a fistfight).

To remedy this, the follow-up took a few steps back, falling into a middle-ground between the past and the “STD”. This would make “Sworn to a great divide” the sex with that less-than-moderately priced hooker. However enjoyable that usually may be, in this case it succeeded only in notching down everything that was good about both of the factoring sides. It was still a fun album, but didn’t get my freakjuice flowing. Now, “The panic broadcast” gracefully lands in between the formerly mentioned two records, and right about now I feel the need to illustrate all this in some form of a graph. Do we have any crayons?

When constructing an album of this brand it is most imperative that you know how to make hooks. Luckily, Soilwork is a group of professionals and definitely knows how to make hooks. In fact, most of these songs have more hooks than that amputee hooker you hooked up with that same night you incidentally got hooked on speedballing.

These songs have hooks = the message that I’m trying to get across here.

Indeed, these songs are memorable very much in the same way your basement-death metal isn’t. There are those catchy riffs and ballsass blastbeats in the first track, Björn’s distinct smeared-with-honey-and-jiggling-tits vocals in the chorus of “Let this river flow” and the righteous groove of “The thrill”. I haven’t delved too deep into the lyrics (mainly because lately I’ve been too busy dissecting Lady Gaga’s body of work, trying to determine exactly how much of it refers to her semi-secret man-parts) but largely it sounds like basic Soilwork. I don’t actually know what I’m talking about. Just roll with it. Do drugs. It helps.

Making fun of her/him is still funny right?

If you have gathered that the album is good, you’re right in doing so. It’s even very good and I recommend you to listen to it. But alas, I don’t feel that same thing with it that I instantly felt with “STD” (and I’m not talking about a painful sensation when peeing). Maybe it’s the music? Maybe I was more impressionable back in the day? Maybe these characters shouldn’t be squirming around so much? Maybe they should? Maybe by now perception is nothing more than that used condom over there, the owner of which I can’t identify? Maybe I’m God? Should I fight myself to balance the forces of the universe?

Try it.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Nuclear Blast Records
- Website: www.soilwork.org
- Band
- Björn “Speed” Strid: vocals
- Peter Wichers: guitars
- Sylvain Coudret: guitars
- Ola Flink: bass
- Sven Karlsson: keyboards
- Dirk Verbeuren: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Late for the kill, early for the slaughter
- 02. Two lives worth of reckoning
- 03. The thrill
- 04. Deliverance Is Mine
- 05. Night Comes Clean
- 06. King Of The Threshold
- 07. Let This River Flow
- 08. Epitome
- 09. The Akuma Afterglow
- 10. Enter Dog Of Pavlov
- 11. Sweet demise
- 12. Distance (Drop’s electrip enhancement)