punkrawka's Full Review: Natural Born Chaos by Soilwork
Soilwork is one of those odd cases where I developed a minor (OK, major) obsession with the band much faster than my Epinionating could keep up -- and so today, I find myself with the complete discography of a high-quality Swedish melodic metal band, and not a single review of their work. As such, I will begin arbitrarily with their best album, Natural Born Chaos, the 2002 release that found the band at the beginning of their segue from the underground to a more mainstream sound. The result is a disc that blends intensity with polish in a way that few metal discs have ever done, with nary a bad track to be found.
The disc blasts open with "Follow the Hollow," a classic Soilwork song that's driven by crisp, melodic guitars and a brutal set of roars from vocalist Bjorn "Speed" Strid. There are brief melodic vocals to segue the verses and choruses, but it's mostly a frantic yell trading off with a gruff growl, setting an intense pace right from the opening.
The reason that this disc is a classic of Swedish metal (right up there with In Flames' Reroute to Remain) is that there's not a skippable track in the bunch. Even on the more samey tracks here, "Mindfields" and "Soilworker's Song of the Damned," there's nothing to make the listener reach for the skip button. And the album is predominated not by those weaker moments, but by a plethora of strong material.
An unquestionable standout is "Black Star Deceiver," one of the album's heaviest tracks and an opportunity for Strid to trade roars with Strapping Young Lad's Devin Townsend (who also helped with the album's mixing). "The Flameout" is another must-hear, with breakneck speeds driving the verses while Strid flexes some real melodic muscle in the choruses, singing plaintively "Feeding angels with despair / Flameouts raining everywhere..."
The band achieves a sense of drama on the tracks "As We Speak" and "Natural Born Chaos", using the music more as a stage-setter for heavy-impact moments like Strid roaring "As we speak / A young man loses his mind / He kills what's next in line" or "Bleed for money / Bleed for justice / Going straight to hell with a wounded soul." This is the first Soilwork release where the majority of vocals (even the screams) were clean enough to truly appreciate these lyrical gems, and yet the disc is still authentically heavy and uncompromising, giving the listener the best of metal on all fronts.
In short, there's little to say about Natural Born Chaos that could be spun as a negative. A couple of tunes are less classic than others, but with such a wide array of repeat-listen choices, no skip-worthy moments and the best of both sides of the band's sound, it's no contest to call this their strongest release, and a must-own for metal fans, especially those who have gotten into more recent melodic releases from In Flames or Soilwork. They'd be ill-advised to miss this slightly earlier release.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Soilwork Discography
Steelbath Suicide (1998)
The Chainheart Machine (2000)
A Predator's Portrait (2001)
Natural Born Chaos (2002)
Figure Number Five (2003)
The Early Chapters (EP, 2003)
Stabbing the Drama (2005)
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