A Predator's Portrait

A small number of events in my life continue to vex me, from not being able to get out of bed without a major limb or back malfunction, to never quite being able to achieve the same level of satisfaction with my first morning coffee as I did the day before. Then, there’s Soilwork.

I have a huge hard-on for melodic death metal, with Carcass, Arch Enemy, At the Gates and the remainder of the Gothenburg scene being as important a part of my musical heritage as my ears themselves. Soilwork are a constant source of irritation to me as for some reason, I’ve never been able to extol the virtues that they deserve. Every release seems to sit comfortably above “mid”, but I’ve never yet found one that stands out above, or below, any of the others.

“A Predator’s Portrait” is the group’s third album and follows on from arguably the two strongest releases. Opening with “Bastard Chain”, we experience a heavier lilt to the group. The lead guitar swoops between vocal passages, and ‘Speed’ barks the song title during the chorus. This piece has a capable and enjoyable solo, marking this as one of the strongest inclusions on this recording.

“Like the Average Stalker” still sits with me as one of Soilwork’s best tracks. The insanely memorable chorus has echoes of “Clayman” and “Colony” by In Flames. The duelling clean/coarse vocals add a strong touch to the piece, with the frenetic solo oozing both technicality and serving the song majestically.

We then continue to top-load the album with what is probably the strongest track from a songwriting point of view. “Needlefeast” is a flurry of solos and strained shouts, with the refrain of “What am I doing here?” offering an ironic consideration that I am quite surprised hasn’t been turned into a meme yet. This track begats the first proper breakdown on the release, allowing the supporting instrumentation to truly bare their teeth.

This is where the agitation begins to resurface, as the remainder of the tracks don’t quite reach the same heights, although “Neurotica Rampage” isn’t far short. The general structuring of fitting a clean melodic chorus or stanza onto each song is a mainstay, and the guitar work on this album is easily noticeable and fantastic. I don’t know if the melo-death curse is just more noticeable as I’ve heard it all before, or if Soilwork are particularly vulnerable to its strain, but I feel that the tropes could branch out so much more than they do.

But I will make a hearty concession and admit that this album and band have finally started to click, and I finally get it. Rather than releasing the occasional genre-defining masterpiece (think “Therein”, “Only for the Weak”, “Ravenous”), Soilwork are better served with a multitude of songs that don’t need to be crowd-pleasers, but enough for a regular sing-along and encore moment. Maybe it’s better this way. Also, serious points for not having third album blues. (I am talking to you, Entombed…)

The portrait is completed, and behind this sweet smile is a seriously nasty intention.

It would feel a bit unusual calling A Predator's Portrait a 'step down' or a 'disappointment', because it's still a pretty darn good album, armed with a couple tracks I'd be happy to place on any Soilwork playlist. It's also sort of a direct blueprint to their direction for the next couple albums after it, but the fact remains that a couple of the tracks on this one never really permeated my musical tickle-zone, and even on some of the better tunes they'll veer into a riff or bridge that doesn't always have me hanging over the replay button. But putting it in context, this is by no means a dud of a faltering, at worst it feels like an extension of The Chainheart Machine which attempts to settle the music into a little bit more of an accessibility and groove. The pop and prog influences of the band's future are still quite far away, but some of that explosive At the Gates/mid-90s Swedish melodeath foundation is starting to chip away as Soilwork builds more of its own identity.

Speed is going for more clean vocals here, although he's still keeping them a bit restrained to a medium range ("Like the Average Stalker", "Needlefeast"), not as confident as he'd become later. The growls and rasps are still the primary vehicle for his performance, but he's swapping these things off pretty often here, creating a beauty & the beast microverse unto himself. The synths adopt even friendlier sorts of tones that you'd equate with atmospheric prog rock, and some of the leads are also starting to take on that nature, though they are consistently decent. The rhythm guitars are chunkier and chuggier and seem more heavily focused on both 'the mosh' and letting the thinner melodies serve as a counter, whereupon the first two albums it all blended a little more seamlessly. Still, there are some pump up riffs that get the blood coursing through you, and some of them seem like direct prototypes to later, better cuts. The band occasionally adopts some bluesy low-end metal grooves for the breakdowns, which for me shows a slight inspiration from the groove/nu metal of the 90s, although they had done this a few times earlier.

Now, a lot of these quips might seem like complaints, but that's not really the case, because A Predator's Portrait is still a busy album showing no lack for effort, especially in adjusting to the cleaner vocal alternations. There are no tracks whatsoever that I would consider outright bad, but a few of them just aren't as catchy as I would have hoped. I really do like of the flow of the record, from the passion and emotion of the harder moments to the little spikes of melodic, choppy picking. I feel that Soilwork might have been experience such an abundance and confluence of ideas in this first 5-6 years of being a signed, touring act, that they were releasing studio product at a rate just slightly higher than their own potential, and while some albums really delivered on all of this promise, A Predator's Portrait came up with one of the shorter straws. That said, I have known a few individuals who cite this as their personal favorite from Soilwork, and I can't blame them too much, a few of the rhythmic patterns here form a direct basis for tracks on my own.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

This album represents Soilwork taking definitive ownership of their sound, stepping outside of the melodic death metal orthodoxy or any limiting label and becoming an entirely separate entity in the world of metal. While the songs' foundations lie in melo-death still, the mixture of influences is too great and the end result is simply unique.

For one, the album introduces lead vocalist Bjorn Strid's noble-sounding cleans as one of the album's many weapons in creating melodic metal of the finest quality. The songs display the band's full arsenal whether it be the bluesy heavy guitar riffs, the beautiful and highly melodious lead work and more technical riffing, the faster parts featuring the occasional blast beats, or the epic choruses. Every part plays its role just right and combines to constitute the best orchestrated album the band had released yet. There's a noticeable improvement in song-writing with the quality of the various sections, and the album sounds vibrant with inspiration and a ripeness they hadn't shown before . Each song has a strong identity to it, and as one song ends the next one is just as exciting. Songs like 'Like the Average Stalker', 'Needlefeast', 'A Predator's Portrait', 'The Analyst' would have stuck out and likely each been the main highlight on the previous record. The level of maturity compared to that album is altogether just something else. The songs here know exactly how to get the listener hooked with the intros, how to keep the momentum going on the verse, when to introduce a keyboard section, how many times a part should be used, how to balance the tracks between verses and choruses etc.

It's just the catchiest the band had been so far, and given how stereotypical the Scandinavian melo-death scene quickly turned, this here is simply another caliber entirely. Every song is focused and will contain not just that one nice part but multiple highly anticipated moments from the listener. In feel, the album as always with this band features some of the more hard rock/bluesy sections in spirit, and a lot of the riffing is abrasive thrashy melodeath stuff with screaming on top, but then each song will distinguish itself with an unpredictable melody line often backed by the lush synths and produce an atmosphere that could often be described as heavenly. It's melodic metal depicting beauty in its purest form, although it isn't quite Soilwork at their best yet in that regard. There's also a subtle prog edge to many of the riffs and that makes Soilwork that bit more distinct, while the album as a whole never comes across as progressive metal per se.

Production wise this isn't quite crystal-clear and fully optimal but as often in this case it procures the album a certain charm. Ambitious records with highly mobile and articulated lead guitars, with synths and their heavy frequency-masking effect in the mix were usually difficult to produce during the early 2000's and had a tendency to sound a tad muffled, but this certainly sounds good on the whole. The drums have a bit more definition than on 'Chainheart' with the punchier high-compression snares particularly, while the bass has more presence too and adds a nice clean sub foundation for the parts where both guitars play higher on the fret-board and leave a gap at the center of the mix.

As mentioned the melodies are more focused and memorable on here, and that enhancement carries over to the solos. Some of the stuff contains gorgeous phrasing that instead of hindering the tracks with how obligatory they are on a metal record, they add more value to that blissful melodic energy that animates every song. A special mention out to guest soloist Mattias Ia Eklundh on 'Needlefeast' - genuinely one of the best solos I've heard in the genre.

Lastly, the ending self-titled track featuring Opeth vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt (singing the high harmony) is certainly one of the more unique iterations of the album's core concept. That chorus has to be one of the most brilliant moments in melodic metal under the category of "less is more". It's built on basically one chord, with brief bass changes but one main chord at the heart of it. The soft vocal melody line is 4 notes for the entire thing, while the superimposed harmonized lead guitars add the melodic detail. It's utterly simple, and yet the end result is one of the more unique choruses in the field. Where most metal choruses are attention-seekers and busy sounding as huge and overwhelming as possible, this antithesis of a chorus quietly pulls the listener in, and communicates its contagious solemn energy without resorting to being overly dramatic. Plain and unforgettable. This is without a doubt the best version of Soilwork as a melodic death metal band, and surely one of the most unique and compelling albums in the genre's history.

Now, onward to prime Soilwork.

Two coffees into a Sunday afternoon and I finally feel ready to tackle this Soilwork album. It’s not that I hate A Predator’s Portrait or that this Sunday has been especially shitty, but I’ve thought about writing up this review more than once over the last year and eventually discarded the Swedes in favour of another band that I felt was more interesting at the time. That’s a situation that sort of explains how I feel about Soilwork in general: I find them pretty good and occasionally I’m definitely in the mood for their boisterous melodic death metal, though they don’t quite fit the Gothenburg template (these guys hail from Helsingborg) nor have enough of their own character to totally distinguish the group from their like-minded peers. Anyone interested in career progress should know that Soilwork’s third album featured none of the longer song structures of the preceding The Chainheart Machine, though remains perhaps their heaviest offering since their early days, owing to a more accessible element of their sound gaining precedence in the mid-’00s.

All that prelude should convey my rather undecided stance about this album, since after many listens I still can’t look you in the eye and say that I either like it or don’t like it. Sure, I can definitely get behind some of it, though there might be too many things going on when one considers that this is music that does the simple things well and doesn’t need to do much more. Part of the reason I’m not sure about A Predator’s Portrait is down to a slightly dusty production that alternately gives the (sometimes downtuned) guitars a storming groove or a terribly dry scrambling sound that sounds like thrash riffage with no notes played. For all that a song like ‘Neurotica Rampage’ can win me over with its thumping main riff and the speed of the verses, the churning melodicism of the chorus and the moments when the whole band stops to inject a fill just leave me cold and wishing that the momentum of the better parts could be kept up more consistently. It’s an issue that follows multiple songs around: for every hooky riff there is another part that uses the same kind of redundant ideas that metalcore bands fill every song with, which disturb the great energy that Soilwork produce at other times.

I don’t want to be the guy who sits in bed in the afternoon (it’s really fucking cold here by the way) and say that “this band sucks because they don’t play the metal I like”, but the thugging up of Soilwork’s melodeath formula doesn’t help them maintain the rush of good melodeath, nor do Bjorn Strid’s clean vocals make matters better, being rather too clean as they are. His harsh vocals are a bit of an acquired taste as well, though the manic desperation and ‘just behind the beat’ nature of his yelps (he is nicknamed Speed after all) provides the necessary fire under the arses of the guitarists to keep the riffs coming thick and fast. In all honesty, this is the department where Soilwork really did make themselves distinct among the Swedish bands of the day, sounding little like most of the other big names, excepting perhaps Dark Tranquillity. Seeing as the hectic brunt of the verse riffing is rather like thrash musicians given modern death metal amp settings and never allowed to go to a Metallica show, this is not really at the melodic end of the spectrum, especially not with the drums raining down pell-mell all around, while the melodies tend to sneak in sideways, often in the form of chorus riffs or subtle keyboard backing, such as can be found in 'Structure Divine'. Arguably, one of the reasons why I get frustrated with this is that - for all the furious percussive bluster of the music - no one ever lets go completely, Strid just about hanging onto control of the vocals and the guitarists neither taking any particular song to shreds nor allowing their solos the backing of enough pace or riffing.

As a result of the stylistic choices made, none of the songs on A Predator's Portrait feel like absolute winners, yet none actually merit being called poor. 'Needlefeast' and 'Bastard Chain' are probably the two that deserve the highest praise, picking some of the finest riffs between them and keeping the energy levels up for most of the time, as well as 'Needlefeast' featuring a dramatic key change mid-solo and Strid's slightly baffling Elvis impression at the beginning. They also have the coolest titles, which helps as well. Some big grooves are present in 'The Analyst' and 'Final Fatal Force', the latter of which proves impossible to resist toe-tapping along with owing to its insistent rhythm. On a more melodic note, 'Shadowchild' has always stuck in my mind as having the most successful instance of clean vocals, keyboard powering up Strid to a poignant note, something that the band attempt elsewhere, though not to much effect.

Even after another concentrated listen to A Predator's Portrait I remain in two minds about the quality of the whole album. The other scores given on this website indicate a vast range of opinion, so I can console myself by thinking that I can hear both the positive and negative aspects of the experience. Ultimately, I suppose that the good outweighs the admittedly minor annoyances, though I should also conclude that this style is not really for me, making use of too many rhythmic interjections and rude transitions from heavy to light to suit my palette. This is a bit different to your typical early '00s melodeath album, but not exactly the pick of the bunch.

This is possibly my second favourite band I'd gotten into one of those special "buyer's whims" (an album you buy at your local record shop based off of interest, heresay, or just plain curiousity), the first being CRADLE OF FILTH and the third being OPETH, as the purchase of "Steelbath Suicide" (or rather, the Century Media re-release) left me awestruck...but ultimately unsatisfied. Needless to say my interest in the band was still strong when I departed the next day to get what other albums they had out at the time, trying to procure as much WORKED SOIL as possible, this being the second album of theirs bought.

All notion of unsatisfaction flew RIGHT out the window with this.

Even after all these years, this album is still one of my all-time favourites. It teems with a sense of almost flamboyant fun, as though the band was having a grand old time performing these hymns of metal mastery. This helps prove that you don't need a "kvlt" attitude or rock star persona to put out good quality metal, and at the time these guys just tromped all over the competition in terms of compositional abilites and balls-out heaviness (why these guys were over-looked when IN FLAMES was chosen as the end-all-be-all of melodic death metal is a damn shame), and even the slower material has more cacophonous intensity than some of the faster, "true" death metal songs (I'm lookin' right at you, CANNIBAL CORPSE...). The production comes into play as well, as Freddie Nordstrom puts a lot of powerbehind the band, giving the guitars a crushing, blunt-force strength and the vocals a lot of clarity to be understood behind the chaotic wall of music (the snare drum could've been less flimsy, though...but that's a menial complaint). And take your pick when it comes to memorable songs..."Like the Average Stalker", "Needlefeast", "Grand Failure Anthem", "Shadowchild"...hell, basically EVERY song is catchy, brutal, and sticks to you like wet ABC gum.

However, like the title suggests, this is ALMOST a perfect album...I'll admit that even though I listen to them time and again, "Final Fatal Force" and "Neurotica Rampage" are my two least favourite songs and are skipped if I can help it (they're not terrible songs by any means, they just don't have enough meat on the bones). But that and the thin-sounding snare drum are the only real problems, if any can be pointed out.

In short, chances are I'll probably still listen to and love this album even when I'm a crotchety old fuck with very little hearing and a callous to metal music (not very likely, if I may toot my own horn). For anyone who hasn't had the chance to experience this masterpiece, get it. THIS is what melodic death metal SHOULD be!

Where to begin on this album is almost impossible. There are so many great qualities within this album. Its a great listen and all of you melodic death metal freaks should give this one a listen.

This albums high point is definitely the lead work. Ola Frenning and Peter Wichers had some of the most creative minds during the writing process. Generally every track on this album has a great solo. If they aren't playing solos then its usually a great harmony leading up the solo. And under that harmony is a very atmospheric keyboard part to add to the overall feel of the solo. The solos are generally long and have plenty of talent to be called virtuostic. If your a lead guitarist that loves harmony and creative melodies then check out this album.

Now the vocals play a big roll how great this album is. Bjorn Strid's vocals are aggressive and pummeling. On some of the faster tracks his voice copes well with the faster tempo riffs. Not only does he do the harsh vox but he has the godly clean vocals. This is the album that he began to do clean vocals and i think his judgment was well. This clearly shows that he is a very diverse vocalist and should be recognized by most metal vocalists.

The drum work on this album is very original and diverse. Henry Ranta has the best sounding snare and bass drum i have ever heard. The snare sounds like what a snare should sound like, poppy and abrupt. Henry places double bass in the best possible places and definitely made this album that much better.

The bass on this album is great when audible. Nothing amazing, however Mr. Flink does provide some great bass lines here and there.

The keyboards are very atmospheric and not overused (unlike many melodic death metal bands this days). Carlos is a great keyboard writer and deserves more recognition that he got.

Overall this album is perfect. If your a melodic death metal freak then this is a must have. There are the faster, thrash songs and then the more melody based songs. In both ways this is an advantage because no song on this record sounds the same.

I think this is when soilwork had it all.
Tracks to lookout for:
Asylum Dance, Shadowchild, A Predator's Portrait, Structure Divine, and Like The Average Stalker

Too Much Keyboard, Too Little Bass

I recently decided to give Soilwork a shot. Even though, since I'd heard loads about them from the "Mosher" section of people that I know, I just expected them to be another average band similar to lamb of god or trivium.

To my surprise, they were pretty darn good. Bastard Chain is a very strong opener, with what SOUNDS like weird time changes, although it probably isn't, but since time changes are my kind of thing it works for me. Like the Average Stalker, although with a terrible name is one hell of a song, guitar harmonies and brutal parts in all the right places. Even Needlefeast is awesome.

The yelps and screams of Bjorn Strid and the instrumental onslaught of the rest of the band continue for a time and leave a trail of "woah, that was pretty cool" up until Structure Divine. From that song onwards, this album is fucking boring, and you know what makes the rest of this album fucking boring? The lack of brutality.

The keyboards just sap the heaviness out of the music, and after a whole round of bashing all you want is more and more bashing. But in this case, the heavy tone of the music just flops. Final Fatal Force (another crap name) is one of those songs that pisses me off. It's so damn boring and Carlos's keyboar smears the power behind it with a horrible ambience that you've just had for the last 8 or so minutes.

Shadowchild annoyed me too. The only imaginative thing they can think of to bring the album back was to whisper in the intro. Great ideas guys! How about a real thrashy intro that pounds into the listeners skull and wakes them up again? Nope, all we have after this is more keyboard mashing and more annoying power draining.

I have issues with the bass as well. This album would have more power (which still may not overall affect the terrible damage that the keyboards do to the album) if there was any audible bass on the tracks. Ola Flink is no doubt a good bassist, simply to match up to the bands guitarists, which may I say are exceptionally talented people. But when we don't actually hear his talent, it's a bit wasted really.

I wish, personally, that I could give this album more marks, because the first half is amazing, but I have such a massive problem with the second half of the album that I'm forced to cut their marks in two. For soilwork lovers, don't miss the album out, just be sure to hit "Stop" at track seven.

I loved this album when I first picked it up. It was my first Soilwork album and I loved the use of Speed Strid's cool vocals, which remain one of my all time favorites. But then it hit me: This album fails toward the end.

The album starts off with Bastard Chain, a decent opening song with a strange sounding chorus. It's one of those songs that most people think its ok. Like the Average Stalker fixes the small gaff of the first song with just being one of the best Soilwork songs ever made. Everything is great in this song! The good run continues with the next song, Needlefeast, with what is one of my favorite vocal effects, that of Strid doing the pre-chorus over his long growl. It sounds so fucking cool! Neurotica Rampage slows the album down a bit much like Bastard Chain, but it is still a good track. The Analyst, the halfway mark, picks it up with what I think is the best outro verse I've heard in a song. It's very well written and well delivered by Strid.

Here's where it gets sketchy. I like Grand Failure Anthem, it's an anthem song obviously, and it's done fairly well, but the rest of the songs on the album are very boring. Structure Divine and Final Fatal Force stand out to me in the wrong way, they just don't catch my attention like the other songs do. The title track/album closer does bring you back, but a bit too late. The album's track order never capitalizes on any sort of catchy run of music.

The sound is pretty well produced, notably Henry Ranta's drumming, which I think is excellent, and it's a shame he's no longer their drummer. My main complaint is the keyboards. Me being a keyboard fan doesn't help, and I hate the fact that they did such a horrible job implementing Carlos Del Olmo's work into songs. They only used him for a background ambience. What the hell man! Later albums (especially FNF) use keys a whole lot more, why couldn't they do it earlier? Damn them! The rhythm string section sounds good as well, although with many other albums/bands, the bass is very hard to hear. Still, overall the sounds of the album are ok.

APP is generally lumped with Steelbath and Chainheart as their classic albums. IMO, this is their weakest, but it is still a good listen and very good listen for first time listeners of Soilwork.

When the name Soilwork is mentioned, the first things that come to mind are “mainstream” and “In Flames”. Some people can’t seem to look past the fact Soilwork have indeed followed In Flames into the mainstream spotlight. But just because their albums today don’t have much to do with melodic death metal anymore, it doesn’t that their older stuff should be looked down upon. Before all of this stereotyping and judging occurred, we were treated to some really great riffs on some great albums by these Swedes. They gave us such releases as Steelbath Suicide, The Chainheart Machine and my personal favorite by them, A Predator’s Portrait; for it was A Predator’s Portrait that really showed what Soilwork were capable of doing.

I was a big fan of the band a few years ago, back before Stabbing The Drama and Figure Number Five. Sure, like a lot of other people, I was disappointed with their last two releases, but I still love their old albums; A Predator’s Portrait in particular. It’s not the best album I’ve ever heard, but it is really good nonetheless. I find it a step up from where they were going, but unfortunately they went the other way after this release.

It has blazing leads and solos all over the place along with other melodies and harmonies. And they make this album what it is. Peter and Ola really stepped up their playing on this release. They combine beautiful melodies with some heavy thrash riffs, creating a very intense feeling, especially during the first few songs on this album. The first three songs are prime examples of what melodic death metal should be like. They are fast and intense, yet they are packed with melodies and ferocious growls.

In addition to the guitar work being above par, Speed’s vocals have become a little better too. His growls are really impressive at times. But what stands out most are his use of clean vocals on this album. I know some people don’t like them, but I actually don’t mind the clean vocals. I think they could be better, (they have gotten better since this album) but they’re not bad at all. I think they fit in with the music quite well, but then that’s just my opinion. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. :P

Another standout element on this album is Henry Ranta’s drumming. Man, oh man! I love the drums on this album. I’m not usually one for dissecting the music and listening to each individual instrument, but I actually could for this one. I’d pretty much enjoy it because Henry can actually be a very technical drummer at times! Like the other instruments though, his drumming is displayed well in the first few songs on the album.

But having said all of that, there two pretty big flaws on this album. Number one; it’s inconsistent. What I mean by this are the songs themselves. The first three or four songs are very well written and showcase the band’s skill and intensity. But things kind of got of hand after that; track five, The Analyst. Why did they even bother putting this song on the album? It absolutely does not fit in with what they had going. I personally think this song belongs on Natural Born Chaos or Figure Number Five, not here.

I must admit though, it’s not that bad of a song. But it just disrupts the flow of the album and makes the listener just turn away and not want to listen to anymore of the album. The good thing though is that the band regains their focus with the next song, Grand Failure Anthem. This song is pretty much the same as the first few on the album, which is a very good thing. But this doesn’t last long. For the remainder of the album, the intensity and ferocity displayed earlier take a backseat to melodies and more of a groove feeling.

This is not a bad thing at all, because despite the lack of aggression and intensity, the songs are actually very well done. But once again, it goes back to the inconsistency. They don’t fit in much with what they had achieved earlier. If they had continued with the intensity, this album would’ve been magnificent. But hey, what can you do?

The other big flaw is the keyboards. They have a keyboard player (a very good one at that, just look at his work with Embraced) but we rarely ever hear any of his work. During some breaks in the songs, we get to hear it, but it’s not enough. Why bother getting a keyboard player if you don’t use him much? This disappoints me a lot because I’m a huge fan of Embraced and I know what Sven can do with the keyboards, and it’s a shame he doesn’t get to display it with these guys. But once again, what can you do?

Other than those two flaws, this album is a very good release, especially with the addition of “Asylum Dance”, which is only featured on the Japanese bonus edition. That’s an amazing way to end an album! I must admit, that song with its solos and leads really caught my attention the first time I heard this album. I couldn’t believe it. It’s possibly my favorite Soilwork track ever.

So overall, this is a really good album. I like it a lot. If you’re a fan of the band’s earlier work, or if you like melodic death metal, this is a must have album!!

3 Favorite Tracks: Asylum Dance, Like The Average Stalker and A Predator’s Portrait (which also features Mikeal from Opeth, doing some vocals.)

Soilworks third album 'A Predator's Portrait' is not the bands finest hour in my eyes, they have done before, and will do much better. They don't seem to have the force and wonderful song writing they usually showcase, here. The riffs and leads are for the most part, above average, but not by much, the keys have little to no effect, and even Speeds vocals aren't up to par with his usual work, he sounds tired during the verses, and hopelessly awkward during the choruses, and his lyrics here, aren't very good frankly. The guitars are the same as always, precise and tight, but the riffs seem to lack much direction, the drums are pretty good as well, as always.

Songwise, easily the bands weakest. Some of this stuff is outright boring, and does little to capture that feel Soilwork creates. Save for about four songs, this album is pretty borderline. There are a few REALLY good songs here, 'Like the Average Stalker' has a really nice lead, 'The Analyst' is pretty catchy, and 'Grand Failure Anthem' is one of the bands best songs, but has some silly lyrics durning the chorus. Shadowchild is nice, but not the godly piece of art it's made out to be. Asylum Dance is really cool as well, but the rest is good for a listen to two, nothing overly special.

This album has tons to enjoy for a 'metalhead', solos, leads, great fills and technical riffing, but take metal off the mind, and this album isn't very special at all, it has a severe lack of rhythm. Check out 'The Chainheart Machine' first, it has more to love.

I picked up A Predator's Portait a couple weeks ago, and just couldn't take it out of my CD player. This is an incredible release from Soilwork.
The production on this is outstanding. Every instrument blends together perfectly. None overlaps any other. The musicianship is excellent. First, the singer. He mostly has a high screaming tone, which varies rarely. But there ARE clean vocals during the choruses sometimes. It is just enough to keep it at melodic death. I was a bit hesitant at first, since I am accustomed to low gutteral growls such as Iniquity or Severed Savior. But they actually add a new feeling to this album, like an atmospheric melodic tone which fits very nicely. But he has a GREAT singing voice, unlike Anders from In Flames. My favorite thing about this CD are the guitars. They are very melodic and blend well together. Alot of the time, the drummer will blast away, and the guitars will dual very melodically like a flowing stream. The keyboards, on the otherhand, are very atmospheric, unlike Children of Bodom. It sounds amazing when the guiatars dual while the keyboards keep a backround atmosphere to it. The drums aren't anything special. Double bass is used when needed, and he doesn't do any impossible shit like Roddy from Hate Eternal does. But even so, they fit perfectly with the music. You concentrate on the guiatr mostly throughout this album.
I highly suggest A Predator's Portrait to fans of melodic death metal, and ESPECIALLY fans of old In Flames. Even if you hate shit like this, this album is a must.

This album came out as very nice surpirse to me, brutally claiming its place in my heavy rotation list and refusing to let it go for several weeks. Yes, Soilwork's third effort is one of those albums that abruptly hooked me without compromise. How can it be explained? It's pretty easy, actually. Soilwork belong to a genre I always listen to with pleasure, the so called Melodic Swedish Death or Gothenburg Metal. Bands like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames have been the soundtrack to my Metal days from the very start. And just when I think that none of the new bands in the scene - which is beginning to stagnate itself - will ever compare to those monsters, here comes Soilwork's "A Predator's Portrait".

Basically, the structure of this album's music is firmly rooted in the fertile Gothenburg soil, but fed by new young lymph in the form of Soilwork's trademark thrashy approach (yes, the thing that made "The Chainheart Machine" such a winner), the apparent skills of the involved musicians and generally a harsh touch, very distinctive of this particular album. Just check out the opening of the first track, "Bastard Chain": a typical Gothenburg riff pumped forward by Henri Ranta's mechanically precise, double-tempo feel beat... then Speed's vocals kick in, and he never sounded so powerful and angry up to this point; he spits out the words like in a dark fit of anger, and it fits the feeling of the record so perfectly. The production also enhances the aggressive feeling, by leaving a dirtier edge to the sound which is something VERY unusual among the crystal clear sound of the Swedish scene, yet this courageous choice results in a very unique and powerful combination, and in the end my only complaint could be that at times the guitars would need to be brought a bit more to the forefront.

There is also a lot of variety to be found here. Soilwork never had the problem of finding a suitable number of interesting riffs for each of their songs, and it clearly shows here "Grand Failure Anthem", for instance, even includes blastbeats in the chorus, and has a spectacular mid-paced solo section past the middle which you would never expect; the title track switches from a very angry verse to an extremely melodic chorus, which also features guest vocals from Opeth's frontman, Mikael Åkerfeldt.
Oh yeah, speaking of vocals: did I mention that Speed started using clean vocals here too? Just check out "Needlefeast": a flat out headbanger with fast and furious riffwork that could fit well on "The Chainheart Machine"... but then the chorus kicks in, and harmonized clean vocals with it.
"Neurotica Rampage" is another fierce slab of speed, with room for an odd tempoed bridge (which also guests a jawdropping dual guitar break) and yet another clean chorus. What amazes me the most is not just the abundance of worthy material, but also - and mostly, I'd say - how it all blends together.

There are also more melodic moments to be found among all the harshness. "Like the Average Stalker" successfully combines machine gun-like double bass drumming / guitar picking with background keyboards, creating a quiet yet dismal nocturnal atmosphere ready to explode into a burts of rage from one moment to another - and inevitably it happens. Speaking of keyboards, I have wondered why on earth Soilwork would need a full time keyboarder in their line-up myself, until I gave this album an adequate number of listens. Carlos Del Olmo-Holmberg does a great job by adding his subtle synthwork here and there; it takes time to notice how actually deep his contribution to the album is but be sure of this: without him, this album wouldn't sound the same, for the worse. It's a pity he left after this album, but luckily Sven Karlsson proved to be a more than adequate replacement.
Another very worthy travk is "Shadowchild", which is actually a reworked version of an older Soilwork song; it basically consists of a very headbangable verse paired with the album's most melodic chorus, with a great vocal line from Speed.
The remaining three songs - "Structure Divine", "The Analyst" and "Final Fatal Force" - fail to impress me as much as the rest but they are no mere filler material for sure; "The Analyst" in particular has a very cool verse riff and a melodic section in the middle with a dual guitar solo which is just excellent.

Heading for the end, what we have here is an impressive work delivered by a bunch of seriously talented musicians, in the form of a rusty hammer pounding its way into your head - yet, it gives you more every time you listen to it. Don't miss it out, such a high quality is rare to find today.

Soilwork just kept getting better release after release. A Predator's Portait (the proceeder to Chainheart Machine 1999) is the first Soilwork album that Speed actually decided to put some clean vocals into their peices to add alittle variety and interesting catchy vocal patterns that gets you singing to every time. This is the first Soilwork album that I really got into fully. Chainheart and Steelbath are both good in their own rights but I think this is where they were creatively at their peak in terms of quality songs +craftsmanship, and musicianship. A Predator's Portrait is very melodic, and harsh at times to take in which is nice, because it gets you very pumped. Speed vocals are probably the most harsh i've ever heard heard him growl out of his mouth. I'd say this is their 3ed best disc but not to say that this is bad at all. I fucking love this cd and if people gave it more of a chance im sure they would love it too. The drummer Henry Ranta proves hes one of the best drummers ever, his style is undersurpasble and he struts his shit over this whole album. The guitarists also show their unique talents and creativness. Everything on this album is good in its own right so just mentioning one or two songs isnt good enough. Buy this fucker right now, for you are all deprived little boys and girls otherwise.

A Predator's Portrait is quite a bad ass album. That is if you just listen to the same 5 songs over and over again. The other half of the album is the biggest pile of crap I have ever heard.

Alright, the first 3 tracks are great. I love them. This is what Melo-Death Metal is all about! Great material! Alot of blood and sweat was poured into the making of these songs.

Then we get to the forth song, Neurotica Rampage. Yuck! I have never heard anything like this before and I never would want to hear this again. Same with the fifth song. This is some of the most crappiest guitar work I ever heard. Strid's singing only makes it worse. The only good thing about these two songs are the drums. In fact, thats the only thing that shines throughout the entire album, the drums.

Luckily, the next song, Grand Failure Anthem, saves the album from falling flat on its face. Great song with some killer guitar riffs and such. Unfortunetly, the rest of the album is shit, until the final song. The final, and title, song is pretty damn good. Pretty heacy guitar riffs with lots of vocals that are pretty damn good!

I think you would like it if you buy it. I personally think it was worth my money even though half of the album is crap, the rest of it makes up for it.

Well, there are two new developments that this album has, that the last two did not... the first is good, the second very, very bad. First of all, the RIFFS! They found the riffs! At times, this is total fucking headbanging material. Bang your head against the stage like you've never done before - at least not to a Soilwork album. But, the problem is - other than the fact that the album goes very quickly downhill after the first two or three songs - is that they have some very bad ideas as well - like before, tey throw in a whole fuckload of ideas into every song, a lot of them are stupid.

The really dumb new idea is clean vocals.... oh dear lord, which genius listened to too much Fear Factory and came up with that one? Also, they decided to have far more repetitive choruses. Overall, this album is a loser - when it rocks, it rocks harder than they've ever rocked before. But when it does not rock - oh lord, my grandmother when she is not rocking, even she is rocking harder.

The first song... starts off pretty average, with some very annoying drumming, overloud vocals, etc etc... then a very very repetitive chorus. Again, nothing completely out of their range, given the first two albums - especially the second. But then, what's this? Instead of a hardcore breakdown, or an assrape special - it's a great riff progression! Around 1.38 in, yes indeed that is a thrash riff, and then "arrgh!! arrggh!!" and some decent riffage, and then what one gets here is music done RIGHT. Holy crap, they managed to get it right - without changing the level of intensity, they changed the mood of the song. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, but they're taking baby steps here so we gotta give 'em as much credit as possible. One more chorus, and then the leads kick in. This has always been the highlight of the band, but now, what's this underneath it? A monster fucking RIFF!!! The best riff they have ever done up to this point in time.

The second song... intro riff, and then... second riff! Wow, for about 20 seconds, this song sounds like it's going somewhere. Then, a recycled Maiden "Gothencrap" riff, and some halfthrash bullshit... well, we can't win 'em all. RE! SPECT! STALK! DoH! Too much random shit going on in this song - concentrate on one idea, and go with it. Random keyboards, guitars going on-off-on-off... they tend to get it going so well, and then it all falls apart. "In the shadows where no one else can hear..." Oh dear, what in the name of a fucking mother of a large, diseased rat-monkey creature that I am forced to have sex with?!?! You gotta love the really nasty surprises... anyway, some good soloing, but... what the sweet Jesus fucking bleargh the fuck was that?!

Then, the rest... Needlefeast. Again, some decent riffs, but the guitars are far, far too chaotic and incohesive. Listen to that verse when they both kick in - one is playing a swirling borrowed-Maiden Gothencrap melody, and one is playing a one-note thrash riff. Oh and then at 1:14 in, here come the clean vocals. Oh man, these are horrible clean vocals. And the chorus blows. "Flyyy!!! Flyyyy!!!" Didn't I hear something approximately this intelligent in a Slipknot album? No wonder some people think Slipsuck is metal - it sure doesn't sound like the metal I grew up with, and neither does this!

Neurotica Rampage - awesome guitar lick at 0:42 - sounds like something lost on Ram it Down. Hard as Iron indeed - but then the drums come in. Why, oh why, must modern bands have the drums so fucking loud, and the vocals too? Maybe to cover up the fact that the guitars aren't doing jack shit. Then, we're not even going to talk about the middle part. Hear them say it so clear: THAT FUCKING SUCKED! A total waste of a monster riff at around 1:45 in, because the rest of this song fucking sucks.

The Analyst? Nothing we haven't heard before. Grand Failure Anthem? Cool intro riff, but after that, it descends into very mediocre stuff. Nothing we haven't heard before on previous Soilwork albums, and by now it's just getting entirely forgettable. Especially when I've heard it on some In Flames albums, and some Dark Tranquillity, and some ... etc etc etc. Structure Divine? The lost Machine Head meets Fear Factory song. This is getting terribler and terribler as we go on. Shadowchild - wow, they've got a great melodic break around 0.41 in, but then they bring in the really cheesy vocals that sound like something out of a Duran Duran album. It's so hard to maintain a good idea, apparently - especially when there are so many BAD ideas to be tried. Guitar on, guitar off. Give me a break, this fucking sucks.

Final Fatal Force - if only, that would mean this were over. It is just terrible, and hideously recycled, and at this point I'm just screaming for this album to fucking end already, but maybe the last song rules more than everything else, so I gotta listen, but by now if I have to hear this hideous vocalist any more I am this close to punching something. This music is just totally annoying, grating, and generally crappy. A Predator's Portrait - nothing new to be found here. A decent closing riff, but that is about all. Asylum Dance - a bit slower with louder keyboards, but in general this too could have been spliced together from random parts of the first few songs.

So overall... more thrash riffs. Good. More halfthrash riffs. Bad, but I guess it comes with the territory. Too much random "yaarrrggghhh!"-ing in the vocals. Too much random distortion, and grating bullshit best left on The Great Southern Trendkill. Too many songs that run together and sound all the fucking same. Some really fucking cool solos, but it totally sounds at times like they are going to waste, when all the other things are thrown into the mix. Also, the album very badly lacks staying power - the end is far, far weaker than the beginning. Not a winner, not at all. I do not like this, Sam I Am.