The Living Infinite

Good morning, you die-hard legion of metal...-ites? Anyway, I come to you today with an amazing album. "But wait," you ask, "aren't all fo the albums you review great, oh mighty overlord Mosh?" This is true, however, some of the albums I have given you have been awesomely bad (okay, one of them was, and I'm still bitter about it), but this one is awesomely awesome. That's correct, it is an album so awesome that it requires making awesome an adverb to describe how awesome it is. And you know what you get when something is that awesome? You get the fucking metal, that is what you get. So, instead of just mentioning how awesome this as of yet unnamed album is, let me lead you to the review. Right this way, please.

  

Soilwork - The Living Infinite

Alright, Soilwork has been a point of contention between Hops and I for quite a few years now. Of course, I have to laugh because with the exception of an album I acquired in college (and never really gave it much of a listen thereafter), Hops is the reason why I love this band. This is funny because I’m a huge fan of the direction the band has taken over the past few albums, while Hops--like the old man he is--is stuck in the past and only likes the “older” stuff. Well, we’re pushing that shit right out of the window now. Because this isn’t Hops’ review, dammit, this is mine. And I’m here to tell you that Soilwork’s “new” direction has culminated in a double disc masterpiece.

The Living Infinite is a triumphant, contemplative, thinking man’s metal cornerstone. Every bit of melody that the band has worked on over the past few albums is honed to such perfection that the notes actually seem to dance (or mosh) in your head as you listen. The melodies and the hooks are so infectious that I find myself humming and singing choruses long after the album has gone off. Don’t let this fool you. This album is by no means without a hungry aggression that even I may have wanted a little more of in the past two outings. For every minute of melody woven into these tracks, the listener is reminded why the best metal comes from once desolate areas. And unlike a lot of what passes for “metal” today, the aggression and the death vocals don’t come across as feeling like a separate part of the music. In my opinion (and we’ve discussed before that it’s one of only two opinions that matter), this is easily Soilwork’s best outing. The tracks are diverse, both individually and as a whole throughout the album. There are more laid back slow grinders, mid-tempo thinkers, and full on face melting slammers. The riffs are more blistering than ever, and the technical precision executed on the drums makes each track a roller coaster...of pure fucking metal! However, as I said earlier, this is very much a pensive, thinking metal album. There is a finely honed edge to this album, and the precision and execution of each note, each break brings The Living Infinite to a stark, beautiful life; a musical mirror to remind us that for every minute of bliss we manage to keep for ourselves, there is an open maw of terror waiting to find us in the darkest corners that we forget. 

9/10