Sweden’s Soilwork will be releasing their ninth studio album, a double CD entitled The Living Infinite, on February 27 in Asia (via license to Marquee Records), in Europe on March 1, and in North America on March 5 through Nuclear Blast Records. Tonight, the band debuted the first new song from the album, “Spectrum of Eternity”.
Every time I’ve reported news about The Living Infinite, I’ve tempered my interest with some kind of comment to the effect that although hope springs eternal, my expectations aren’t high. I do love this band, and I’ve loved at least one song on every album they’ve released, but the percentage of songs I’ve loved has declined over time.
But holy shit, “Spectrum of Eternity” has caused my expectations to soar. After a brief head-fake of an intro, it turns out to be absolutely blistering — a real high-energy powerhouse of a song. Speed Strid’s harsh vocals have never sounded more vicious and his clean vocals have never been more powerful; he hits some high notes I had no idea he was capable of reaching.
The band also succeed in harnessing together blast-furnace intensity with yet another memorable Soilwork melody, and the slowly building guitar solo near the end of the song is a winner.
There are twenty songs on this album, and the odds of all of them being as ferocious as this one are not high. But as DGR said when he e-mailed me about this debut (thanks dude!), if even half of them are of this caliber, then The Living Infinite will be well worth the wait.
The song premiered via a Swedish on-line radio channel called Bandit, but of course radio rips have already made it to YouTube. UPDATE: Nuclear Blast have now uploaded a high-quality version of the song. Check it out and let us know what you think:
7 Responses to “SOILWORK DEBUT A BLISTERING NEW SONG: “SPECTRUM OF ETERNITY””
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Hollay shittah! What’s going on with these guys?! That was fuckin’ amazing! Expectation for the album rises with every second of this song :O
Yes… yes please. More like this.
Has a nice ‘A Predator’s Portrait’ vibe, mixed with their newer stuff.
That blew the roof off. The speed and energy of the song really took me by surprise. I loved the Panic Broadcast but my expectations were tempered with the departure of Mr. Wichers. But the sound just as vicious and technical, yet still retaining that signature melody as ever! Drums are beast, and Speed sounds like a monster. I just hope they can sustain this level of quality over the course of a double album.
Holy bloody shit indeed! Strid’s ON Speed!
God fucking damnit. “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Nuclear Blast”
I just substituted an official version of the song uploaded to YouTube by Nuclear Blast.
I’m going to have to steal ‘head-fake’ from you. I hope that’s okay.
Also, good song, looking forward to this. I thought The Panic Broadcast was a great record, and I am concerned about the new one being a double album. Why not condense and have 11 strong songs, rather than 20 with inevitable fillers? Wait and see I suppose.