Review Summary: Soilwork ripped off their own earlier material with half the result. Everything about this album screams lazy. Half-assed. Almost intentionally watered-down.
The recent release of the amazing
The Living Infinite has restored the hope of mine and many others regarding the creative state and overall stance of Soilwork. This is why I decided to analyze one of their, in my opinion, two worst outings to date (the other is
Sworn To A Great Divide, which is for all intents and purposes STD Mk II). Let us not kid ourselves - overall, the fact of bands selling out is very saddening. Even more so if the band's new direction transfers to live concerts and completely overshadows their early material, as part of the marketing strategy of the band. Material easier to listen to naturally reaches more fans, however the tastes of those fans often don't speak well of them.
After
Stabbing the Drama and its follow-up album came out, there were already three mainstream-leaning albums in a row, which practically sealed the band's coffin in the eyes of the fans of their first four albums. My own look at the matter at the time was also slightly different, I used to hate
Figure Number Five the most out of all the albums, just because it was less heavy than STD. While indeed their most accessible album to date, what I overlooked and learned only years later was that it was in fact decently written. The biggest affront to metal seemed to be the song "Departure Plan", which seemed like a joke compared to what the band became known for throughout the years, but still - other songs from this album, hell, even this song was enjoyable in its own, cheesy right. Right now I can appreciate mainstream sounding music as long as it's heartfelt and elaborately written. Which leads us to the unfortunate pile of steaming you-know-what that is
Stabbing the Drama.
Why is this album so bad? Because it epitomizes all the bad things that the late (or should I, thankfully, say "mid-career") Soilwork came to be known for. You probably disagree - this album isn't as saccharine as its predecessor. It doesn't have so many cutesy, emotional anthems, and that should be a metalhead's primary focus. However, as I said before, this is not what matters. What matters are the tired, unvaried verse-chorus-verse-solo-chorus structures, which have never, ever been as prevalent in Soilwork's material as on STD. Ever got the feeling "Omg, this band has such boring verses, only the choruses are memorable". If it was about Soilwork, chances are you were thinking of
Stabbing the Drama. And I don't need to say that isn't a good thing, and a primary factor that decides a band's mediocrity. To add insult to injury, most of the chorus melodies simply aren't enjoyable and feel hollow, something which wasn't an issue on FNF and sadly even more of an issue on STAGD. The sterile, one-dimensional production doesn't help alleviate the boredom, it only makes it worse. The album's simply boring and tedious, quite enough to make the listening a chore. After setting such standards, the greatness of their last album is even more surprising.
Disappointing as this album is, it still holds its own enough to call it average. There are two decent songs on it: "Nerve" and "Stalemate". Sadly, their decent status probably comes from my penchant for the particular gimmicks used in them than any real songwriting quality -"Nerve" has a chorus that sticks out quite a bit, while "Stalemate" brings back the early Soilwork nostalgia somewhat, which however comes at the cost of blatantly ripping off the chorus of the song "Neurotica Rampage" off
A Predator's Portrait. Yeah, the whole CD feels like Soilwork rehashing the melodies they once played with half the inspiration and half the technicality. Almost like they were trying to make an entry-level album for new fans (Hot Topic attending ones, mind you).
The opener and title track "Stabbing the Drama" is terrible. Is this really the overall most listened to song by them on last.fm? What's wrong with people? It's a perfect example of average riffs, uninspired structures and annoying choruses. "One With The Flies" is more of the same: simply underwhelming. The following two songs also fail to deliver. Boring verses, and choruses failing to produce any good ambience, actually doing the contrary. From here on out, I should probably stop, since I caught myself thinking that I could say the same of any following track. "Blind Eye Halo" is a notable exception, but accompanied by songs as they are, the inclusion of this song would only feel ironic, as though the band was mocking the listener in a fashion like "See, we can still play heavy. Now shut up and gobble up the new, radio-friendly stuff". Nothing on this album is what you'd call horrible, but everything is simply so underwhelming, so average, so mediocre that you could as well do it.
I suggest you stay away from this album - it isn't what Soilwork used to represent, and it isn't what the band represents now either. Thinking that you know Soilwork by knowing this album is lying to yourself. On the other hand, if you're a corekid who likes Atreyu and Sonic Syndicate, then this is the perfect album for you. You'll love it. Thankfully, ambitious fans of Soilwork no longer have to weep for their band's future and treat the brilliant in its own right
Natural Born Chaos as a transitioning point to THIS album, but asthe great album it was, no strings attached - because Soilwork apparently snapped out of the moneymaking frenzy and returned to paying heed to the actual quality of their songs. While
The Panic Broadcast was already a sign that Soilwork wouldn't take a dump on their legacy after all,
The Living Infinite proved that and then some. Whether they made enough money off this average piece of crap, or they simply became reproachful over it, this album can thankfully be treated as what it is - a blunder, a mistake to be corrected and forgotten.
