Band:	Soilwork
Album:	Verkligheten
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	January 11, 2019
Guest review by:	Shamppy

01. Verkligheten
02. Arrival
03. Bleeder Despoiler
04. Full Moon Shoals
05. The Nurturing Glance
06. When The Universe Spoke
07. Stålfågel [feat. Alissa White-Gluz]
08. The Wolves Are Back In Town
09. Witan
10. The Ageless Whisper
11. Needles And Kin [feat. Tomi Joutsen]
12. You Aquiver [feat. Dave Sheldon]
13. Summerburned And Winterblown [Underworld limited EP bonus]
14. In This Master's Tale [Underworld limited EP bonus]
15. The Undying Eye [Underworld limited EP bonus]
16. Needles And Kin [original version] [Underworld limited EP bonus]

There's a very common saying that reads "don't judge a book by its cover". This, of course, is not meant to be taken literally and does not only apply on books. It also means "don't judge an album by its artwork". There's also another common saying that states that every rule has an exception. Well, Soilwork seems to be that exception.

Ever since The Living Infinite, Soilwork has been on a streak of very solid records, and for some reason, the artwork of each one of them does a really good job at conveying the contents of its respective material.

With that said, you can begin forming an idea of what the album will sound like. Stoic, and with elements from what made its predecessors have a sense of identity, yet less threatening and with a wider color scheme that might attract some and push away others, but never straying too far from what was before it.

The album opens with the title track, a slow-paced intro with an aura of solitude and mystique that gets abruptly interrupted by "Arrival", one of the most intense songs on the drumming department of this album and one of the most recognizable in style for the band. It has an aggressive riffing but a tremendously melodic chorus. From here on, something begins to happen. This is Soilwork alright, yet it seems like Björn Strid carried over some heavy influence from his other project, The Night Flight Orchestra over to this album, creating a weirdly functional mix of their now traditional "melodic groove metal" (for the lack of a more fitting term and too afraid to even mention *shivers* "metalcore") and '70s progressive-inspired "hard rock".

The result is a familiar sounding yet fresh enough album that delivers some amazing musicianship and variety when it comes to both the album within itself and the band's overall catalogue, proving once again that Soilwork still have some great music in them and are a reliable band when it comes to quality releases. And while Verkligheten doesn't reach the level of The Living Infinite, it does improve over The Ride Majestic, which wasn't too far back on quality either, if anything purely because of how fresh this album sounds and the fact that the band is still trying to mix new elements over their formula with great results.