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21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century... So Far

ALBUMS WE WISH HAD MADE THE LIST: SOILWORK – NATURAL BORN CHAOS

 Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 5:00pm by

21 best albums of the 21st century so far

soilwork - natural born chaos

Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos (Nuclear Blast, 2002)
Björn “Speed” Strid − Vocals
Peter Wichers − Guitars
Ola Frenning − Guitars
Ola Flink − Bass
Sven Karlsson − Keyboards
Henry Ranta − Drums
Produced by Devin Townsend

When Soilwork dropped Natural Born Chaos in 2002, “metalcore” was not yet a twinkle in the eye of a million American copycats. Just pure. Fucking. Swedish. Heavy metal. Though their countrymen In Flames may have melodicized death metal first (or second, after At the Gates, I suppose), Soilwork arguably did it better, and the Devin Townsend-produced Natural Born Chaos stands as the band’s defining moment.

Natural Born Chaos doesn’t steamroll you with riffs, technical prowess or off-kilter time signatures; just solid as fuck, undeniable songs through and through. Every single one of ‘em, start to finish, is a fist-in-the-air, sing-and-air-guitar-along affair propelled by Peter Wichers knack for a hooky riff and Bjorn “Speed” Strid’s powerful scream, still amongst the best and clearest in all of metal. That Devin Townsend was able to coax a fantastic clean-singing performance out of Strid was the icing on the cake that made the contrast between the verses and choruses so strong and irresistible, long before it became the thing to do or before Decibel coined the “good cap/bad cop” vernacular. Current keyboardist Sven Karlsson made his presence felt in his debut with the band, the most keyboard-present mix before or since. Not for nothin’, Townsend fucking NAILED the production on this one too, and that goes a long way.

Soilwork hasn’t made a bad album yet, but to me Natural Born Chaos mixes all the trademark elements of Soilwork in the perfect brew. Predator’s Portrait was too unrefined, anything before then was like listening to a different (but still good) band; Figure Number Five was too subdued and melodic; Stabbing the Drama… well, StD definitely gives NBC some competition. But for my money Natural Born Chaos is the Soilwork album, the one that defined their sound and that of many bands to follow [the hollow].

-VN

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  • bilephuck

    Solid album, but I’m a bigger fan of StD!

  • Dyx

    Fantastic album by a fantastic band! Didn’t care much for Stabbing the Drama, but I enjoyed the hell out of Figure Number Five and Sworn to a Great Divide!

  • Attic

    Oh wow, I remember hearing this album around the time it came out.

    Solid stuff, though I can’t say I’d feel compelled to listen to it now.

  • Ziltoid

    WAHHHH THIS ALBUM SUCKS JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS SITE WAHHHHHHHH I’M ZILTOID

    • Lord Bling

      Hey, waaaaaaait a minute…

    • Ziltoid

      Oh, you’re so funny. But seriously, everything Soilwork has ever done is awful. The only thing the vocalist ever did well was a gues spot for Mercenary’s “Redefine Me.” Otherwise, awful music.

      • Fufkin

        Yeah man, totally wrong.

      • timmah

        yeah, you really are an idiot.

      • Mitch

        Well, considering Ziltoid’s infamy, this might as well be a poser (redundant, I know)just trying to sound pissy. For what he’s worth, even Ziltoid manages to make marginally logical accusations.

  • Mancubus

    Soilwork is one Swedish metal band taht I never got into when I’m personally a big fan of the scene. I just never had any desire to listen to yet another Swedish death metal band when I already have albums by Dismember, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Meshuggah, Unleashed, Opeth, etc. These guys just debuted after most of those bands so I never gave them the attention that they probably deserved.

    • Centurion

      Well I wouldn’t say they are a breaking ground band but they produce good solid tunes and you should defiantly give their older stuff a listen to.

      • metalguy

        EXACTLy the same

    • Ziltoid

      Stick to Dismember, Dark Tranquillity, Meshuggah, only The Red in the Sky is Ours for At the Gates, etc.

      Soilwork is awful.

      • Canvas Of Flesh

        I’m a huge fan of Dismember. It seems like they can’t put a foot wrong on their releases.

        • Mancubus

          Ziltoid, STFU. With Fear by ATG was a great album with a kickass atmosphere and SoTS was just plain catchy.

          And how can you hate Unleashed and Opeth?

          • Ziltoid

            I like them, I just got too lazy to list them. Hence the “etc” in my previous post. With Fear was ok, but not really anything special IMO. The main intention is to stay as far away from Slaughter of the Soul as possible. SotS is an awful, bland, simplistic piece of crap that set the blueprint for countless shitty metalcore bands.

          • Mancubus

            That’s more of the fault of craptacular bands like August Burns Red and Atreyu than it is At the Gates’. Slaughter was a fun, catchy album with a great guitar tone and I can differentiate that album from the crap that it spawned. Hating slaughter for spawning shitty metalcore is like hating Angel Dust for spawning nu metal when AD was one of the most brilliant albums that I’ve ever heard. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but that doesn’t mean that anybody should be flattered by mediocrity.

          • Mancubus

            And not all metalcore is bad. The Red Chord, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Converge are all kickass bands.

      • Biff Tannen

        Soilwork is indeed aweful. I had the displeasure of seeing them open for someone back in the day (Hypocrisy, maybe?)…..they are much,much worse live than they are on record,and that is really saying something.

  • bearwizard

    bah

  • Lord Bling

    I’ve been into Soilwork since Steelbath Suicide, and I can honestly say that this album was the final nail in their coffin for me.

    • Centurion

      This is their last metal album i feel. it’s not as heavy as their older stuff but it can still be consider metal. Afterwards I saw them more as a rock band, I don’t have a problem with them changing their style because alot of artist change their musical style.

      • GuuGuu

        Good observation, but to me, it only applies to the album after NBC, Figure Number Five. That album was almost Bad Religion-level heaviness (not very). Anyhow, following F#5 they got heavy again with StD, which is heavier than NBC.

        • Lord Bling

          Okay, so perhaps GuuGuu is right. NBC made me shake my head a lot, but then Figure Number Five was the last time I gave them any of my money. I heard that Stabbing the Drama was more of a comeback … but since the abbreviation was ‘STD’, I stayed away.

  • Fink

    I’m a Chainheart Machine fan. This album never really did it for me.

  • http://ksojkotech.wordpress.com/ Zoja

    All their later work isn’t so awesome as this one, definitely my favourite of them

  • bucketochicken

    I like this album. Without it, I’d have never discovered Terror 2000 which I like because it’s funny.

  • Zoker

    Best band in the world. Every album is great and NBC kicks major asses. Finally, for the never-ending and useless comparison with In Flames: I totally prefer Soilwork.

  • jason

    Poo. That is all.

  • visforvajeen

    Yeah that’s a great album maybe you should review Ruination and a Higher Place now.

  • Canvas Of Flesh

    Did this reviewer state that Soilwork hasn’t made a bad album yet? Seriously?! I’m still waiting for them to produce something that isn’t utter garbage.

    • Ziltoid

      I guess the reviewer thinks it’s opposite day. Why else would someone say something so stupid?

      • Canvas Of Flesh

        I will agree on one point though. Townsend did a great job on the production. If only the bad had some actual talent for him to craft into a listenable album.

      • narcopolypse

        wow. so somebody’s opinion is ‘so stupid’? wonderful philosophy, dickless.

        • http://balloonfetishvideos.com/ bloodrock

          well, soilwork is terrible. don’t be such a pussy..

          • narcopolypse

            you win this round, genius.

        • Ziltoid

          I’m too lazy to type out long paragraph posts like I did in the top 21 topics. Plus, it’s Soilwork we’re talking about, so I was correct in the first place. They are awful in every conceivable way.

          • you’reawesome

            don’t worry, man. someday you’ll get laid and suddenly it won’t seem cool to talk down to people you don’t know. hang in there til then.

          • Fufkin

            That’s a damn shame because your previous insight changed my life.

  • Anthony

    Stabbing the Drama > This.

  • Tom

    great fucking album, this should be on the list!

  • punchy chunklet

    natural born awesome-os

  • myke

    love this album

  • gibbledy-doo

    Natural born o-k-os

  • SonOF

    Musically, the album is pretty good, but unfortunately some of the worst song lyrics ever penned in English can be found on this record.

    Just a taste:

    “We know how to spit or swallow
    Bring out, the Mercury Shadow”

    HUH?

    another morsel:

    “Don’t despair, time will heal your torment
    Don’t you dare, spend your days in hell
    So beware, faith will bring you treason
    While you stare… Oh!”

    brilliant.

    • SonOF

      I would actually prefer that some bands just sung in their goddamn mother tongue, rather than take a shot at some broken English. I don’t mind listening to vocals in a language I don’t know; at least I can assume the lyrics make some sense.

      • SonOF

        And before someone says it (and labels me close-minded), I know that there are plenty (or at least some) of bands that are native English speakers who have worse lyrics than Soilwork’s.

        • http://ultimateposerblog.blogspot.com Mancubus

          Barbatos will melt your brain

          • Biff Tannen

            Hell yeah!! “dick is fucking big”

      • Biff Tannen

        those are just bad lyrics, its has nothing to do with them not being able to translate Swedish into English. I will wager my life that 99.999% of all Swedish people over the age of 12 have a better command of the English language than 90% of Americans. They are very well educated in it. Soilwork,however, just has terrible lyrics (and music)

        • SonOF

          I guess I was trying to give them an excuse for their poor lyrics, but you are right, most Swedes speak better English better than Americans and are generally far better educated.

    • Viking_xxx

      What’s wrong with “we know how to spit or swallow”? It’s a song about BJs!

      JK….

      I prefer StD.

    • Lord Bling

      Dude, they’ve always had weak lyrics. Just hearing him say ‘WHERE IS THE LOVE?’ in Wings of Domain gave me a headache, and they got worse on every album afterwards.

  • http://www.myspace.com/shadow_patton Patton

    No.

  • http://spinelanguage.wordpress.com/ spinelanguage

    “A Predator’s Portrait” (2001) is SO much fucking better. Everything Soilwork did after that album was, is, and will continue to be shit. “Bastard Chain” rips.

  • i love metal

    no love for arch enemy?

  • Fufkin

    What is people’s problem with this band? They changed their sound over time – so what. Their songs have rarely dropped in quality. Soilwork are fantastic and should be far more successful than they have been. Mercenary, Scar Symmetry – pale in comparison.

    It pains me when I see how far In Flames have gone when they’ve been musically coasting since Clayman – while this band come over to the UK and play small venues. Exactly the same situation when Dark Tranquillity toured. People don’t know when they’ve got it good. But I blame Nuclear Blast to some degree for their failure to market this band to the degree they deserve,

    I still go back to this album a lot, it’s probably their most consistent imo. It was great to hear them play Black Star Deceiver the last time they toured here.

    • Canvas Of Flesh

      Most people’s problem with the band is the fact that they’re just not any good. Whatever genre they play, they just rip off the hundreds of bands that came before them. They’re unoriginal, talentless crap.

      • http://www.greatgooglymoogly.com Halfsharkalligator

        i youtubed a few songs off this album to check it out and it sounds like they straight up ripped off in flames and then just added gayer keyboards and some weak clean vocals to differentiate slightly.

        • Lord Bling

          As trolling as your comment sounds at first glance, I can’t say I disagree with any of it…

  • Jizzmaster3000

    Such a fantastically dull band.

  • IWRESTLEDYOURMOMONCE

    God, can we end this stoopid, worthless list already?

  • Ja5oN

    Welcome, won’t you please step inside and follow the hollow! I love Soilwork, but I think Figure Number Five is my favorite though, and yes I have every Soilwork album from Steel Bath Suicide to Sworn to a Great Divide. Fuck all the haters, why even waste your time commenting on something you hate? WTF? Get a life & eat a dick bitches or get laid!

  • Strep Townsend

    Even Dev himself said he has produced bands that aren’t very good.
    I’ve found mostly everything from Soilwork to be pretty generic and forgettable.

  • brandonmetal

    the wrong soilwork album to put on the list- predator’s portrait remains their greatest work.

  • Dan

    I wish they broke up after this instead of making shit album after shit album. Sworn to A Great Divide was cat turds.