By Jim Shea

If you’re a metal head, it’s hard enough to convince your non-metal friends to listen to some heavy metal. Luckily, there are some gateway bands out there to have your friends start off with and Soilwork’s new album, Stabbing The Drama, might do the trick.

Fans familiar with Soilwork know that this Swedish band has an interesting blend of European metal and “Nu-metal” to create the melodic death metal sound found in bands like In Flames and Mercenary. In reality, Soilwork meets progressive metal with hints of metalcore and industrial to give listeners and non-listeners of metal something to enjoy. Stabbing The Drama continues the band’s mission statement of delivering aggressive music with a soft touch. You’ll easily get hooked on Stabbing The Drama if you loved Soilwork’s previous albums like Figure Number Five and Natural Born Chaos since they combine guitars and keyboards for this album.

Vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid gives the band the much-needed balance in the songs found in Stabbing The Drama. Strid provides the usual death growls in songs like “Crest Fallen” and “Weapon of Vanity,” but brings out a powerful, melodic singing voice in those songs. Strange, but true, keyboards are considered to be a “guilty pleasure” in metal music, but most fans shrug it off. Thankfully, keyboardist Sven Karlsson doesn’t have to worry because the keyboards in Stabbing The Drama help structure the songs.

The best song without a doubt has to be the last track, “Wherever Thorns May Grow.” The delivery and pacing in this song is great and certainly, the band presents themselves at their best. Too bad the song doesn’t last long-it would’ve made quite an epic song.

Looking at Stabbing The Drama as a whole, it’s not an album where each individual song stands out on its own, but if you listen through the entire album, you might find enjoyment in listening to Soilwork. The downside of Stabbing The Drama is that some of the songs sound the same and it can become generic.

While Stabbing The Drama isn’t “revolutionary,” the band picks up some of metal’s best elements and puts them together. Heavy metal doesn’t have to be “all in your face” all the time as Soilwork prove you can have some space in metal.

The Chronicle gives ´Stabbing The Drama´, by Soilwork five out of five stars.