Natural Born Chaos by Soilwork

Despite my distaste for Devin Townsend’s music on a personal level, I’ll have to praise his production of Soilwork’s Natural Born Chaos. What he did, ignoring his usual Devy way of lush, “Pour some sugar on me” type choruses, was distinguish Soilwork from the usual pack of extreme metal. Soilwork was a brash young band that wonderfully channeled their aggression into a symphony of quick jabs and powerful punches typical of a heavy weight contender. Their previous work was all-out and marvelous for its detail. But could they put it all together and become a champion? In order to prevent from coming up with another repeat effort, Soilwork looked ahead. This is where Devin stepped in. He added a whole new arsenal (despite them being too similar to his own) and wore away all the rough edges. Hence Natural Born Chaos is more rounded and more keen - but not lacking of its edge. It all comes out as a fresh new sound that I don’t think I’ve heard all put together as such.. a rare combo of powerful, heavy metal going through premeditated progressions, yet remaining hungry and focused. It keeps me on my toes, backs me into the corner and I am pummeled. I am mesmerized by the exotic melodies, they are the soaring sounds amid percussive forces that dance like fancy footwork in front of me... then BAM! Natural Born Chaos is a winner.

Score 4/5

by Alzn