SOILWORK: (01) A Predator's Portrait

Soilwork busts out of the gates with the force of a derailed train, evident from the get-go with the pummeling opener "Bastard Chain". It eviscerates with bloodthirsty riffing and an aggressive disregard for melody that makes the chorus nearly indecipherable from the rest of it all. The guitar leads are uniformly stunning and set a high standard that each song easily meets. Soilwork eases up a bit after the opener, but not by too much. The music remains heavy but with some guitar harmonies and a bit of clean vocals, there's a bit of melody to go along with it. "Needlefeast"'s glistening guitar harmonies and its forlorn-but-infectious chorus is good contrast, although it really loses none of its aggression for its melodic factor. The whole albums is heavy +++. Even "The Analyst", which is perhaps the catchiest song here, is still combative metal and loses practically none of its aggressive bite. But there's a drama to the music to go along with the intensity. "Grand Failure Anthem" has a tragic weight thrown upon the shoulders of its listener, contributed equally by Speed's desperate vocals and also the grave tenor of the mammoth riffing. "Structure Divine" is coarse and fast, but eerie and dark. "A Predator's Portrait" is punishing yet enchantingly surreal. "Shadowchild", possibly my favorite Soilwork song of them all, is thrashy but balances with a certain pleading emotion with riffs that sound like a theme for the apocalypse.
The keyboards have little presence, but you _would_ notice a significant change if they were somehow taken out. They accentuate the color of the music, oh so subtly, juxtaposing a somewhat surreal quality against the brutal guitar framework. More so on _Natural Born Chaos_ Svennson's keyboards _add_ to the music, but _A Predator's Portrait_ still wouldn't be the same without them, if that makes sense. And by the way, the guitar solos are awesome.
And to further establish this band's good taste, the title track features the demon god himself, Mikael Akerfeldt. Akerfeldt sings cleanly for chorus with a poignancy that only his distinct voice can provide. The contrast of Akerfeldt's chilling croon with Speed's abrasive voice is weird and sick but good.

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