SOILWORK — Natural Born Chaos (review)

SOILWORK — Natural Born Chaos album cover

Album · 2002 · Melodic Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-01-25
UMUR

"Natural Born Chaos" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish melodic death metal act Soilwork. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2002. It´s the successor to "A Predator's Portrait" from 2001. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as keyboard player Carlos Del Olmo Holmberg has left and has been replaced by Sven Karlsson. "Natural Born Chaos" was successful upon release, and Soilwork toured both Europe and the United States (their first US tour) in support of the album.

Stylistically the material on the album continue the melodic death metal style from "A Predator's Portrait (2001)", but in a more polished version and featuring some alternative metal nods. Soilwork have brought in Devin Townsend as producer and Fredrik Nordström as co-producer, and Townsend´s touch is unmistakable, as the keyboards have found a more prominent place in the mix, and the soundscape is often multi-layered, featuring Townsend´s trademark massive production approach. The tracks are a bit formulaic vers/chorus structured, and just a couple of structural surprises during the album´s playing time would have been nice, but it´s not a major issue, and the tracks are of course more easily accessible this way. Accessibility/catchiness are obviously features that Soilwork have opted to focus on, and one of the places where that is most audible is the increase in use of clean vocals and less extreme raw vocals.

"Natural Born Chaos" is not a "soft" heavy metal album by any means, but in the context of death metal, it´s certainly in the more melodic, accessible, and polished end of the spectrum. The tracks typically feature raw vocals in the verses and clean vocals in the choruses (often layered with harmonies and choirs), the guitar style is predominantly heavy start/stop type riffing and faster-paced death/thrash riffing, and the drums play heavy and occasionally faster-paced beats. And then there´s the omnipresent keyboards. The music is literally drenced in keyboards. If anyone felt that "A Predator's Portrait (2001)" was a bit too keyboard heavy, it´s nothing compared to how the keyboards are used on "Natural Born Chaos".

The musicianship is strong on all posts, and we´re treated to skillful rhythmic playing, blistering melodic guitar leads, and Björn "Speed" Strid strong voice and vocal delivery. His clean vocal style was introduced on "A Predator's Portrait (2001)", but the clean vocals weren´t present on all tracks, and Strid was still a bit restrained in his use of that vocal style, but on "Natural Born Chaos" he is all in on the use of clean vocals (in addition to his raw vocals) and his performance here is varied and intriguing.

Upon conclusion "Natural Born Chaos" is a strong release by Soilwork and it feels like a natural progression from "A Predator's Portrait (2001)". Personally I miss the more savage approach of the early releases and sometimes it all feels a bit too polished and keyboard heavy, but that´s purely a subjective opinion, and viewing the album a bit more objectively this is a high quality release and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.