Soilwork – Mean Fiddler 2006

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Modern thrashers Soilwork are not widely known for the technical and surprisingly refined brand of thrash metal they actually play, regarded more as exponents of the Scandinavian melodic death movement, but this came as a refreshing change from the normal monotony of modern thrash.

Support came from overrated young English outfit Exit Ten, struggled to get the vocals heard above what turned out to be highly generic music, and the promising Lyxanzia, with more technical riffs and vocals which tread the same line between throat-shredding and unintillible that the likes of Bobby Elsworth and Tim Clayborne do.

Soilwork themselves powered through a compact set, clearly reveling in their chance to play before a very enthusiastic London audience. Their setlist cherry-picked tracks from throughout their entire back catalogue, with the first album songs getting the best reception. Slightly odd, as new album Stabbing The Drama, from which they played four tracks, is by far their best effort to date, but the debut has a we’ve-got-something-you-don’t-have rarity about it which makes it very popular with the hardcore.

Vocalist Bjorn Strid didn’t have a great deal to say (for a Swede his accent is remarkably American) between tracks aside from thanking the crowd and so forth, which was probably to try and make sure they fit in the full set of songs, as the Mean Fiddler always imposes an earlier curfew than most other London venues. Much of the ground-floor crowd were ecstatic, but upstairs the mood was less frantic. Indeed it didn’t help that the whole of the right hand side of upstairs was cordoned off for the three VIPs that turned up (plus the three kids who conned Exit Ten’s merch stand into giving them passes). The left hand side (the side behind the ridiculous sound proof glass) was all but empty.

Despite the less than sold-out crowd, Soilwork delivered plenty of energy, and while their music isn’t quite as diverse and interesting as it could be, the songs are all solid and a compact show is just what they need to deliver. Short, sharp and powerful.

“ technical and surprisingly refined brand of thrash ”

Setlist: Stabbing The Drama / Neurotica Rampage / Wings of Domain / One With The Flies / Light The Torch / The Analyst / Distance / Spirits of The Future Sun / Overload / Stalemate / Song of The Damned / As We Speak / Rejection Role // Nerve / Follow The Hollow

Photo(s): Chiaki Nozu | www.chiakinozu.com

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Thrash Metal, Soilwork