Figure Number Five

Soilwork became one of the most important acts within the “harder” metal scene for the last couple of years. At least their great “A Predator’s Portrait” (2001) Soilwork marked their final breakthrough.

The album hit with ferocity but showed more diverse musicianship. Their rise to the top began with the ensuing tour, where they had the chance to support Annihilator and Nevermore. The reaction to Soilwork’s performance was excellent, and the band gained loads of new fans. The highlight for the band so far has been their performance on the Wacken Open Air 2001. More than 20.000 fans were saw their fantastic show, and their merchandise was sold out in three hours.

After that the very talented songwriting duo of Peter Wichers and Björn „Speed“ Strid knocked out a batch of new songs, and the band entered Studio Fredman (HammerFall, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir) to record their excellent “Natural Born Chaos” album. Together with producer genius Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad, Steve Vai), they created the next step to bring Soilwork to the top of the scene. A video was made for the new hymn “As We Speak”, which was actually shown on MTV 2 and some European channels, also been featured on several dvd-compilations. The reactions both from fans and the media on “Natural Born Chaos” was incredible, and soon after the release Soilwork toured with hypocrisy and Killswitch Engage in the US and Canada´, which was their first northamerican tour.

Later the summer Soilwork went to Japan for the third time to play three fantastic headliner shows. The german Summer Breeze festival followed, shortly after that the European Tour with In Flames and Pain was played, and most of the shows were completely sold out. One of the highlights was a packed show in Stockholm in front of 3.000 crazy metal heads! Somewhere inbetween the touring Soilwork succeed to write the songs for “Figure Number Five”. “People seem to be surprised how we can be that productive, but this is the way we like to work and for us there´s nothing called "lack of inspiration". "We get so much inspiration from ourselves, from touring and from the fantastic response we get from the fans that we simply cannot slow down. Our new album contains everything that identifies our sound: intensity, melodies, atmosphere and heaviness and trust me: there are no fillers, only killers...”, vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid comments.

The recordings took place in three different studios, mixed once again by Frederik Nordström in Studio Fredman. And indeed, “Figure Number Five” will once again bring Soilwork to another, higher level. In april Soilwork will tour Europe along with Children of Bodom; also Wacken Open Air and the Blind Guardian-festivals are confirmed so far. 2003 will be an exciting year for the band…