''Figure Number Five'' is the fifth full-length album released by the Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Soilwork Soilwork is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Helsingborg. They are signed to Nuclear Blast. Formed in late 1995 by Björn Strid and Peter Wichers, originally under the name ''Inferior Breed'', the band changed their name in late 1996 to S ...

. The record was released on 22 April 2003 through

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

label. On this release, the band introduces more elements of

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With r ...

into their

style. This would be the last album with Henry Ranta on drums before he left the band after its release. A few different editions of this album existed upon release. The normal release with eleven tracks, as well as a

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

release with a second CD including their 1997 demo ''In Dreams We Fall into the Eternal Lake'' plus two songs from the ''

Steelbath Suicide ''Steelbath Suicide'' is the debut studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork. It was released on 20 May 1998 through Listenable and Century Media labels. It is the only album to feature guitarist Ludvig Svartz and drummer Ji ...

'' demo session. The limited

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

version of the album features two discs - this album and ''

Natural Born Chaos ''Natural Born Chaos'' is the fourth full-length studio album released by the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork. According to Nielsen Soundscan, the album sold 2.267 copies in the US as of 2002. The album comes in a limited vinyl versi ...

'', black and the other a white-colored vinyl. The Japanese version of the album includes one bonus track, entitled "Bursting Out".

Background

This album marked keyboardist Sven Karlsson's first attempts at songwriting for the band. While it is not necessarily interconnected with the keyboardist songwriting, this album features more use of the keyboard and lighter melodies. The album is considered a more commercial sound by most fans of Swedish death metal, but it arguably gives the music a broader appeal. However, vocalist Björn Strid has said the album has good melodies but lacks in intensity and could have been better composed; many fans and critics considered the album "rushed".

Music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s were made for the songs "Rejection Role" and "Light the Torch". The music video for "Rejection Role" showed the band playing in a club and being constantly pestered and booed by the members of

In Flames In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990. Alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames pioneered the genres known as Swedish death metal and melodic death metal. During t ...

, with interspersed footage of other incidents between the two bands. In Flames's video for "

Trigger Trigger may refer to: Notable animals and people ;Mononym * Trigger (horse), owned by cowboy star Roy Rogers ;Nickname * Trigger Alpert (1916–2013), American jazz bassist * "Trigger Mike" Coppola (1900–1966), American gangster ;Surname * Bru ...

" showed the situation ''vice versa'', In Flames playing and Soilwork as the bullies. The colour is also reversed in each video: blue for In Flames, red for Soilwork. Both videos also had the other band riding in a pickup truck to and from the club. While some believed the tension between the two bands to be real, in reality the groups are close friends and devised the idea of a dual-video concept as a joke. This was the last album to feature Henry Ranta on drums.

Reception

In 2005, ''Figure Number Five'' was ranked number 398 in ''

Rock Hard "Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984. The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission, causing the record to be withdraw ...

'' magazine's book ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''.

Track listing

Charts

Personnel

Band members

Björn "Speed" Strid Bjorn (English, Dutch), Björn (Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, and German), Bjørn (Danish, Faroese and Norwegian), Beorn (Old English) or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, Brum (Portuguese), is a Scandinavian male given name, or less oft ...

−

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Peter Wichers Peter Wichers is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter and record producer best known as one of the founding members of melodic death metal band Soilwork. From 1995 until late 2005, when he announced his departure from the band, and again from 2008 un ...

−

Guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Ola Frenning −

* Ola Flink −

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Sven Karlsson −

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* Henry Ranta −

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Guest musicians

* Jens Broman − Guest vocals on "Figure Number Five" * Richard Larsson −

Tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

on "Brickwalker" * Bryan Kaschak -

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

on "Cranking the Sirens"

Release history

References

{{Authority control Soilwork albums 2003 albums Nuclear Blast albums