''The Living Infinite'' is the ninth studio album by 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 ...

, released on 27 February 2013 in Asia, 1 March 2013 in Europe, on 4 March 2013 in the UK and on 5 March 2013 in the US. It is the band's first double album. It is also the first Soilwork release to feature guitarist David Andersson; founding guitarist

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 ...

left Soilwork for the second time in 2012, making this the second album to not feature him. This also marks the band's last album with longtime bassist Ola Flink who parted ways with the band right before the recording of the next album '' The Ride Majestic''.

Reception

Critical reception

The album received high acclaim. Trey Spencer of

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

gave the album a "Superb" rating of 4.3/5, praising the album's heavier sound, dynamic songwriting and melodic, progressive content. Calling it Soilwork's "strongest, most consistent album to date", he stated that the band "have simultaneously stepped back to their past while maintaining their current sound, but they have also diversified their formula more than ever before – and they did so without a single filler track." However, writing for ''

Decibel Magazine ''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...

'', Adrien Begrand stated that "the primary flaw of ''The Living Infinite'' is its lack of variety, the cookie-cutter nature of the songwriting wearing thin after the halfway point".

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debuted at No. 60 on the Billboard 200, and No. 20 on the Top Rock Albums, selling 7,800 copies in its first week. The album has sold 26,000 copies in the US as of August 2015.

Track listing

Credits

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album liner notes.

Personnel

;Soilwork *

Björn Strid Björn Ove Ingemar "Speed" Strid (born 10 September 1978) is a Swedish vocalist who has worked with bands such as Allegaeon, Disarmonia Mundi, Terror 2000, Coldseed, The Night Flight Orchestra, Act of Denial, Gizmachi, and most notably Soilw ...

– vocals * Sylvain Coudret – guitars * David Andersson – guitars * Ola Flink – bass * Sven Karlsson – keyboards *

Dirk Verbeuren Dirk Verbeuren (born 8 January 1975) is a Belgian musician and the current drummer of American thrash metal band Megadeth, amongst other projects. He previously was a member of the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork. Verbeuren recorded ...

– drums ;Guest musicians *

Justin Sullivan Justin Edward Sullivan (born 8 April 1956) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is also the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of English rock band New Model Army, which he formed in 1980 together with drummer Robert ...

– vocals on "The Windswept Mercy" ;Additional musicians * Hanna Carlsson –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on "Spectrum of Eternity", "The Living Infinite II"; piano on "Spectrum of Eternity" ;Production * Soilwork – production *

Jens Bogren Jens Peter Daniel Bogren (born 13 November 1979) is a Swedish record producer, mixer and recording engineer specializing in heavy metal music. He has worked on albums by Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Sepultura, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Katatonia, Babym ...

– production, mixing, mastering * Johan Örnborg – production assistance * Linus Corneliusson – production assistance ;Artwork and design * Mircea Gabriel Eftemie (

Mnemic Mnemic was a Danish heavy metal band formed in Aalborg in 1998. The band personally described themselves as "Future Fusion Metal". Mnemic have charted in the top 100 in Denmark with ''The Audio Injected Soul'' and were the first Danish metal ...

, ) – album cover * Hannah Verbeuren () – photography

Studios

* Fascination Street – mixing, mastering

Charts

References

External links

*
''The Living Infinite''
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Living Infinite, The 2013 albums Nuclear Blast albums Soilwork albums Albums produced by Jens Bogren