Soilwork has been holed up at Nordic Sound Lab with Thomas "Plec" Johansson since April recording what will become their eleventh overall studio album. The album will be their first with drummer Bastian Thusgaard, who replaces drummer Dirk Verbeuren. Verbeuren drummed for the band between 2004 and 2016, at which point he left to join Megadeth.
Now we've learned there has been another shakeup in the band's lineup – bassist Markus Wibom. Wibom joined in 2015 to replace longtime bassist Ola Flink, but hasn't played with the band live since 2016. Soilwork has been using The Absence guitarist Taylor Nordberg as their live bassist since 2017, but never officially announced Wibom's departure.
Here's a lengthy statement from vocalist Björn "Speed" Strid.
"On this new album we have gone back to classic heavy metal basics but with a twist of our own legacy of sound, with soaring melancholic melodies at a sometimes furious tempo and great diversity. People will recognize the vibe that we've had on the latest 2 albums, but we feel that we've taken our sound even further, with more energy, darker elements but yet strangely uplifting”.
Soilwork is now a 5-piece, since former bassist Markus Wibom left in late 2016 because of other commitments. Ever since Taylor Nordberg (The Absence) has filled in the position live.
The recording sessions for this album have been different from anything we’ve done before. Everyone’s been very involved in the whole process, and we’ve allowed ourselves to experiment more and take more chances sonically. Our drummer Bastian Thusgaard, who hasn’t recorded with us previously, brought another dimension to our sound, and he made the rest of us step up our game as well. And working with producer Thomas Plec Johansson (The Panic Room) has been a real pleasure. Even though we’ve been through a lot over the past years, we feel more like a unit than we’ve done for a long time.
We, as a band, are far from done exploring our creative and musical abilities and We want to bring back Soilwork to the masses. Our fans around the globe can expect that promise to get fulfilled when Our touring cycle starts in promotion of our coming album”.
The band also just made what appears to be album artwork their new Facebook profile picture, which you can check out below.
