Search - Soilwork :: The Early Chapters

Excellent EP of rarities and b-sides

Barry Dejasu | Rehoboth, Massachusetts | 01/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is all too common nowadays for people to get special editions of albums just so they can get extra songs that are either unheard or hard to find. However, this becomes a tedious and often expensive process; besides, it's hard to find EVERYTHING from the artist in question. That's why artists such as Soilwork are smart and release b-side collections of at least some of their harder-to-find material.These FIVE songs (there's also another one, "Aardvark Trail [live]," that Amazon isn't listing for some reason...) span through Soilwork's early years. It is very interesting to hear some of their beginnings. "Burn" is an electrifying, fast-paced cover that simply SIZZLES with its ferocity (not to mention a DAZZLING guitar solo). "Disintegrated Skies" is so good, it really is a wonder why it was not on any of their previous releases. "Egypt" has kind of poor production, but is still a pretty neat cover of the Mercyful Fate song. The demo of "Shadow Child" features a lot of the same aspects as the later version, and is a nice glance at their earlier songwriting. Finally, to hear "Aardvark Trail" live is definite proof that Soilwork is overdue to release a live album, and soon.This is a great little rarities album, and while not complete (where's "Asylum Dance" or "Bursting Out"?), it features most of their rare stuff and proves to be a great addition to any Soilwork fan (but not a newbie). Now if only more artists could do this..."