As a topping on their 2013 double album "The Living Infinite" erupts its extension - both literally and spiritually - "Beyond The Infinite" with the same aggressiveness but also with remarkably less "melodic death" - oriented mostly when it comes to the vocal style, the latter having been altered throughout the years notably in the early 00's from growls to scream ditching the band's initial Melodeath timber to a more commercial Metalcore one, blended with a symphonic touch on the keyboards coupled with drum crashes in a characteristic Nordic (mainly Finnish) making the instrumentation kind of "too high level" for such a commercial genre, as it - release after release - gets spoilt by screams (or more accurately... Screamo). Although, they sometimes fade into glimpses from the classic growls therefore saving the vestiges of the band's roots , taken over by clean vocals at once turned operatic as in "Resisting The Current" get simultaneously backed by harsh ones in a myriad of available vocal forms fitting the genre. Yet unmistakably, here we are dealing with an experienced band having achieved worldwide fame for a reason: the swift meticulous play at the highest tempos astonishingly seems to be SOILWORK'S comfort zone.

Ask about that dolly intro as well as the exotic scale of "These Absent Eyes" giving the illusion that each guitar bends on a different scale but the result is a perfect mingle further ornamented with complex minor scales and on top of it all, the 4th bar arpeggios referring to the bass compelled to follow the guitars switching to tremolo picking only to turn electronic afterwards. Bottom line, hail not only to that ace mastery of scale and signature abrupt shift but also the abundance of old-school thrash styled-solos.

Taking as an example those of "My Nerves, Your Everyday Tool" often reuniting of a main line alongside with harmonics while rhythm chords gracefully altering the scale supported by majestic drum snares, for and no surprise from a former Melodic death band as such a genre is best played with harmonic solos, in contrast with the fingering based "Resisting The Current" where it gets Van Halen influenced or better "When The Sound Collides" starting bluesy (hellyeah) before darkening progressively and parallel to deeper growls sustained by an alternation between snares and crushes. The bass drum wasn't the track's main asset - with again, a fingering bridge as a prelude to a slow starter solo before the backing instrumentation gets attenuated leaving room for the it to go berserk with a final bouquet of MVP effects. As a closure for the 20mn+ tirade, "Forever Lost In Vain" begins with a solo-like intro developing into scrupulous arpeggio and a multitude of sweeps which are also detected throughout the whole EP with heavy snares and intense bass drums pedaling as well as the unorthodox bass tap solo somehow resembling  "Speed Demon"'s fretless bass, highly delectable even if the raging singer's screams aren't your cup of tea!

Commercially speaking, such a strategy is a sure winner as the shift in the genre would insure both parts of the metal and scene audiences antithesis, proven by the fact that it has already paid off throughout the years. Nevertheless from a metal perspective, it would be deemed an act of a poser's fanservice and nothing more from a band stuck in the middle of a push-and-pull identity crisis. And better to simulate such a situation with a corticoid injection which, in spite of spectacular immediate effects, may engender reserved prognosis long term complications. Consequently, I would give it a 7 (partially influenced by the vocals, as it would be an 8 or a 9 if real metal growls were instead) but it would definitely be no less than a 10 in any metalcore or scene critic, as such technique and agility is encountered once in a lifetime for the mentioned audience.