Figure Number Five
| Figure Number Five | ||||
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| Soilwork studio album | ||||
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Publication |
2003 |
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| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
40 min 52 s |
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Soilwork |
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Studio (s) |
Queenstreet Recordings, Dagstorp |
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Figure Number Five is the fifth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork . The album was released on April 22, 2003 via Nuclear Blast and reached chart positions as the first album in the band's history .
Emergence
In contrast to the previous albums, guitarist Ola Frenning did not take part in the songwriting of Figure Number Five because he was too busy. In addition to Peter Wichers, a lot of material was written by keyboardist Sven Karlsson. Karlsson's involvement resulted in more melodic songs and a greater keyboard presence in the music. He used analog keyboards during the recording.
Originally, the Canadian Devin Townsend was supposed to produce Figure Number Five again . However, he had to cancel due to scheduling reasons. Finally, the Soilwork musicians took over the production themselves. The recordings took place in three different studios. First, in December 2002 / January 2003, the guitars and keyboards were recorded in the Queenstreet Recordings studio in Dagstorp . This was followed by drums in the Dug-Out Productions studio in Uppsala , before the recordings were completed in January and February 2003, vocals and bass in the Fredman studio in Gothenburg .
The Darkane singer Jens Broman appeared as a guest singer on the theme song. Richard Larsson plays the tambourine in “Brickwalker” while Bryan Kaschak plays the guitar in “Cranking the Sirens”. Music videos were shot for the songs "Rejection Role" and "Light the Torch" .
background
According to the guitarist Peter Wichers, the album title refers to the marginalized groups and the outcasts of society. In an interview, Wichers referred to these people as the proverbial fifth wheel on society's wagons, who never get the chance to express their own opinion. The title also refers to the fact that it is the band's fifth album.
The video for “Rejection Role” is performed by musicians from the band In Flames , among others . While Soilwork are playing on stage, the musicians from In Flames can be seen gossiping and booing about Soilwork. The video is related to the video for the song “Trigger” by In Flames, which shows the same situation in reverse. A lot of the media said that there is competition between the bands. In reality, the musicians of both bands are close friends.
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The Japanese version includes the song "Bursting Out" as a bonus. The limited edition of the album included another CD as a bonus containing the band's 1997 demo . The demo contains the songs "Bound to Illusions", "My Need", "In a Close Encounter", "Skin After Skin", "Wake Up Call" and "Steel Bath Suicide".
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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The German magazine Metal Hammer named Figure Number Five “Album of the Month”. According to the reviewer Petra Schurer, Soilwork were able to impressively underpin their status as the most talented group in the field of melodic extreme music with the album. Schurer gave the album six out of seven points. Rock Hard magazine also chose Figure Number Five as “Album of the Month”. Boris Kaiser described the album as “the kick in the ass that the scene urgently needs” and awarded it 9.5 out of ten points. On the other hand, Manuel Liebler from the online magazine Musik criticized the “much more unpolished and ordinary production” that the album “drowned in the flood of releases” and awarded 14 out of 20 points.
Soilwork made it into the music charts for the first time with Figure Number Five . The album reached number 52 in the German and number 59 in the Swedish album charts. In the book Best of Rock & Metal by the German rock-hard magazine, which lists the 500 strongest metal and hard rock albums of all time, according to the rock-hard editors, Figure Number Five was ranked 398.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Gunnar Sauermann: "Maximum Dynamics". In: Metal Hammer, May 2003 issue, page 120
- ↑ getreadytorock.com: Interview Soilwork - Peter Wichers and Ola Frenning
- ↑ laut.de: The fight was of course only for show ...
- ↑ officialcharts.de: Soilwork in the German album charts
- ↑ swedishcharts.com: Soilwork in the Swedish charts
- ^ Metal Hammer, May 2003 issue, page 86
- ↑ rockhard.de: Soilwork - Figure Number Five
- ↑ musikansich.de: Soilwork - Figure Number Five
- ↑ Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal - The 500 strongest discs of all time . Heel Verlag , Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-517-4 , p. 50 .