From year to year bands like Soilwork make experiments with their music, and when a new album is expected usually the surprises are more than we can imagine. The Swedes are famous enough to create a new full-length record as a turning point in their career, which obviously hides its risks. “Sworn to a Great Divide” is not the most original and proper title that can be made up for this album, and both with its content can easily be qualified as strange and contradictive by several reasons. The modern sound of the songs can be spotted immediately and it is scaring with its sterility. On top of this, no matter how much you are searching, you will not hear a fierce male scream, but odd attempts at harsh vocals in combination with the superiority of the clean parts. The only thing for the singing that is showing up is its uniformity and the efforts to be put in unsuitable melodic borders for Soilwork’s music. Well, “Sworn to a Great Divide” is not the next record reminding again of the unique discography of the cult In Flames, but it demonstrates anything more original neither. There’s no doubt that this music can be described as wiredrawn from the musicians, as similar to the debut attempts of Scar Symmetry in a bad way. We should not be in error - Soilwork are not the same as they were in the beginning. We won’t remember what it used to be if they keep on doing such music... Many arguments can be brought out about the experiments they make, but more important is whether the new material has objective qualities, whether it is catchy, a worthy continuation of a discography built for years or not. Something strange is going on with this band for sure…