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Figure Number Five is, really, where Soilwork began to change their music style. After the success of Natural Born Chaos, the band continues to meld that specific successful formula here, but inadvertantly creates an album that is heavily frowned upon, and often with good reason. The limited edition of this release, which isn't even really a limited edition as it has been in print for a good while now, does feature some nice bonus material on a second disc, but is easily one of the most hated of all CDs simply because of how this version was packaged: In a carboard slip cover that was so tight it took about an hour just to get the jewel case out itself out. So, common sense would dictate that fans and metal heads alike probably entered the limited edition version of Figure Number Five already pissed off due to the frustration of the cardboard sleeve. To be honest, the music on this release isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. Yes, this is a heavy departure from Natural Born Chaos, if not a very failed attempt to expand on it, but at the same time this release does feature some good songs and moments that are very well done. The single off the release, "Rejection Role", as well as "Strangler" are fun songs to just kick back and listen to, but not all the songs on this are like that. "Overload" starts off a bit shakey, but it's about half way through that the song is enjoyable through the structure of the song, even if the keyboard sound effects through the song going in and out from left to right are very irritating. There really isn't anything too memorable about this album on the first half, having much of the album be rather bland with the exception of the aforementioned "fun" sounding songs. "Departure Plan" has the potential to be something nice, but around the chorus just starts to sound lame, and after a few spins it'll be one of the least favorite tacks on here due to it's changing from industrial sound effects for music, acoustic, then metal chorus. "Cranking The Sirens" is where the album starts to pick up musically, just sounding much more solid and like the Soilwork we have come to know and love with a great sung chorus. "Brickwalker" stands out to be a pretty good track as well, having something of a hard rock feel to it's music, and a very easily misunderstood line in the chorus that could easily be mistaken for some kind of porno announcement of the band. The real slap in the face to Soilwork's fans doesn't really even hit until "Distortion Sleep", easily the best track off the album, which sounds as though it were a song that were cut from the Natural Born Chaos sessions. The keyboards are done well with an exceptional chorus and some musical complexity and tenacity that many other tracks on this release lac Limited Edition The extreme change of the band's music becomes apparent when you give the bonus disc in this limited edition pressing a spin, as it contains material from the band's 1992 demos. Musically, these songs are amazing, and it's clear why the band was signed in the first place. The only real issue about these demo tracks would be that sometimes the music becomes a bit more eratic, such as on "Bound To Illusions", which, due to how all over the place the music gets from verse to chorus and in the bridge, sounds extremely amateurish, even for a band that is just starting out. The first four tracks on this disc are clearly from one specific demo, and the latter two from another due to the sudden change in sound quality, and dramatic change in music, being much tighter this time around with some rather typical vocal work that sounds kind of like Devin Townsend working with Wayne Static of Static-X. Figure Number Five isn't that bad an album, but much of it just sounds like filler, really. The music on this release really lacks the tenacity that any of the band's prior albums have, and it seems that they are trying to just take Natural Born Chaos and make it so that mainstream radio stations would play it and broaden the band's fan demographic. While this isn't an absolutely bad thing, it definitely leaves the band with an album that sounds as if they are lacking any real talent musically. It's unfortunate that this release seems to really rely on keyboards and industrial sound effects moreso then the actual guitars and drum work, which does wind up hurting it pretty band in some fields since there is only so much that can be done with the vocal style presented on this album. All in all, Figure Number Five just isn't really worth shelling full price out for a few songs, but definitely worth checking out at some point. |
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