The Living Infinite

The Living Infinite
Studio album by Soilwork
Released	March 1, 2013 (2013-03-01)
Genre	Metalcore, groove metal, melodic death metal
Length	84:19
Label	Nuclear Blast
Producer	Jens Bogren, Soilwork
Soilwork chronology
The Sledgehammer Files: The Best of Soilwork 1998-2008 (2010)The Sledgehammer Files: The Best of Soilwork 1998-20082010 The Living Infinite (2013) Beyond the Infinite (2014)Beyond the Infinite2014

The Living Infinite is the ninth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band Soilwork, released on 27 February 2013 in Asia, 1 March 2013 in Europe, on 4 March 2013 in the UK and on March 5, 2013 in the US. It is the band's first double album. It is also the first Soilwork release to feature new guitarist David Andersson; founding guitarist Peter Wichers left Soilwork for the second time in 2012, making this the second album to not feature him. This also marks the band's last album with longtime bassist Ola Flink who parted ways with the band right before the recording of the next album The Ride Majestic.

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84%[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com	[2]
Allmusic	[3]
Blabbermouth	9.5/10[4]
Decibel Magazine	[5]
Exclaim!	9/10[6]
Metal Forces	9/10[7]
Metal Hammer	favorable[8]
Metal Storm	favorable[9]
Sputnikmusic	4.3/5[10]

The album received high acclaim. Trey Spencer of Sputnikmusic gave the album a "Superb" rating of 4.3/5, praising the album's heavier sound, dynamic songwriting and melodic, progressive content. Calling it Soilwork's "strongest, most consistent album to date", he stated that the band "have simultaneously stepped back to their past while maintaining their current sound, but they have also diversified their formula more than ever before – and they did so without a single filler track."^[10] However, writing for Decibel Magazine, Adrien Begrand stated that "the primary flaw of The Living Infinite is its lack of variety, the cookie-cutter nature of the songwriting wearing thin after the halfway point".^[5]

Public reception

The Living Infinite was quite well received by the public. On Rate Your Music the album has an average rating of 3.56 of 5, based on more than 700 ratings,^[11] and on Sputnikmusic the album has an "excellent" average rating of 4.1 of 5, based on more than 750 ratings.^[12]

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debued at No. 60 on the Billboard 200,^[13] and No. 20 on the Top Rock Albums,^[14] selling 7,800 copies in its first week.^[15] The album has sold 26,000 copies in the US as of August 2015.^[16]

Track listing

All music arranged by Soilwork.

Credits

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album liner notes.^[17]

Personnel

Soilwork

• Björn Strid – vocals
• David Andersson – guitar
• Sylvain Coudret – guitar
• Ola Flink – bass
• Sven Karlsson – keyboards
• Dirk Verbeuren – drums

Guest musicians

• Justin Sullivan – vocals on "The Windswept Mercy"

Additional musicians

• Hanna Carlsson – cello on "Spectrum of Eternity", "The Living Infinite II"; piano on "Spectrum of Eternity"

Production

• Soilwork – production
• Jens Bogren – production, mixing, mastering
• Johan Örnborg – production assistance
• Linus Corneliusson – production assistance

Artwork and design

• Mircea Gabriel Eftemie (Mnemic, eftemie.com) – album cover
• Hannah Verbeuren (hannahvphotography.com) – photography

Studios

• Fascination Street – mixing, mastering

Charts

References

External links

• The Living Infinite at AllMusic
• The Living Infinite at Nuclear Blast