Sworn to a Great Divide
Encyclopedia
Sworn to a Great Divide is the seventh studio album
by Swedish melodic death metal
band Soilwork
. The album was released on October 19, 2007 for Europe
and on October 23, 2007 for the US
, both through Nuclear Blast
. Everything aside from vocals was recorded at Not Quite Studios in Helsingborg
. This is the only album to include Daniel Antonsson
on guitar who replaced founding member Peter Wichers
after his late 2005 departure. It is also the last album to feature long-time guitarist Ola Frenning who left Soilwork in February 2008.
Sworn to a Great Divide is Soilwork's biggest commercial success, selling approximately 5,000 copies in its first week in the U.S., charting at #148, and reaching #2 on the Top Heatseekers
. The album in its entirety was put on Soilwork's MySpace on October 10, 2007.
Due to other commitments, Devin Townsend
only produced the vocal tracks. The remaining production duties were in the hands of Ola Frenning and Peter Wildoer
. While speculation led many fans to believe this would be a sequel to the intense Natural Born Chaos
, Sworn to a Great Divide instead continued the band's more commercial progression.
released on October 3, 2007. A music video
was made for the song and shot in Gothenburg
. The song was also made available to download for use in Guitar Hero II
on Xbox 360
on October 15, 2007. The album's title track would also find significant airplay on heavy metal satellite radio
following its release.
The album received perhaps a more extreme review from Stylus
which considers Soilwork's style a heavier incarnation of Nirvana
and modern emo
groups. It also speculates the song title "20 More Miles" as a possible "marketing move." Yet, in the same hand, the review considers Soilwork to "sound slightly 'more metal' than before." Sworn to a Great Divide is also praised for its catchy hooks
, guitar harmonies, and Strid's outstanding singing abilities. It ends by stating, "That this falls under metal, as does Slayer
and Sunn O)))
, is a credit to the music's breadth and resiliency."
Guest
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Swedish melodic death metal
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...
band Soilwork
Soilwork
Soilwork is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Helsingborg. They are currently signed to Nuclear Blast. Formed in late 1995 by Björn Strid and Peter Wichers, originally under the name Inferior Breed, the band changed their name in late 1996 to Soilwork .Their sound is a fusion of the classic...
. The album was released on October 19, 2007 for Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and on October 23, 2007 for the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, both through Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic...
. Everything aside from vocals was recorded at Not Quite Studios in Helsingborg
Helsingborg
Helsingborg is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden's closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city...
. This is the only album to include Daniel Antonsson
Daniel Antonsson
Daniel Antonsson is a musician and songwriter from Gothenburg, Sweden, currently playing guitar in Dimension Zero and playing bass in Dark Tranquillity. He was also briefly in Soilwork and recorded with them on their album Sworn to a Great Divide...
on guitar who replaced founding member Peter Wichers
Peter Wichers
Peter Wichers is best known as one of the founding members of Swedish melodic death metal band, Soilwork. From 1995 until late 2005, when he announced his departure from the band, he was known as the lead guitarist and also a songwriter, especially on their Stabbing the Drama album...
after his late 2005 departure. It is also the last album to feature long-time guitarist Ola Frenning who left Soilwork in February 2008.
Sworn to a Great Divide is Soilwork's biggest commercial success, selling approximately 5,000 copies in its first week in the U.S., charting at #148, and reaching #2 on the Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
. The album in its entirety was put on Soilwork's MySpace on October 10, 2007.
Due to other commitments, Devin Townsend
Devin Townsend
Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist....
only produced the vocal tracks. The remaining production duties were in the hands of Ola Frenning and Peter Wildoer
Peter Wildoer
Karl Peter Wildoer is a Swedish drummer in the bands Darkane, Electrocution 250 & Grimmark. He has also drummed for the bands Armageddon, Majestic, Pestilence, Silver Seraph, Arch Enemy, Time Requiem, Gardens of Obscurity and Dawn of Oblivion amongst others. He has been tagged to perform sessions...
. While speculation led many fans to believe this would be a sequel to the intense Natural Born Chaos
Natural Born Chaos
- Band members :* Björn "Speed" Strid − Vocals* Peter Wichers − Guitar* Ola Frenning − Guitar* Ola Flink − Bass* Sven Karlsson − Keyboards* Henry Ranta − Drums- Guest musicians :* Mattias Eklundh − guitar solo on "No More Angels"...
, Sworn to a Great Divide instead continued the band's more commercial progression.
Promotion
"Exile" would become the album's singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
released on October 3, 2007. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was made for the song and shot in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. The song was also made available to download for use in Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero II is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane. It is the second installment in the Guitar Hero series and is the sequel to Guitar Hero...
on Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
on October 15, 2007. The album's title track would also find significant airplay on heavy metal satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
following its release.
Reception
Sworn to a Great Divide has been treated to largely positive reviews. Allmusic's Thom Jurek noted that despite upset expectations of a stylistic sequel to Natural Born Chaos, the album has "absolutely nothing to complain about." Jurek praised vocalist Björn Strid as well as the album's layered and melodic style. He concluded by calling it "well done, carefully executed, and aggressive enough to satisfy fans, while offering some new textures, spaces, and compositional elements to add depth and dimension to an ever-evolving sound."The album received perhaps a more extreme review from Stylus
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
which considers Soilwork's style a heavier incarnation of Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
and modern emo
Emo
Emo is a style of rock music and its associated subcultureEmo may also refer to:- Businesses :* Emo , an Irish oil company and filling station chain* Emo Speedway, a racetrack in Emo, Ontario...
groups. It also speculates the song title "20 More Miles" as a possible "marketing move." Yet, in the same hand, the review considers Soilwork to "sound slightly 'more metal' than before." Sworn to a Great Divide is also praised for its catchy hooks
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
, guitar harmonies, and Strid's outstanding singing abilities. It ends by stating, "That this falls under metal, as does Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
and Sunn O)))
Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) is an American doom metal band known for its synthesis of diverse genres including drone, ambient, noise, and black metal. Supported by a varying cast of collaborators, the band has two core members: Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson .-History:Sunn O))) is named after the Sunn...
, is a credit to the music's breadth and resiliency."
Track listing
live DVD
- Making of and more
3" CD w/bonus tracks
An exclusive Nuclear Blast Online Shop mail-order edition of the album was limited to only 500 copies, which Sold Out.Release history
| Country | Date |
|---|---|
| Europe Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting... |
19 October 2007 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
23 October 2007 |
Chart positions
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Finnish album charts | 19 |
| Swedish album charts | 25 |
| German album charts | 37 |
| Austrian album charts | 57 |
| Swiss album charts | 74 |
| French album charts | 136 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 148 |
Credits
Soilwork- Björn "Speed" Strid − vocals
- Sven Karlsson − keyboardsElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, samplingSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically... - Daniel AntonssonDaniel AntonssonDaniel Antonsson is a musician and songwriter from Gothenburg, Sweden, currently playing guitar in Dimension Zero and playing bass in Dark Tranquillity. He was also briefly in Soilwork and recorded with them on their album Sworn to a Great Divide...
− leadLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Ola Frenning − leadLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Dirk VerbeurenDirk VerbeurenDirk Verbeuren is a heavy metal drummer for Swedish melodic death metal band, Soilwork, French melodic death metal band, Scarve , French melodic death metal band, Phaze I, Dutch death-thrash metal band, Anatomy of I, and American thrash metal band, Powermad...
− drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Ola Flink − bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Guest
- Per AldeheimPer AldeheimPer Henrik Aldeheim, is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter and producer. He started out in the business with the band LAZY, also featuring Kim Björkgren. In 1985 they quit the band and started a new, It's Alive, together with among others Max Martin as their singer and frontman. It's Alive ceased to...
- arrangementsArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
on "Light Discovers Darkness"