How Soen’s Seventh Album Proves That Comfort Is the Enemy of Progressive Metal
Soen Reliance. Seven albums in, a perfected formula that never quite surprises. Triumph or warning?
Seven albums in, Soen have achieved something progressive metal bands rarely survive. A formula. Joel Ekelöf sings with controlled emotional precision over Martin Lopez’s polyrhythmic drumming, and the result is consistently good, reliably engaging, and increasingly predictable. Reliance does not change this equation. It perfects it. Whether that perfection is a triumph or a warning basically depends on what you want from a seventh album.
The record opens with “Primal,” a superb track showing the full dynamic range, heavy riffs, throbbing beats, then sudden fragility with Ekelöf taking centre stage. “Mercenary” and “Discordia” follow without a single weak moment. “Huntress” has a vocal hook that will lodge in your temporal lobe for days. “Indifferent” introduces strings and a grand piano and a vulnerability the heavier moments rarely permit.
And then there is the déjà vu, which follows this record loudly. Several riffs feel familiar. Certain structures whisper that you have heard them before, maybe on Imperial, maybe on Lotus. To put it bluntly, swap any song here with any song from the last three albums and you would not notice. That is harsh. But it is also not entirely wrong.
Lopez’s drumming remains extraordinary. Returning bassist Stefan Stenberg gives the compositions a felt pulse. But Soen have moved more metal and less prog on Reliance, and the trade costs them the exploratory quality that made Cognitive and Lotus compelling. What remains is uniformly high craftsmanship that never quite surprises. It is the sound of a band that knows exactly what it does well. The question is whether knowing is enough.
