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“Lotus is a complete album because it balances SOEN‘s contrasts and unifies them into a sound that is more than the sum of its parts. The peaks and valleys are not exclusive to each other; they define each other. Compositions snap into place, and SOEN delivers song after excellent song.” — Angry Metal Guy
Lotus is the forthcoming new studio album from Swedish-based progressive metal collective, SOEN. Set for release via Silver Lining Music on February 1st, 2019, the nine songs comprising Lotus are intoxicating, addictive aural therapies, questioning much of today’s darkness while juxtaposing them with moments of great escape and hope.
Produced by David Castillo and Iñaki Marconi at Ghostward Studios and Studio 6, the album features the first recorded SOEN material with newest recruit, Canadian-born guitarist Cody Ford, whilst the centre-point of the album remains those trademark, snap-heavy, progressive SOEN riffs. Songs such as “Rival,” “Covenant,” and “Martyrs” are dissertations on modern societies, fraught with poetic, finitely designed confusion and chaos, yet as the name Lotus suggests, there is still strength, beauty, and purity to be extracted from what at times seems like an endless cycle of human regression.
Writes Angry Metal Guy in an advance investigation of the record, “Lotus is an album defined by its contrasts. On the one hand, the record has a metal core. The riffing is massive, with an overdriven guitar tone that strongly differentiates it from Lykaia, while drums and bass drive the songs forward. These moments can be straightforward SOEN tracks like ‘Opponent,’ but there are moments like a hat-tip to death metal riffing in ‘Rival’ or a proggy ‘awkward headbanging moment’ in ‘Covenant’ that mark SOEN as a band with a metal heart… Lotus is also a haunting, fragile album. The album’s softer tracks are no less intense than the heavy material and evoke the work of Pink Floyd (‘Lotus’) or Steven Wilson (doing Pink Floyd [‘River’]). In the tradition of the heart-wrenching ‘The Words,’ songs like ‘Lunacy’ and ‘River’ ache with loss and pain both lyrically and musically. In these moments, it’s the keys and guitars which bear the delicate, melancholic tone.”
SOEN’s Lotus will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Pre-order http://hyperurl.co/SoenLotus
Lotus Track Listing:
1. Opponent
2. Lascivious
3. Martyrs
4. Lotus
5. Covenant
6. Penance
7. River
8. Rival
9. Lunacy
SOEN will bring Lotus to European stages this spring n a near-three-week tour from March 12 through April 6th
EUROPEAN TOUR PART ONE:
12/3/2019 John Dee – Oslo, Norway
13/3/2019 TBC – Copenhagen, Denmark
14/3/2019 Logo – Hamburg, Germany
15/3/2019 Roadrunner – Berlin, Germany
16/3/2019 Colos Saal – Aschaffenburg, Germany
17/3/2019 Club Cann – Stuttgart, Germany,
18/3/2019 Backstage Werk – Munich, Germany
20/3/2019 Kultopia – Hanau, Germany
21/3/2019 Helios – Cologne, Germany
22/3/2019 De Effenaar Prognois Festival– Eindhoven, Netherlands
25/3/2019 O2 Academy Islington – London, UK
27/3/2019 L’amperage – Grenoble, France,
28/3/2019 Salamandra – Barelona, Spain
29/3/2019 Caracol – Madrid, Spain
30/3/2019 Hard Club – Porto, Portugal
31/3/2019 RCA – Lisbon, Portugal
02/4/2019 Backstage – Paris, France
03/4/2019 Z7 – Pratteln, Switzerland
04/4/2019 Legent Club – Milano, Italy
05/4/2019 Orion Ciampino – Roma, Italy
06/4/2019 Sonic Room Fabricia – Ancona, Italy
SOEN:
Joel Ekelöf – vocals
Martin Lopez – drums
Lars Åhlund – keys, guitar
Stefan Stenberg – bass
Cody Ford – lead guitar