SOILWORK Begins Recording New Album With Producer JENS BOGREN

Jorge Fretes of Spain's GoetiaMedia.com recently conducted an interview with vocalist Björn "Speed" Strid of Swedish metallers SOILWORK. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Asked about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for SOILWORK's follow-up to 2013's "The Living Infinite", Strid said: "We actually entered the studio today. I'm not in the studio right now, but Dirk [Verbeuren] has started to lay down some of the drums already. I will go up to the studio, which is in Stockholm, I will go there on Thursday (February 12). The album is getting produced by Jens Bogren, [who also produced] the last two albums, 'The Living Infinite' and 'The Panic Broadcast'. He's a fantastic producer, and he has a very good ear for what we wanna do with our sound, so I think it's a perfect fit, for sure."

Strid also spoke about SOILWORK's involvement with Breaking Bands, the management team featuring TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy. He said: "I've known Chuck Billy for quite some time now. I even attended his 45th birthday [party] a couple of years ago, which was really, really fantastic — it was an amazing time. So I'd known him pretty well. And we'd known the TESTAMENT guys ever since we played her in Helsingborg and opened up for them and they really liked our sound back then, so they've been following us in our career. So he approached me about it, and he also told me that both Jonny Zazula and Marsha Zazula, they're involved, and also 'Metal' Maria, Maria Ferrero, who was with METALLICA and they started Megaforce back in the day — some really, really big names — so it's definitely a dream coming true. I think it's exactly what we need — people with loads of experience and also somebody who's representing the artists, being Chuck Billy, who knows how it is to be on the road."

SOILWORK will release its first live DVD/Blu-ray, "Live In The Heart Of Helsinki", on March 13 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was recorded during the band's special show on March 21, 2014 at Circus Club in the Finnish capital and features guest appearances by Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH, REVAMP) and Nathan J. Biggs (SONIC SYNDICATE).

SOILWORK's ninth studio and first dual-disc album, "The Living Infinite", sold around 7,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 60. The effort also landed at No. 11 on the Independent Albums chart, and No. 2 on the Hard Music chart. "The Living Infinite" entered the iTunes Metal Top Albums chart at No. 1 and was the No. 1 most added album on the CMJ radio chart.