Figure Number Five
Figure Number Five is the fifth full-length album released by the Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork. The record was released on 22 April 2003 through Nuclear Blast label. On this release, the band introduces more alternative metal sound than their melodic death metal style. A few different editions of this album existed upon release. The normal release with eleven tracks, as well as a limited edition release with a second CD including their 1997 demo "In Dreams We Fall into the Eternal Lake" plus two songs from the "Steelbath Suicide" demo session. The limited vinyl  version of the album features two discs - this album and "Natural Born Chaos", black and the other a white-colored vinyl. The Japanese version of the album includes one bonus track, entitled "Bursting Out." Background. This album marked keyboardist Sven Karlsson's first attempts at songwriting for the band. While it is not necessarily interconnected with the keyboardist songwriting, this album features more use of the keyboard and lighter melodies. The album is considered a more commercial sound by most fans of Swedish death metal, but it arguably gives the music a broader appeal. However, vocalist Björn Strid has said  the album has good melodies but lacks in intensity and could have been better composed; many fans and critics considered the album "rushed". Music videos were made for the songs "Rejection Role" and "Light the Torch." The music video for "Rejection Role" showed the band playing in a club and being constantly pestered and booed by the members of In Flames, with interspersed footage of other incidents between the two bands. In Flames's video for "Trigger" showed the situation "vice versa", In Flames playing and Soilwork as the bullies. The colour is also reversed in each video: blue for  In Flames, red for Soilwork. Both videos also had the other band riding in a pickup truck to and from the club. While some believed the tension between the two bands to be real, in reality the groups are close friends and devised the idea of a dual-video concept as a joke. This was the last album to feature Henry Ranta on drums. Reception. In 2005, "Figure Number Five" was ranked number 398 in "Rock Hard" magazine's book of "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time".