SOEN FIND THEIR IDENTITY ON LOTUS
New sound and new guitarist for the band founded by Opeth’s former drummer.
Swedish supergroup Soen release their fourth album Lotus via Silver Lining Music on February 1, and drummer Martin Lopez regards it as a work that’s “realistic” about the modern world.
“It’s a natural step to finding our own identity,” he tells Prog. “That’s been happening over the last two albums. There’s a lot of honesty – we feel we should enjoy writing music for ourselves and we’ll have a following. I think there’s a lot more energy on this album.”
Lotus explores the mid-life experience of “feeling trapped in the wheel” of society, he explains. “The older you get, the more you start wondering, ‘What the fuck have I done?’ You say, 99 per cent of people don’t agree with the system, but we’re still trapped in it and pay to make it work.”
He also adds that they’re neither positive or negative about the observations made.
The release is Soen’s first to feature Canadian guitarist Cody Ford who, says Lopez, brings a heavier element to their sound. “We’ve kind of had different guitarists on every album,” he adds, admitting he’s not sure how it happened. “But the songs are always mainly written by Joel Ekelöf and myself, so that’s the same. Marcus Jidell, who’s not in the band any more, had more of a vintage sound. Now we have more of a current sound but keeping the same core.”
Soen play the O2 Academy Islington on March 25 as part of their European tour. The full dates can be found on their website www.soenmusic.com. MK