SOEN’s Lotus will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Pre-order here!
“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.”
Lotus Track Listing:
| OPPONENT |
| LASCIVIOUS |
| MARTYRS |
| LOTUS |
| COVENANT |
| PENANCE |
| RIVER |
| RIVAL |
| LUNACY |
SOEN will bring Lotus to European stages this spring n a near-three-week tour from March 12 through April 6th. For ticket click here!
2019 European Tour Part One:
| 12 March - NORWAY - John Dee, Oslo |
| 13 March - DENMARK - TBC, Copenhagen |
| 14 March - GERMANY - Logo, Hamburg |
| 15 March - GERMANY - Roadrunner, Berlin |
| 16 March - GERMANY - Colos Saal, Aschaffenburg |
| 17 March - GERMANY - Club Cann, Stuttgart |
| 18 March - GERMANY - Backsatge Werk, Munich |
| 20 March - GERMANY – Kultopia, Hagen |
| 21 March - GERMANY - Helios, Cologne |
| 22 March - NETHERLANDS - De Effenaar Prognois Festival, Eindhoven |
| 25 March - UK - O2 Academy Islington, London |
| 27 March - FRANCE - L’amperage, Grenoble |
| 28 March - SPAIN - Salamandra, Barcelona |
| 29 March - SPAIN - Caracol, Madrid |
| 30 March - PORTUGAL - Hard Club, Porto |
| 31 March - PORTUGAL - RCA, Lisbon |
| 2 April - FRANCE - Backstage, Paris |
| 3 April - SWITZERLAND - Z7, Pratteln |
| 4 April - ITALY - Legend Club, Milano |
| 5 April - ITALY - Orion Ciampino, Roma |
| 6 April - ITALY - Sonic Room, Fabriano |
Special Guests are:
WHEEL (FIN) Official Facebook Page
Ghost Iris (DK) Official Facebook Page
SOEN are:
- Joel Ekelöf - Vocals
- Martin Lopez - Drums
- Lars Åhlund - Keys & Guitar
- Stefan Stenberg - Bass
- Cody Ford - Lead Guitar
LOTUS CREDITS:
- Written by Soen
- Produced by David Castillo and Iñaki Marconi
- Mixed by David Castillo
- Mastering by Jens Bogren
- Cello by Emeli Jeremias
- Album Design by Enrique Zabala & Forma Estudio
- Cover Artwork by Wriliya
- Booklet Images by Stephanie Pearl
- Band Photo by Iñaki Marconi
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