Style: Progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tool, Nickelback, Klone, Katatonia, The Pineapple Thief
Country: Sweden
Release date: 16 January 2026

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Back in 2010, drummer Martin Lopez—formerly of a couple little projects called Opeth and Amon Amarth—gave an interview about his new band. Named Soen, this group brought together a group of highly pedigreed musicians, and Lopez described their sound as “melodic, heavy, intricate and very different than everything else.”¹ Sixteen years and seven albums later, Soen’s latest, Reliance, is none of those things. Instead, it’s dad rock. 

Allow me to preface my analysis of Reliance by saying that I’ve been a fan of Soen for years. Though they drew many comparisons to Tool in early albums like Cognitive and Tellurian, Soen were more than just a clo-en², synthesizing those influences with dashes of Opeth and the prog era of Katatonia into a fresh package. Then, something happened: the progression of Soen’s last few albums feels like some sort of telephone game where progressively dumber and dumber people have been tasked with describing Soen to a hired band of suburban dads from Minnesota who then have to recreate the sound that’s been described to them without ever actually listening to Soen (or any progressive metal at all). And even having said that, I’ll go on the record as a defender of Soen’s last couple albums. Sure, they didn’t have the twists and turns and proggy intricacies of the first few, but sometimes all you need to hit the spot is some solid grooves and a fist-pumping chorus. (It might be important to note here, for context, that I have been known to occasionally enjoy a Nickelback song.) However, whether out of a desire for greater commercial appeal³ or simply a lack of fresh ideas, Soen have taken their dad rock-ification further still on their latest album.

Reflecting back on Lopez’ original tagline for the band, is Reliance melodic? Certainly not compared to the mysterious, smoky melodies of older Soen tracks like Tellurian’s “Tabula Rasa”. And is it heavy? Well, occasionally: see the almost djent-y breakdown just before two minutes in “Discordia”. However, the heavier moments are more likely to evoke Seether than to make you want to bang your head. Vocalist Joel Ekelöf also adopts a kind of tough-guy affect at times, as with his little “oogh!” at the beginning of “Unbound”, which has the opposite of the intended gritty effect.

And is Reliance “intricate and different than everything else”? Virtually all of the tracks follow the same formulaic structure. There will be a verse, and a chorus, and a bridge where everything gets soft, with Ekelöf crooning sweetly, before the band comes whamming back in, such as three and a half minutes in “Primal”, three minutes into “Discordia”, just past three minutes in “Axis”, around two and a half minutes into “Huntress”… (do you want me to go on? I could.) And the songs aren’t even different from previous Soen tracks: both “Primal” and “Draconian” sound uncannily like Memorial’s “Sincere”. 

Soen’s socially conscious, disillusioned lyrics have always been notoriously wordy, to the point that Ekelöf reads off a teleprompter during live performances (you can’t unsee this once you know about it). But on Reliance, the lyrical material is sometimes cringingly on-the-nose, with references to “mindless scrolling through our phones” and “violent pornography” in “Primal”, or elucidating zingers like “don’t let them push you around” in “Drifter”. Perhaps it’s a further concession to accessibility, but this stripping of nuance blunts the album’s impact even more.

That said, if you want some anthemic tunes that you can pump your metal horns to in a concert hall, you could do much worse than Reliance. The album is cleanly produced—I don’t hear the brickwalling that troubled some previous Soen releases—and slickly performed. When a twinkle of technical mastery shines through in Cody Ford’s guitar solos (“Huntress”, “Axis”) or more rhythmically intriguing passages from Martin Lopez (“Discordia”), it leaves me wanting more. The album’s best moments are those where Soen colour outside the lines. Ultimately, Reliance isn’t a bad album so much as a frustrating one. It’s the sound of a band with the chops to do something amazing, but instead of playing to their strengths, they’re playing to make sure they don’t upset the neighbours.

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Recommended tracks: Discordia, Vellichor, Indifferent
You may also like: Sermon, Kingcrow, Pure Reason Revolution, Derev, Inhalo
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Silver Lining Music

Soen is:
– Joel Ekelöf (vocals)
– Martin Lopez (drums)
– Lars Åhlund (keyboards, guitar)
– Cody Ford (guitar)
– Stefan Stenberg (bass)

1. Former Opeth Drummer Joins Forces With Sadus Bassist. ↩︎
2. I figured it’s open season for dad jokes, given the subject at hand. ↩︎
3. Which I honestly wouldn’t begrudge; get your bag, kings. ↩︎