Joel Ekel News Today

The Swedish prog-metal stalwarts are full of surprises on new album Memorial, but just because there are hooks aplenty doesnt mean they have lost their taste for musical expansiveness

By David E. Gehlke Drummer Martin Lopez is the first to admit that his post-OPETH career in SOEN has required a lot of work. The band's 2012 "Cognitive" debut was immediately hit with TOOL comparisons, perhaps justifiably so, rendering bass legend Steve DiGiorgio's (DEATH, SADUS, TESTAMENT) inclusio...

Acclaimed Swedish producer Dan Swanö used to protest over KATATONIA vocalist Jonas Renkse's love of dissonance. Where Renkse's longtime partner, guitarist Anders Nyström, preferred streamlined, conventional melodies, the frontman has long favored the opposite, whipping up circuitous, heady songs tha...

OUTBURN ONLINE 9/10 MODERN PROG ROCK: Swedish prog metal purveyors, Soen, have been carving out a unique niche within the metal subgenre since originally forming in 2004. On its fifth full-length album, Imperial, founding members Joel Ekelöf (vocals) and Martin Lopez (drums), along with Lars Enok Åhlund (keyboards and guitar), Oleksii “Zlatoyar” Kobel (bass), and Cody Ford (lead guitar), have created eight crisp and dynamic tunes. Often compared to Tool, Anubis Gate, and Opeth, the qu...