Picking up exactly where their incredibly stunning 1998 debut album "Steelbath Suicide" left off, the Swedish six man metal army known as Soilwork strike again with their amazingly mindblowing sophomore effort from 2000, "The Chainheart Machine". A true melodic death/thrash metal classic as well as one of the best albums in Soilwork's discography, "The Chainheart Machine" strikes furiously without warning like a rapid angry beast that never lets up and keeps you on the edge of sanity throughout. This monster of an album is just fully loaded with nonstop rapid fast, hammering brutality and sheer, infectious melody, it just hits you like a ton of bricks. Every song here just flows so perfectly from one song to the next, and not to mention the musicianship from the band themselves is just flat out amazing as well. Bjorn "Speed" Strid delivers an amazing performance throughout with his ferociously brutal, aggressive and frightening bat out of hell like howls and screams that are just guaranteed to make you want to go completely insane, but in a good way of course. Elsewhere on here, guitarists Peter Wichers and Ola Frenning both display their amazing talents as they assault the ears with their dual lightning fast riffs and beautifully infectious and melodic leads and solos which are very well constructed and executed throughout the album. The drumming on this album courtesy of Henry Ranta is just dare I say off the wall inhuman and incredible throughout, as he just absolutely slaughters his way through track after track with rapid hammering thrash style beats and insane machine gun double bass drilling with pure high energy and neckbreaking speed, and he also does tend to slow the tempos down at times as well to help pave the way for Wichers and Frenning's dual solo flights. Bassist Ola Flink meanwhile, does his thing keeping in perfect pace with the dual axe assault of Wichers and Frenning, and he also throws in an awesomely heavy and groovy bass riff on track three "Millionflame" as well, and the keyboards and synths from Carlos Del Olmo Holmberg are much more present on this album as they give the music a great sense of melody and atmosphere on here.The brutality begins with the album's title track "The Chainheart Machine" which starts off with a brief but cool intro which gives you build up of what's to come, and before you even know it, the song suddenly goes into an inhuman barrage of frantic, pounding drumming and fast, merciless riffing all lead by Speed's vindictive and vicious screams. The song however does slow down the tempos a bit around 1:37 and features some catchy mid tempo riffage with some nice background synths which aid the guitars very nicely as well as some drilling double bass action which lead up to some tasty, melodic and soaring solo flights before the song once again picks up the vicious, frenetic pace. The second track "Bulletbeast" (which is my favorite song on here) is another lightning fast scorcher that boasts even more rapid fast riffing and off the wall fast drumming as well as more of Speed's frantic, raging howls and screams throughout. This song also features some really cool lyrics including some references from Snow White ("Mirror, mirror on the wall") and Scarface ("So you wanna play rough? Say hello to my little friend"), plus a very catchy and groovy chorus, and another batch of amazing dual solos to boot. Track three "Millionflame" is yet another one of my favorites here that is highlighted by a nice opening melodic riff which leads right into a charging, straight ahead thrash attack with hard, hammering double bass drums and charging, blistering machine gun riffs that will run you down like a steaming freight train. The song is also highlighted by a beautifully executed melodic shredding solo which is soon followed by a killer, groovy and heavy bass riff by Ola Flink that leads into some killer groove induced riffage. Continuing the inhuman brutality is track four "Generation Speedkill" which is another blistering highlight that features yet more savage and frightening screams that are aided by fiery, heart racing riffs and more rapid, hammering drums, and also features a wicked, pounding chorus as well as some more wonderful soloing from both Wichers and Frenning, and I also love Speed's vocals at the end too, while elsewhere, "Neon Rebels" is yet another fast paced number that boasts yet more pounding, straight ahead thrashing double bass drumming and amazingly catchy riffage throughout, plus great melodic leads and solos too.Meanwhile, track six "Possessing the Angels" is yet another savagely fast and menacing blaster which anchors yet another brutal off the wall onslaught of savagely violent screams accompanied by rapid fire blasting drums and insane steamrolling riffs, and also features an awesome chorus and more amazing solo flights as well, meanwhile the seventh track "Spirits of the Future Sun" is a 6 minute epic that starts off with a nicely slow and melodic guitar intro which then kicks straight into a hammering onslaught of pounding double bass drumming and smoking, trail blazing riffage, and it also features a series of more slower and melodic tempo shifts that includes gorgeous melodic leads, and more fantastic soloing is also thrown in as well. Another one of my favorites on here, track eight "Machine Gun Majesty" continues the punishing assault by boasting more violent breakneck thrash style riffing, hammering drums, and vindictive howls and screams, exactly what you would expect from this album. This song also features an addicting double bass powered chorus, plus some catchy melodic lead notes that lead to yet another wickedly awesome solo section. Then finally there's "Room No.99" which is a fantastic album closer that is highlighted by punchy, galloping machine gun riffs and mean, heart pounding drums, as well as more strong screaming vocals from Speed, plus yet more fantastic soloing from Wichers and Frenning, and there's also a nice guitar and synth outro with some spoken words included before fading out at 4:57. Then after some silence up until the 7:00 mark, we have a short hidden track that just includes a short violin piece along with the intro that was used in the opening track.So in conclusion, this is an album that delivers every single ounce of pure power, aggression, brutality, melody and atmosphere, and puts it all in one amazingly mindblowing package resulting in this blisteringly inhuman juggernaut of a melodic death/thrash metal tour de force that is "The Chainheart Machine". To put it straight and simple, this album rips and hammers like a beast from start to finish, and it's definitely a serious must have in your metal CD collection for sure. Anyways, if you're looking for a true and pure in your face, headbanging melodic death/thrash metal masterpiece, then "The Chainheart Machine" is your album...Highly Recommended!!!\m/