Pain Of Salvation

Scarsick

Written by: MY on 23/03/2007 01:43:35

Words by Pain Of Salvation's mastermind Daniel Gildenlöw: "The fans would certainly be very disappointed if it were any different on Scarsick." Well, Daniel, I’m not so sure about that.

There's one thing I am sure about though: Pain Of Salvation is becoming more confusing with every album. You may think this is what progressive music is all about but if you do, that means you have no idea about Pain Of Salvation's last few albums. It all started with "Be", the complexity of the album was preventing the listener to dive straight into it. The follow up DVD, live concept of "Be", helped through it's "seeing is understanding" philosophy, after which most fans noticed that there were great songs on the album. When "Be" begun to fade away from memories, the news of the new album came quick. It's said to be the part II of Pain Of Salvation's best ever album, "Perfect Element Part I". Needless to say, the expectations were high, and the result is a shock. Is it good or bad? I've had both thoughts while listening to it.

The album starts with its namesake track, a heavy metallic rocker with flanged basses where Daniel spits the lyrics out with a spoken delivery. The second track "Spitfall" follows the same path. The third one "Cribcaged" starts like pretty much a normal PoS song until Daniel's seemingly neverending "fuck you" series. As a side note, there is a special guest appearance on that song, Daniel's new born son. "America" has a goofy pop sound, and the next song, "Disco Queen", is the most outstanding track of the album with its provocatively danceable groove and references to an era when people like John Travolta were the face of disco. It's cheesy, poppy and a perfect choice for dancing. Then comes the track, "Kingdom Of Loss", which I keep skipping each time, and would be happier without this song on the album and probably rate the album higher.

With "Kingdom Of Loss" starts the second part of the album. There are no big surprises here like "America" or "Disco Queen", and the band sounds like themselves again, until the ninth track, "Flame To The Moth", in which you can hear Daniel screaming metalcore vocals, and they are good as hell!

The concept behind the album is standing strong, dealing with the psycho-social aspects, questions about life in general. I don't enjoy it when the concept passes in front of the music though which is the problem of Pain Of Salvation here.

Surprising the fans is what Pain Of Salvation are best at but they are getting too surprising to handle. All my hopes will be with them to make a normal album, PLEASE!

Download: Disco Queen, Cribcaged
For the fans of: Faith No More, Dream Theater
Listen: Myspace

Release date 22.02.2007
InsideOut Music
Provided by Target ApS

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