Pain of Salvation

This is an excellent debut from Pain of Salvation. While I don't consider it one of their masterpieces, it's still a great album that deserves a spot in every prog metal fan's collection.

This is often overshadowed by their previous effort, The Perfect Element, but this is still a masterpiece that is almost as good. It has excellent playing and songwriting, along with a special feel only Pain of Salvation can create. Highly Recommended!

This is one of the greatest prog metal albums, and is Painof Salvation's pinnacle. Words cannot describe the incredible variety of moods in this album, and it can only be told by listening to it. A highly recommended album!

Likely to be the last album I ever pre-order, Scarsick taught me a valuable lesson. Not known for consistency, PoS went way off the deep end with this one. A stinker and then some, Scarsick is PoS living up to its acronym.

I am somewhat new to this creative prog metal group from Sweden, Pain of Salvation. So far, I have found their music very enjoyable to listen to. This particular album is outstanding from start to finish. Daniel Gildenlöw’s impressive vocal talents are in full display accompanied by some very well-crafted songs. For purposes of this review, I will ignore the overriding theme (concept) of the album and focus instead on what really moves me: the music.

“Beginnings” is the first song and really gets the listener ready for what is to come. The music fades in with mellow acoustic sounds providing a solid foundation before the guitars come roaring in to remind us that Pain of Salvation plays some mighty nice metal. The stage has been set for Remedy Lane.

The album is divided into three chapters with “Beginnings” being treated as an introduction. Chapter 1 begins with “Ending Theme”, a fabulous tune with a very memorable melody line highlighted by crunchy guitars and Daniel’s layered vocals covering numerous octaves (as he is frequent to do in many of the band’s songs).

“Fandango” is next and is probably the least accessible song on the album with its crazy time signature changes and syncopation. Though I really like this song, it took me a while to be able to digest it and enjoy it to its fullest.

“A Trace of Blood” follows and provides a truly amazing dichotomy in that the music is so very very good and the lyrics are so very very gut-wrenching. I get excited with the catchy melody and emotive vocals, yet the words are so painful that it makes me feel guilty for enjoying this music so much. Daniel and his wife suffered greatly (and still do) so that we could be blessed with such a fascinating song. “A Trace of Blood” is a huge highlight on this ... -> show full review

I suppose there comes a time for every band to release a bad album - this is it for Pain of Salvation. Although I have to admit that it sucks on a high level - it has great production, flawless musicianship, decent songs - it lacks inspiration, is full of bland social bashing, and is ultimately going nowhere. Due to Mr. Gildenlöw it is the second part of The Perfect Element, but I fail to see how. Granted, there are a few highlights that remind of TPE pt.1 - Kingdom of Loss and Enter Rain for example. Relaxed, kind of gloomy Post Rock/Metal with tasteful guitars and atmospheric effects. But as an album it seems very patchy, the atmosphere is ruined by the extremely bland tracks America and Disco Queen, by the out of place rapping on the first two tracks (it was cool on the first track of TPE pt.1, it does not work here at all) and by the indecisiveness and meandering pointlessness which is most apparent in the track Idiocracy. What happened to the seemless connection of songs, the recurring motifs, the grand concept and brilliant, thoughtful lyrics?

A great debut for an amazing band. Although Pain of Salvation has somewhat shifted their style since this album and produced great, if not better works, some songs on here remain among their best, such as "Winning a War" and "Revival". Just a sweet album.

BE is perhaps the best album to come out in years. Daniel Gildenlow brings forth a very intriguing concept of God and why things are the way they are. The album is full of insightful lyrics, further showing that Gildelow is one of the best lyricists today. Also, shifting from albums such as Entropia and Remedy Lane, Pain of Salvation has help from a small orchestra, which makes the album far more interesting than previous efforts. The album also contains dramatic shifts from tracks consisting solely of speech to tracks with acoustic guitars to tracks with heavy metal riffs. This album isn't the same as many other greats in that it isn't full of great, independent songs. Many of the tracks which could be considered weaker, are indeed weaker when listened to by themselves. However, once each track is put into its place, it contributes to the work as a whole. Take for example, "Vocari Dei". Even though it has some nice music, it is comprised entirely of messages left on an answering machine. Who wants to listen to that as an individual track? It wouldn't work on its own but when included in BE, it adds to the concept. BE definitely isn't a collection of tracks, but truly, an album and what every album should aspire to be.

One of the most astonishing debut albums I've ever heard. Outstanding production, excellent musicianship throughout and amazingly fresh and innovative songwriting and lyrics.

I wouldn't recommend this for Pain of Salvation newbies. It is a good album musicwise, but the concept is a little bit pretentious and - dare I say it - cheesy. Also, the focus is not as much on the music as it was on the first four studio albums. Some tracks are among Pain of Salvation's finest efforts though.