Pain Of Salvation - Be


Year of Release: 2004
Label: InsideOut
Catalog Number: IOMCD 184/SPV 085 60992
Format: CD
Total Time: 75:53:00

Pain Of Salvation are a band without peer, a band that defies any one categorization ? and in that, perhaps are truly progressive. They are not simply a progressive metal band, or progressive rock band ? or a progressive anything band ? about the only thing one can say with certainty is that they are musicians who paint with the full palette of colours, sewing with all types, thicknesses and colours of threads and yarns, and any other artistic metaphor you can make, fashioning something that isn't just music, it's Art; it's Literature; it's an Essay ? it is nearly every artistic medium you can think of - and with this, I bet we'll even find it's performance art. BE does have the scope, reach, and depth of novel. There are characters to help dramatize or give voice to ideas and concepts presented here. The natural parallel for prog minded folks - Ayreon; theatre folks will think of Jesus Christ Superstar?and I'm sure many will find their own point of reference.

Thus on this album you'll find a variety of styles, all helping to develop Gildenl?w's vision and theme; they'll draw upon any influence that fits the mood and mission for each song. So it doesn't matter if one track is Celtic in influence, as heard in the highly rhythmic "Imago," a piece that recalls the material and style of Remedy Lane (and, at least to me, Internal Exile-period Fish; it is picked up again in the "Nauticus II" section of "Maritus/Nauticus II"); or another track classical, as in the excellent "Pluvius Aestivus (Of Summer Rain)," where a gentle, warm piano is all that is needed as delicate notes are struck like? well, like a summer rain? and the swell of strings that accompanies the piano at one point seems perfect. Those lyrical notes are echoed in the first part of "Iter Impius - Martius, Son Of Mars (Obitus Diutinus)." Here, too, you will find heartfelt and wrenching emotional passages in the vocals, guitar, and piano work, falling between rock and metal (combining both, really) ? and here is where you'll also find the tumultuous, rumbling metal that the band are most associated with (though not only here). It is pieces like this that have become my favorites, but then it's this kind of emotionally charged music that I'm drawn to anyway.

As I said, there is a dramatic feel to this album, and an epic scope -- when your subject deals with God, faith, human existence and all the issues tied into all three ? well, a vignette sized work just wouldn't do. That POS do it all in one album? well, they aren't a band that wastes anything. Topically, a typical POS album is deep and so tied with a socio-political world view that, as I said about Paranoise in my Progression article a while back, reviewing the results seems almost superfluous. There is no doubt that the band get their message across and do so spectacularly. And BE is no exception.That you are in for something both entertaining - not in the cheap mass-media kind of way - but also fascinating to explore is evident. Gildenl?w invites you to further thought ? and from the liner notes here in this promotional edition (notes that I hope are in the released version, too), you see the music as not just something to listen to, but to learn from? to take with you, infuse into your brain? and maybe you don't agree with his point of view, but that's okay. That's part of the journey as well.

Not to belabor a point, POS are a band that takes music and the power of music seriously; you get the feeling (and it is a proven feeling) that this is band that gives great thought to each note, each syllable? there's nothing frivolous with these folks. So even if their music doesn't grab you -- and this is an album that does not have the same immediacy that Remedy Lane had -- you have to respect what they do. Some might find it too intellectual, too deep, too thoughtful when all you want is a great groove or a lyric you can hang on to and have get stuck in your head (even if that happens to be is some odd or incredible meter).

The album is broken in several parts, all with Latin names, or Latinized names, the tracks within each section also in Latin. Some tracks are a combination of lyrics and soundbytes, one such hybrid in fact, "Vocari Dei," is taken from messages left on an answering machine the band had set up (all against a gentle, lyrical background full of lilting flutes, lush keyboard beds, plucked guitars, and relaxed yet busy percussion). The messages are to God? some quite serious, some emotional and heartfelt? It's followed by the heavy dramatic attack and sweep of "Diffidentia (Breaching The Core) - Exitus - Drifting II"

"Nauticus (Drifting)" is a very slowly developing piece; so slow in fact, you might think it were in slow-motion? the vocals are quite deep, and sad sounding accompanied only by a strummed and plucked acoustic guitar ? a tone that goes beyond depression - it is an appeal to the Lord for help. One can't help but think of a very mournful version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" ? And then there's the sultry "Dea Pecuniae," which, with the chirpy female voice speaking in the background, you might think of end of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night". It's a song that brings in a bit of a gospel feel to it, too? and yet without losing the feel of being one part of an epic canvas? there's even a bluesy guitar solo to roundout the piece.

Oh, it's another one of those albums where there is so much to talk about - musically, thematically, structurally, etc? but truly, it's also one that defies any easy description, any short overview. If you have liked Pain Of Salvation in the past, you will like BE? it's constituent parts are consistent with the rest of their catalog even as they -- well Gildenl?w really, as he wrote all the music - brings in different elements. Not all parts will be to everyone's taste -- after a dozen listens, hearing the recitation of population figures covering the past 12,000 years might get trying (the music that underscores "Deus Nova (Fabricatio)" is worth the listen -- but overall, POS have produced yet another excellent, excellently executed, work.

Released in North America by InsideOut Music America (IOMACD 2094)


Tracklisting:
Animae Partus / Deus Nova / Imago / Pluvius Aestivus / Lilium Cruentus / Nauticus / Dea Pecuniae / Vocari Dei / Diffidentia / Nihil Morari / Latertius Valette / Omni / Iter Impius / Matius/Nauticus II / Animae Partus II

Musicians:
Daniel Gildenlöw - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Frederik Hermannson - grand piano, harpsichord
Johan Langell - drums, percussion, vocals
Kristoffer Gildenlöw - acoustic basses, cello
Johan Hallgren - guitar, vocals

Discography:
Entropia (1998)
One Hour By The Concrete Lake (1999)
The Perfect Element (2000)
Remedy Lane (2002)
12:5 (2004)
Be (2004)
The Orchestration Of Eternity - Be (original stage production)
Scarsick (2007)
Linoleum (EP) (2009)
Ending Themes (On The Two Deaths Of Pain Of Salvation) (2009)
Road Salt One (2010)
Road Salt Two (2011)
Falling Home (2014)
The Passing Light Of Day (2016)

Be - Live DVD (DVD) (2005)
Ending Themes (On The Two Deaths Of Pain Of Salvation) (DVD) (2009)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin SE

Added: October 24th 2004
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.painofsalvation.com
Hits: 3080
Language: english

  

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