Album Review/Breakdown
I have discovered Pain Of Salvation very recently. The only album I had known from them was their magnum opus Remedy Lane. A masterpiece in lyrical and musical storytelling that I will surely write about eventually. When I decided to listen to their discography, I was sure no album would surpass it.
That was until I listened to this album. Like a hurricane, it came and completely destroyed any expectations I had for this band.
Somehow, through all my years of loving concept albums, loving this band's own praised material, this album had never entered my radar. Now that it has, too quickly it has become one of my favorite albums of all time.
This record is incredibly rich, from complex and simple musical ideas that come together beautifully with poetic and painful lyrics, pristine production and performances. There is a lot to break down here, so let's get started.
The songwriting here is simply immaculate. This album is incredible at combining super complex technical chops and very accessible and almost poppy elements.
Songs like Reasons and If This is the End are as heavy as metal can get, having some of the darkest and most angry moods I've ever heard.
But then you have songs like Silent Gold, which almost sounds like an R&B ballad you would hear Adele or John Legend sing. Meaningless with vocal arrangements that reminded me of early 2010's EDM. The Taming of a Beast with keyboards and a much more straight forward structure, as if the Foo Fighters and Linkin Park wrote a song together.
You might think the melding of all of these styles would be too much, resulting in a chaotic clash of sounds that don't fit together, but that could not be further from the truth.
The way they manage to melt every little unique element into their own sound is frankly unbelievable. Every song feels like it perfectly fits next to the others. The unique styles always subtle, complementing the main sound rather than becoming it.
But of course, with so much experimentation you might think there is no room for good old heavy metal. Sometimes albums like these can become too much, and leave no room for the soul of the genre to shine. This is not the case here.
There are moments in this album that completely blew my mind in the most primal of ways. The breakdown at the end of Full Throttle Tribe, the entire second half of If This is the End. The entirety of Reasons, which if I am being honest, sounds like it could have been written by Gojira.
Another understated aspect of this album in my opinion are the musical chops of the band. Drummer Léo Margarit is the highlight, his grooves are not only infectious, but he can completely destroy the drum set when he wants to.
Not to mention, the two vocal talents. Both Daniel and Ragnar Zolberg take vocals, and by god do they excel. Daniel is incredible at conveying the emotion of his lyrics, which perfectly contrasts with Ragnar's powerful high range. Meaningless is by far the best example of this, the two compliment each other perfectly. It saddens me that this is the only album Ragnar would be a part of.
Too often does Progressive Metal fall into an, ironically, very formulaic sound. Don't get me wrong, I adore the overly complex and technical 12 minute songs the genre has become known for as much as any prog fan, but this is just a breath of fresh air.
Even more than that, I believe this is the true sound of progressive music, a seamless melding of genres and ideas that sound all too familiar, but not at all at the same time.
The Concept
I must admit, I'm no lyricist, music has always been my focus. And let's be honest, most lyrics in metal and rock are not very good. But there are exceptions, and I think this band is a shining diamond amongst coals in the genre.
This album tells the story of frontman Daniel Gildenlöw's battle with a flesh eating disease. Though it does not form a full narrative, it is still very much a concept album.
It is a very dark concept, and it perfectly reflected in the music and lyrics, depicting Daniel's struggles while healing, reflecting and confronting his life as he suffers through recovery. The way he protrays his brush with death is so vivid, simple enough to be relatable, but detailed and personal enough to be meaningful.
Here is a fun story, the first couple of times I listened to this album, I had no Idea what it was about. I went on like this for a long time, in fact I grew to love this album during this period as well. Now? It impossible for me to think about this album without it's story taking place right before my eyes.
The Songs
The album starts off grand, almost epic. On A Tuesday is a very reflective song, I would almost call it philosophical. It speaks of how all humans deal with life-threatening situations. The music is low, threatening, yet frantic and explosive, almost desperate in the chorus to reflect "The things we humans say to survive."
It also introduces us to the titular concept of "the passing light of day". This concept to me means life itself. Just like the sun rises and sets, casts shadows in different angles depending on the time. Our life is a similar journey, sometimes dark, sometimes luminous, but always finite and feeling.
Tongue of God continues this introspective theme, but carries it with much more anger. The music is almost primal, percussion and rhythm taking precedent over melodies. It reflects the agonizing nature of healing from illness, encapsulated by the repeating lyric that almost sounds like a mantra: "I cry in the shower, I smile in the bed."
"Meaningless." takes us on a much more intimate journey. Originally written by Zolberg and adapted for this album. It describes an affair for which the guilt still eats at him. It really feels like a twisted love song, especially with how infections and melodic the chorus is. Ragnar's screams translating pure pain and guilt.
Yet to me the end is where the power of the song lies. As the opening motifs continue to play, we hear. "This guilt is a hole, but it's mine." We've heard him say multiple times how much he wanted something of his own, and it almost seems like he's pridefully basking in the one thing that can be his and his alone, his guilt.
Almost completely contrary to the previous song. Silent Gold is actually a beautiful love ballad, a moment of genuinely levity in such an oppressive environment. Perhaps it is recalling meeting his significant other, or maybe even a visit during his stay at the hospital.
Full Throttle Tribe is once again seeming more primal in music and lyrics, describing his loneliness and isolation, until meeting someone. This "someone" is never explained, but I think it logical to assume it is talking about his significant other. Once again it seems like some sort of twisted love song.
The song reaches it's desperate peak at the beginning of the last set of choruses. Where the lyric "Will you follow me" is replaced by "Now it's only me". The way Daniel sings it with seemingly genuine pain floors me every time.
The melding of the yearning lyrics with a chorus that is frankly too catchy it's unfair, mixed with threatening verses, and an incredible turnaround of the chorus at the end followed by a mind melting breakdown all comes together for my favorite song of the album. 10/10
The heaviness doesn't stop as we reach Reasons. The most insane song in this record. This is anger personified. I have not headbanged harder to a song in a very long time.
And what could bring about such anger? Why relationship problems of course. This song essentially depicts a fight between Daniel and his partner, the lowest point in any relationship, where everything seems pointless, where you feel you hate each other.
Angels of Broken Things. was my least favorite song for the longest time. But a recent listen-through of this record opened my eyes to how great it is.
First off, the concept of begging "fallen angels", which are essentially demons, to take you away. That you would rather be literally dragged through hell than spend another moment in the hospital bed is such a powerful concept, I cannot imagine what pain he must have been going through to wish that.
This is accented even more by the fact that the ONLY solo in this album takes place in this song, when Daniel feels the most alone. It's genuinely so well put together.
The Taming of a Beast brings us out of the darkness, to a more neutral and maybe even uplifting ground. This is another of my favorite songs here. It builds and builds tension during the verses, culminating in my favorite chorus of the album.
We return to the topic of primality, of anger. A beast figuratively wanting to break free from this bed, which has become it's cage. But by the end, it almost feels as though he's accepted the healing process. "Every Icarus has had his chance to turn"/ "Just stay safely on the ground".
If This is the End is by far the most emotional song here. The complete first half of it is quiet, mourning, it almost sounds like music you would hear at a western funeral. It gives the feeling that everything has ended, not just the sickness, nor his life, but the world itself.
Yet when the second half come around, it goes from mourning, to pure and unadulterated rage, agony. Heavy guitars come in as Daniel basically screams his frustrations.
The part that always gets me is when he says "I asked for something cutting to the bone." But then he laughs, as he realizes how twistedly funny it is, and says. "No, I asked for something cutting to MY bone". In several interviews, Daniel stated there was a hole in his back so deep you could see his spine.
It ends with him screaming, over and over again, until the song cuts out. It's a genuinely chilling moment, and it almost could have been the end of the album.
Yet we've one more song left. The longest, the biggest, and the most painful.
The Passing Light of Day is a very interesting song. When I first heard this album, I was expecting a grand progressive epic to end this album. And what I got seemed underwhelming. A slow, 15 minute ballad that focuses on emotion and intimacy.
Daniel stated in an interview that he was only afraid for his life for little time, yet if you judged it by this song, it almost seems like he is in his deathbed. The entire song is framed as a conversation with his partner, reminiscing on how they met, how they lived. And it is genuienly heartbreaking.
The lyrics sound so genuine, so personal. You FEEL like you are seeing these two people talk in front of you. By this point, he has accepted his situation, his pain or death, you can almost hear him smile as he sings some of these lines.
Everything converges to make this a proper album closer, the return of the metaphor only used at the beginning of the album, the passing light of day. And even a reprisal of a song from their masterpiece Remedy Lane. Faintly, you can heard the melody from Ending Theme.
I want to leave you with my personal experience with this song. I listened to this album with my partner, and she hated this song, never wishes to listen to it again. Because it was too good at conveying the pain and finality. She said she wasn't thinking of him at one point, she was thinking of me.
She singled out the line "I'm in too much pain to be afraid." A feeling so genuine and so primal it is terrifying. Feeling so much pain, be it physical or emotional, that you stop being afraid of death, that you would do genuinely anything for it to stop.
By the end, it truly does seem like for the sake of the story of the album, the main character dies. As he sings. "Although I wish that I could stay, it somehow strangely feels okay." And the music fades with trumpets holding a single note, as if to emulate a heart monitor flatlining.
In the end, I'm left devastated in the best of ways by this record, and thank God for Daniel recovering from this. Otherwise, this would be impossible to listen to.
Ranking
Full Throttle Tribe
Reasons
If This Is the End
The Taming of a Beast
Meaningless
Angels of Broken Things
On A Tuesday
Tongue Of God
The Passing Light Of Day
Silent Gold
Album Rating
10/10