Scarsick

Pain Of Salvation strive to amaze their fans again

Pain Of Salvation is not an ordinary band to review. The articles that describe their albums always take chances to be incomplete and one-sided. Daniel Gildenlow and company create a peculiar musical tissue of deep thoughts and soul and with all this going on they never stop developing. All the value and severe beauty of their music opens itself only with time. During 10 years of working in the field of progressive metal this Swedish band has made itself a name recognizable across the globe, earned a reputation of one of the most virtuoso metal bands and released seven albums of first class music each deserving a special article. The band achieved their higher raise of success with their conceptual album of 2004 Be dedicated to philosophic questions about nature of existence of God and humanity. The album received a lot of positive and rave responses and brought new crowds of fans to Pain Of Salvation. Now, after three long years, Pain Of Salvation release a new and probably their most diverse album Scarsick.

Scarsick brings completely different styles together

Scarsick represents an alloy of almost contradictory musical styles what to a certain extent doesn’t let to call this a purely metal record. It would be more correct to say that the album carries more experimental character. Unlike the earlier Pain Of Salvation’s works noted for a complex structure of songs and riffs Scarsick sounds more accessible, a level of complexity was reduced a bit but only to the level where a new listener wouldn’t get confused with it. For example the first track Scarsick is a composition of a verse/chorus type with a repeated main heavy riff and gloomy technocratic atmosphere. The song is having a characteristic for this album usage of different levels of musical tension. The band is constantly increasing it, driving the atmosphere of the songs close to a chaotic condition and then drops it into a heavy riff or a chorus, each time trying to find an unusual solution. Spitfall, along with a classic Pain Of Salvation spirit carries an imprint of the band’s experiments mostly due to a speedy and aggressive recitative. There are some absolutely unexpected pieces like Disco Queen for instance, which associates more with a cheerful pop song rather than with metal, but it doesn’t sound out of place, and perfectly fits the whole concept of the album. Daniel Gildenlow, the band’s leader and its driving force, has always strived to make grand and thought out canvases out of his albums, and Scarsick is no exception, the final 10 minute epic composition Enter Rain wraps up the album’s flow of musical revelations and gives finishing strokes to the entire image.

Scarsick represents one indivisible picture

A sounding of the album cannot be overemphasized. Each instrument and each sound contributes its share to create a gloomy, at times chaotic atmosphere. A modern level of sound recording allows the musicians to achieve almost anything they want, but still it is quite pleasant to hear a legacy of classic Swedish guitar sound of early 90’s, once so characteristic for metal bands from this northern land. However Pain Of Salvation have deviated from the boarders of metal stylistics so far that the always-predominant guitar sound became equal in general effect with the rest of instruments used here. Scarsick is definitely a new step of the band in yet unexplored musical vast. This is not metal in the common sense of this style and it’s not progressive as for instance fans of Dream Theatre may understand it. And though these genres comprise the very basis of Scarsick’s songs, they get their final design by means of tissue of different themes, melodies and moods thus representing a product of longstanding evolution of the band that works in one of the most complex musicale styles. Scarsick is akin James Joyce’s novel: it’s not so easy to understand but those who will reach the final chapter will find an overall picture made of separate sings-fragments, which may serve as a fuel to set your imagination afire.