Pain Of Salvation
One Hour By The Concrete Lake

A true milestone. Pain Of Salvation follows in the footsteps of the already grand debut "Entropia" with an album that further improves it in several aspects. Assembled around a (as usual) very intricate concept to discover which I refer you to read the lyrics, the 11 tracks flow smoothly in a whirlwind of emotions.
Let's talk about them: "Spirit Of The Land" is an instrumental intro that lets the listener anticipate the strong tension atmospheres encountered throughout the work, and that echoes the main theme of the last track. As soon as you hear the Raid tinkle, you'll be immersed in the magnificent "Inside," one of the masterpieces of the record, which with continuous changes of vocal and musical "mood" introduces the concept's story. Just enough time to catch your breath, and here comes "The Big Machine," a piece with calmer rhythms but very "theatrical," where Daniel Gildenlow's voice takes the lead, well rendering an atmosphere of post-war Russia.
"New Year's Eve" is, in my opinion, the masterpiece of the album, a continuous alternation of tranquil and more "intense" parts, with enormous emotional charge that steadily increases as time progresses and reaches its peak in the final minute. The following "Handful of Nothing" is a very "tight" song, with remarkable technical and stylistic solutions (such as the main riff that starts with ten notes and is repeated by removing one note at a time until it reaches just one, and then starts again from ten), making this piece very progressive, but in the way that only PoS knows how to render. "Water" is a piece with a very harrowing text about the water scarcity that the countries of the former USSR have suffered and continue to suffer. Vocally one of the most appreciated songs in Gildenlow's entire repertoire, garnished with solos of disarming power and beauty, in turn interrupted by a melodic and sweet chorus. Right on the word "of" in the phrase "I've always loved the sound of rain", the splendid "Home" arrives, dealing with the white man's aggression towards Native Americans. The atmosphere is immediately intense, with a bone-crushing riff well capturing the arrival of the white man and the consequent destruction of the lands, but then the verse unveils a gentle sweetness and gives a sense of great desolation and sadness, following the events. The song's play is the alternation of these two feelings, broken by an instrumental interval composed of guitar and keyboard solos far from virtuosity but with enormous and indisputable taste. The concluding riff benefits from the same technical solution used in "Handful of Nothing." "Black Hills" is a decidedly strange song: the feelings conveyed are of great anger and hatred, thanks to the excellent vocal performance of all the components (especially the secondary voices and choirs have a great impact here). I'll let you discover the song's ending because it is so brilliant that I can't find words to describe it.
Here is "Pilgrim," a slow acoustic enriched by majestic string interventions. A song perfectly inserted into a record that offers others decidedly of a different mold from this one. "Shore Serenity" is a track I like to define as "skittish," especially for the military atmosphere given by the choirs and drums. Risking repetition, once again, the main actress is the great vocal verve of the good Daniel. Finally, "Inside Out," a title that once made me wrinkle my nose a bit because it smelled to me of a "forced declaration of love" for the PoS's publishing house, but a phenomenal song, probably the hardest piece on the record, at least at times, because like all the others this song is very heterogeneous within it. As I write, I am immersed in the central part of the piece, which in one word can be defined as tear-jerking. But here, as usual, the atmosphere becomes increasingly solemn and culminates in a guitar solo that takes your breath away... and there we are again at the gut-wrenching riff. This is the true live motive of the record.

What can I say, if you love Progressive Metal you cannot fail to include this album among your favorites. If you don't love it, well... maybe it's time...

An absolute masterpiece.