Pain Of Salvation
Remedy Lane

Hitting two consecutive strikes is not easy... often, there's one in the middle that fails! Yet the great Pain Of Salvation manage it perfectly and after the majestic "The Perfect Element Part. I" they come out with another album resulting from great artistic maturity and an excellent compositional vein. It’s the brilliant "Remedy Lane".

An album that presents itself as less dark and gloomy than the previous one and seems to offer a more melodic approach even in the harder moments, giving the album a truly classy touch. It's hard to choose whether to award the masterpiece palm to this album or the previous one, but in any case, those who love prog must NECESSARILY have this disc in their CD holder compartments.

Right from "Of Two Beginnings", a grand-style intro, we feel catapulted into a new dimension that doesn’t even seem ours: the keyboards welcome us with a warm and velvety sound, then giving space to Hallgren's powerful guitar. "Ending Theme" is a song with reflective tones but at the same time with a fairly strong sound that flows into a fine sung-spoken section. "Fandango" is probably one of the strangest songs ever produced by the group: Scratching and rusty guitars intertwine their arpeggios with elegant and delicate piano touches in a strange mix of alternative metal like System Of A Down, Latin sounds, and prog... truly strong. And this incredible crescendo finds its peak in "A Trace Of Blood", a track where strong guitar riffs are intelligently accompanied by fine keyboard backgrounds, giving the track a simultaneously angry and melancholic cut. And here comes track number 5, a delicate ballad, "This Heart Of Mine", capable of making all lovers' hearts race!

The second chapter opens with the excellent "Undertow", a very sensitive song with delicate guitar touches and piano notes in the first minutes, then flowing into a more angry part. "Rope Ends" is more immediate and direct with powerful guitars and a good keyboard accompaniment in the background; note the central instrumental part with a beautiful piano riff and a truly noteworthy guitar solo! But now the album slightly lowers in tone and offers the folk-oriented "Chain Sling" and the sweet instrumental "Dryad Of The Woods", well executed with acoustic guitar and keyboards. The last chapter opens with the splendid intro "Remedy Lane" with Fredrik Hermansson very inspired on keyboards thanks to excellent sound effects accompanied by percussion. "Waking Every God" offers here too delicate piano touches that alternate with delicate and dreamy verses to a stronger chorus that nonetheless maintains a melodic approach, sometimes providing heavier dips. After the other ballad "Second Love", also tear-jerking, we close with "Beyond The Pale", a track with strong tones where distorted guitars are supported by a truly well-suited keyboard background!

Do I need to add anything else? Do I have to? Yes or no? I’d say no, because why use too many words to describe this masterpiece? Masterpieces are listened to... not commented on!