Pain Of Salvation
Scarsick

Three observations:

1) "Pain Of Salvation" indicates a complex group of artists. And I emphasize the word "complex."

2) Daniel Gildenlow is a truly angry man.

3) Whether you love or hate them (and many will hate them), you cannot ignore "Scarsick."

Now, I will explain:

First, the complexity: from the beginning of their career, the Pain Of Salvation has written music dense with deep meanings. This approach has become increasingly complex and convoluted over the years, and the band has gradually found ever new and different ways to convey these ideas to its audience. From "Entropia" (1998) and the excellent "One Hour By The Concrete Lake" (1999), through the exceptional "Remedy Lane" (2002), their sound has always enriched itself while remaining quite conventional… their performances have become increasingly incredible, and their progressive-metal enriched with influences from various niche musical genres has ensured them a "legion" of fans.

Then came "Be" (2004), a highly philosophical work that was a notable leap beyond the aforementioned conventions. A leap towards a variety of sounds so different from their "standard production"… that split the fans in two. On one side were those who praised the thematic and sonic complexity of Be, seeing it as the natural evolution of the band's sound and Gildenlow's compositional depth. On the other were the disillusioned fans who, despite finding some noteworthy elements in Be, noticed how the band was going against the grain on a one-lane road. Nevertheless, this new thematic complexity earned Pain Of Salvation a growth in their already large fan base. Well, Scarsick continues this trend. It’s not so different from Be as a work… yet it is remarkably different from what the band had produced in previous works. And while Pain Of Salvation is generally classified as a prog-metal band, Scarsick is less... "metallic" and, given its "diversity" and experimental content, is significantly "progressive."

Next, Daniel’s anger.
Music is nothing more than the expression of the most varied emotions the human soul can feel. Well, here Gildenlow expresses himself with unconventional power and emotion. There's an incredible abundance of bitter cynicism, and the sensation that these lyrics come from deep within him is evident. Some of the lyrics represent the dilemma between intelligent political opposition and the instrumentalization of which politics is nevertheless the bearer at the same time. Listen to the first song, the title track, with its rap-style vocals and semi-spoken prose marked by anger and captivating rhythms. Then read the lyrics of "Cribcaged," with the baby laughter in the intro and outro, the simple chord sequence, and the elegant guitar work and rhythm so sophisticatedly "catchy," bringing back memories of "Remedy Lane." While the song opens with a "shopping list" of people who hate Daniel, it then turns into a list of "fuck you"… and the first impression is that Daniel is "anti-everything." Nevertheless, the real interpretation seems to suggest that to protect that smiling baby, successful and so-called influential people need to understand that they, like "others," are just people. But this isn't clear from the start, doesn't jump immediately to the eye… and on first listens may appear as gratuitous anger and bitterness; almost as if today it's trendy to lash out against someone in your records.

Finally, whether you like this music or not… whether you share Daniel's extreme political stance or not, you will be captivated by "Scarsick." You will either love or hate it. You might agree with Daniel's social vision, or you might want to break the record in half when you hear the anti-anthem song "America" expressing Daniel's anger towards U.S. politics with words like "Sick Of America" and "You could have been good America / Could have been great, America"… This is undoubtedly the most controversial song on the entire record and has already "allowed" many to swear they would never buy a Pain Of Salvation record again. Here's a small marketing strategy advice: "If you want to sell your music to a certain audience, don't insult them!"

"Disco Queen" is probably the most bizarre song ever written by Pain Of Salvation. On the first listen, it sounds like a pure disco piece, probably a caricature of everything that was considered "monstrous" in disco music: just a song, nothing more. But listen to it again, and powerful reminiscences will pop into your ears… well, in this track, probably the most unexpected one, all the progressive-metal style of Pain Of Salvation emerges. The song is extremely engaging and captivating, a very ambitious idea and project of musical contamination… which I can personally say succeeded 100%. Truly incredible.

The second part of the album seems like a return to the original sound of the band’s early works. "Kingdom Of Loss" has always been the term the band preferred to use to describe themselves; for instance, their website used to display "Enter The Kingdom Of Loss" as a welcome message. Additionally, the song, thanks to its title, tricked many fans, who, reading the album's tracklist, started to believe that this "Scarsick" could be a "veiled" and hypothetical "The Perfect Element Pt. II" due to the presence in "The Perfect Element Pt. I" (2001) of the track "King Of Loss," very similar (in spelling) to "Kingdom Of Loss." However, the band never confirmed this hypothesis, and currently, this "idea" is dismissed. "Flame To The Moth" presents some of the hardest moments on the album, showcasing Daniel in the wake of the brilliant Mike Patton, attempting to mimic his powerful "Dillinger-esque" recent memory. The final track "Enter The Rain" is a complex 10-minute piece that adequately attempts to close this controversial album.

Kristoffer Gildenlow left the band before the recordings of Scarsick, and it seems he took something away from Pain Of Salvation. While Daniel, in any case, does an admirable job on bass… the popularity of his brother and his notable focus on increasingly complex melodic lines seem not to have been entirely replaced. Scarsick will undoubtedly "create" numerous new fans for the group, but it's also true that this album will cost numerous fans from the band's hardcore supporters, who had remained faithful followers of Gildenlow and company for many years.

Speaking of final judgments, I can only tell you how I'm "rating" this work. Well, I listened back to the two most relevant works for the purpose of grading Scarsick. I first listened to "One Hour By The Concrete Lake" because it’s my favorite Pain Of Salvation album, and then Be… as it was their latest album, and I needed it to understand the compositional differences. For me, Scarsick is worth 3 stars considering that, for instance, the comparison with One Hour sees the former collapsing dramatically… but since this album is not inferior to Be in terms of structural homogeneity, I cannot help but raise the final rating to 4 stars; it seems the most fair thing to do… considering that, in any case, music with such evident depth is not seen every day.

What a complex and immensely talented group of artists Pain Of Salvation is!!