See, this is where I disagree about the personal involvement. What I like about Gildenlow's lyrics is that even with quite remote, cmoplex concepts, he tries to tie it in to the emotions of people in the story, whether he is that person or not. He always includes these characters, to bring it to that personal and emotional level. I agree that perhaps there is less emotional involvement with their other albums, but overall, I think that's what sets PoS apart from a lot of other bands who try to tackle complex issues - the ability to do that with genuine feeling

the funny thing is: i always hated pain of salvation. Be got me into them

The prog-rock/metal style has never been an easy one to swallow for some people and the reason is all of the over-pretentious, self-indulgent, and overtly demanding yet non-rewarding music within the genre, and unfortunately Pain Of Salvation's latest falls into this category. I wanted to like this CD so bad—and I listened to this album at least 5 times to make it happen—but Daniel Gildenlöw's 9-years-in-the-making project is just too weak to conquer its ultimate goal of connecting the listener to theories on creation, whether it be the human race or the universe itself. This CD is packed full of vocals, but most of them are spoken word vocals instead of singing, which makes it extremely difficult to get into because there is virtually no hook, nothing that sucks you into the song. And, sadly, with the spoken words you forget about the music, it becomes background music and totally inconsequential. Of course, without following along with the CD booklet you're completely lost as to what the spoken bits are supposed to convey, and that's only if you can get past all the ridiculous Latin—which 99% of us will not understand—and contrived "lyrics." The song "Vocari Dei" features real messages to "God" left by fans on the band's own answering machine, this is interesting the first time you hear it, but gets annoying by the second spin because it's not involving you, the listener, it's just a bunch of people from around the world speaking to someone else.

As for the music, well it's not so much heavy and progressive as it is slow, meandering and unmemorable. It just sort of slowly plods on with the occasional bright spot grabbing your attention only to be replaced too soon with more nonsensical spoken rambling. The musicianship, vocals, and CD packaging are excellent, as you'd expect from this band, but it's hard to believe that anyone but the most patient and loyally blind Pain Of Salvation fans—and Daniel Gildenlöw himself—could enjoy this CD. Maybe I just don't get it, but this CD bored me senseless.

GOOD POST

BE is and overrated piece of shit! I fucking hate that album!

BAD POST

I may not agree with your opinion on BE, but I think your latest post/review on it was much more constructive than the orginal.

the funny thing is: i always hated pain of salvation. Be got me into them

Haha, that's brilliant. In many ways, it could be viewed as quite accessible, guess it all depends what you're looking for

the funny thing is: i always hated pain of salvation. Be got me into them

Haha, that's brilliant. In many ways, it could be viewed as quite accessible, guess it all depends what you're looking for

actually i think it's the other way around, i considered all the POS stuff my friend showed me before Be too pop to be prog
then they made Be, and i got used to their sound "backwards"

The Be DVD is still the most phenominal live performance I've seen yet. I actually prefer the live CD/soundtrack to the studio version. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I find Gildenlow easy on the eyes.






Ok, maybe a tiny bit.

Typical how the poll is going. The Perfect Element & Remedy Lane are usually peoples' favorites.

The Be DVD is awesome! Though it does kind of highlight how pretentious it is, but then thats alwso what makes it so good...and it needed some more close ups of the instruments!

I don't find Be to be pretentious, although I can see how one could, but rather something totally different from the rest of their catalog...something dramatic and over-the-top. Er...maybe that means pretentious, hehe.

Of course, listening to Daniel and Fredrik's commentaries help a bit. I thought they were pretty funny, especially the eating chips bit while Fredrik is supposed to be describing the dream he had.

i didn't see the DVD, just a rip at a friends house, so i don't know the comments =/

but the ONE thing that was TERRIBLE on that DVD were the damn videos
that's like DT's LSFNY, but worse

Of course, listening to Daniel and Fredrik's commentaries help a bit. I thought they were pretty funny, especially the eating chips bit while Fredrik is supposed to be describing the dream he had.

Yep, I was laughing so hard as I was watching it :p
Did you guys know that Fredrik is half Finnish? I'm so proud to Finnish because of that!
And to what you said about the poll, maybe I shouldn't have voted at all, 'cause I really love all the albums. Very very much!
That reminds me, that I should mail Daniel and ask if I could get his "waterwar"-essey somewhere...

OMFG, I'm almost constantly crying when listening to PoS nowadays. It's just so great, outstanding and beautiful music.. I really want to be PoS's warm-up-band some day! (Maybe i'll mail him about that too... Or maybe not )

Peace

i wrote this strings section for a song (cello+contrabass+violin) the other day and sampled it
when i sent it to my friend, he said "what's this, POS?"
that was the best compliment i ever got

i wrote this strings section for a song (cello+contrabass+violin) the other day and sampled it
when i sent it to my friend, he said "what's this, POS?"
that was the best compliment i ever got

Nice one!! One of the best compliments you could get!

not that i actually agree with him

but anyway, in case anyone is interested in taking a listen/commenting, this is the crop that i was talking about:

http://s65.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0SUM ... 6ACVAWNKXT

unfortunately, as it was the first time i wrote a contrabass line, i ended up writing notes outside the range
so you can hear some c-bass muting at the end

Where's the option for Don't like PoS?

Bah.

The only time I've been so moved by music that I actually started crying was while watching Phantom Of The Opera. I think I had tears during Music Of The Night. Usually I just get a good case of the goosebumps.

Maybe I was ill that day.