Pain of Salvation is a Swedish band. They have been around for a while now (their website claims since 1991, or even 1984 if you count Daniel Gildenlow’s first band), but quite frankly, they became well known in 2000 with The Perfect Element, the first part of a supposed trilogy on the delicate subject of childhood.
On morow.com prog radio, Daniel Gildenlow says, “Conceptually it is the follow-up to The Perfect Element.†However, the band is trying to hide this because they want people to buy Scarsick because it’s the best album out there, not because it is the second part of The Perfect Element.
I don’t understand this album as well as I can understand The Perfect Element. Hell! There is no story in this album, just a vague concept revolving around anger. In Scarsick everything is about anger, not just the anger of an abusive childhood, but anger at the entire world. This really is the concept of Scarsick, which, in theory, follows the life of the two main (angry!) characters right where we left them at the end of The Perfect Element.
Sonically speaking, the first part of Scarsick lacks ambience, following current prog/metal trends. When the first sounds of this album came out of the speakers, I thought there was a mistake, and I was listening to the new Dream Theater album. Seriously. I can almost hear Mike Portnoy talking to Daniel Gildenlow about how to make albums sound harsher. The first part of the CD is not as lush as previous works by this band. This is, I guess, supposed to help emphasize the anger. Then we find a musical oasis with “Disco Queenâ€, “Kingdom of Loss†and “Mrs. Modern Mother Maryâ€. And after this oasis, as it were, the album simply cannot be as harsh and wet anymore. It’s still very violent, but there is a subtle change in production style.
Scarsick is not a bad album. Not as impressive, ambitious, effective, or perfect–if you will–as The Perfect Element. It makes me wonder why there was a 7-year wait. It is still worth a listen.
Website: Pain of Salvation
