Pain of Salvation
The Passing Light of Day

Swedish progressive heroes Pain of Salvation are back with a new album following in the footsteps of a reissue of their Magnum Opus Remedy Lane that was originally released in 2002 but reissued with a live version as added bonus last year. That was one of the real highlights of last year. So what about this year and this album? Well, the first thing I noticed is that it is a very long album with a playing time of over seventy minutes. That is certainly a long playing time for an album, progressive albums do tend to stand up better though and this one has received many positive reviews so it has to be good, right?

It is progressive metal, or rock; it starts out powerful and heavy in a long opening track. And with great production it is easy to see the appealing sides of this album. The vocals aren’t great though. And with the variation they have they also sometimes end up making the album feel somewhat fragmented. But the variation also helps making the playing time feel a little bit shorter than it is so I guess it is a bit of a double edge to that thing. I think the conclusion is that we have really good production here, but do we have a really good album?

I am not so sure, other reviewers say so but I am not sure. It starts all-powerful and well but that song ends up being at least four minutes too long. The third track Meaningless is really strong and conveys the emotion in a great way and when I hear that I am really impressed with what Pain of Salvation has to offer, but it is really only at that moment. I am not saying that the rest of the album is forgetful but it kind of is, as the other tracks don’t really do anything to grab my attention. And lets not forget the too long and too fragmented ending “epic” that I surely could do without.

Now you may think that I dislike this album, but I don’t. I think that it is a fairly good album, the tracks are generally good and the album is quite likeable and has a thought-worthy lyrical content even though the emotion of it don’t quite reflect in the music. And it is certainly a step forward compared with what they have done the last decade. Their fans will most likely find it appealing as it contains the elements music by Pain of Salvation usually contain and it is well made as usual making it a rather strong album. It is a strong album but I would not call it a masterpiece.

Recommended for fans of the band and you probably wouldn’t go wrong checking it out if you are a fan of progressive music as well, it is after all a very solid effort. Sure it is not spectacular but judging some reviews I have read chances are that your view might be different from mine so it is probably worth giving it a chance.

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