Pain of Salvation – Scarsick

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InsideOut Music
Produced by Daniel Gildenlöw

Pain of Salvation’s last album, Be, was a complex affair that lead to them being considered amongst the best exponents of progressive metal at the time. Three years on and Scarsick sees them return to a more straight forward sound which, according to vocalist/bassist Daniel Gildenlöw, is a direct response to the socio-critical topics of previous records.

Expansive opener Scarsick, the title track, obviously, is the kind of opener that fills you with hope about an album. It’s killer riffs, aggressive vocals and driving rhythms make it a classic progressive metal track that fans of Dream Theater and similar will love. Then things all change with Spitfall, which is no less heavy or aggressive, but sounds like a progressive Limp Bizkit. I kid you not, there’s white-boy rapping un abundance. Shocking, but not bad, with some great structuring and guitar work. Honestly, if Limp Bizkit themselves ever sounded like this everyone would love them.

The comparatively delicate, but no less powerful or angry Cribcaged is, simply, amazing. The venomous attack on shallow, famous people is a veritable tour de force of superb vocals and strong melodies. The album’s key highlight by some way. Then, with the next two tracks, things start to lose their way. They’re obviously trying to make a point in both cases. What it is I couldn’t tell you. Perhaps with America they’re trying to demonstrate the overriding weakness in popular American music through its sickly pop-rock melody and bouncing vocals. And maybe with Disco Queen they’re trying to show their ability to play different styles, or show how simple it really is to be Depeche Mode and more recently Scissor Sisters (there are elements of both in here). Shocking. And not in the good way of Spitfall.

Thankfully the TV-critical Kingdom of Loss gets things back on track, pointing out the human penchant for buying into whatever it put in front of us. For example, how we all pay to have lifts (that’s elevators to the Americans) so we don’t have to walk up stairs too often, then all buy Stair-master type exercise machines. Lyrically it’s a work of poetic genius, with Latin-influenced classical guitars, keyboard and other such changes of style synonymous with progressive music. Mrs Modern Mother Mary is the weird track of the album. All prog albums have one, where the guitars and keyboards are made to make strange noises and effects are applied to the vocals. It’s not a bad track, but compared to the brilliance of the opening three and Kingdom of Loss, it pales.

Idiocracy starts like a Tribe-era Queensryche track, with the tribal drums and muted, dirty guitars. The tribal drums remain but the rest of the song harks back to Kingdom of Loss, with the classical guitar backings. It’s another typically progressive track, with too many changes to note. Another reasonably strong track, but still not up to the lofty heights of the best ones. Flame To The Moth takes things to another place, with throaty screams in the pre-chorus and Dream Theater style heavier sections surrounding ambient verses. Closer Enter Rain is another ambient piece with echoing effects applied to the drums, murky keyboards, acoustic guitars and ominous vocals. A strong finish, for sure.

Scarsick is a very good album, and many of the songs will translate to the live environment on their forthcoming tour very well. American and Disco Queen let it down badly, though.

“ typically progressive ”

Tracklist: Scarsick / Spitfall / Cribcaged / America / Disco Queen / Kingdom of Loss / Mrs Modern Mother Mary / Idiocracy / Flame To The Moth / Enter Rain

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Progressive, Pain of Salvation