Artist : Pain Of Salvation

Album : PANTHER

Release Date : 28-08-2020

Added : 14-10-2020






After the very good ’In The Passing Light Of Day’, the Swedes of ‘Pain of Salvation’ are back with a new album 'PANTHER'. Continuing to offer us an original and always innovative progressive metal (the kind of music that is appreciated in three stages : 1st stage, blah I do not stick to everything, 2nd stage, finally it's much better than I thought and 3rd step, great I add it to my ideal collection !!), 'PANTHER' is no exception to the rule and takes us on a musical journey, certainly complex but so extraordinary that you will certainly need, if you are a fan of a progressive outside the beaten track, some time to appreciate it to its proper extent. And as usual, this new baby is a concept album with an exciting subject that deals with the notion of "normality" in our current world, all of which is necessarily arbitrary according to the rules that we define.

'ACCELERATOR' welcomes us with modern electronic sounds that mingle with a jerky rhythm and electric instruments with a feeling of intense force with much calmer breaks, hallmark of the compositions of 'Daniel Gildenlöw', then , 'UNFUTURE', a slow and rather dark title, turns towards an atmosphere of doom, but in no way repetitive because several parts follow one another with these remarkable rupture of intensities. Follows the short 'RESTLESS BOY' marrying modern sounds with an almost religious organ background make it one of the most innovative tracks of the album with a frantic final made of blasts with these few snatches of Daniel which brings down all this violence in three seconds, then, 'WAIT', very well placed at the end of the first part, allows a more classic break with soothing melodic lines, while keeping more contemporary parts past the first 4 minutes with sounds reminiscent of a barrel organ. With 'KEEN TO A FAULT', the first half of the track develops a feeling of contained tension that only asks to implode and which is materialized in the second part by frenzied passages, then, without transition, the short instrumental 'FUR' instantly gets rid of us of this accumulated rage thanks to the acoustic sounds of the guitar to re-embark for 'PANTHER' which is undoubtedly the title that merges the most different genres and eras and which always has this virtuosity to divinely juggle between tensions and relaxations. And what about "SPECIES" with its hypnotic first part to the sound of the sitar mixing East and West which becomes more and more oppressive to be unleashed in the second part, one of the highlights of this album. And it is with the 13 minutes of the last title 'ICON' that we have the most contrasted title and we are undoubtedly at the paroxysm of a progressive made of a patchwork of different tones at the antipodes of each other, like this 'Floydian' guitar solo alongside dissonant sounds of industrial metal : confusing but absolutely brilliant after several plays !!

In summary, no need to draw you a picture, the Swedes of 'Pain of Salvation' are releasing another extraordinary album which will certainly mark the 2020 year in progressive music and the title 'PANTHER' takes on its full dimension here, because, like any wild animal that takes time to be tamed, each composition does not unfold instantly and is revealed little by little as you listen to it...

Line Up / Musicians

Daniel Gildenlöw (Vocal, Guitar), Daniel Karlsson (Keybords), Gustaf Hielm (Bass), Johan Hallgren (Guitar), Léo Margarit (Drums)