PAIN OF SALVATION: In The Passing Light Of Day (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

It all started with a mild infection. Then, within a few hours, the streptococci went wild, necrotizing the skin and gnawing at the flesh, just at the base of the back, just where the child's finger is pointing on the record cover. The diagnosis fell: necrotizing fasciitis due to flesh-eating bacteria. Emergency hospitalization, vital prognosis engaged, antibiotic resistance, surgical operations, disinfectant showers and then skin grafts. Daniel Gildenlöw entered the hospital at the beginning of January 2014 and was discharged at the end of spring of the same year. After almost dying and going through all the stages of pain, the leader of Pain Of Salvation had to relearn how to walk, how to climb stairs, how to stand on stage with his guitar. Then like any musician, he took advantage of this ordeal to nourish his art.

The Swedish band's tenth album, "In The Passing Light Of Day", retraces the first days of this misery. The contradictory feelings of a man nailed to his hospital bed and facing the idea of his own death ('On A Tuesday'), feeling abandoned by God ('Tongue Of God'), alternately trying to give up ('Angels Of Broken Things', The Taming Of A Beast'), revolt ('Reasons') and then accept the situation ('If This Is The End') by clinging to your loved one ('Silent Gold') and thinking that if he comes out of it, it will be a rebirth ('The Passing Light Of Day').

And it's a rebirth in every way. Pain Of Salvation is back. The man who gave birth to the masterpieces 'The Perfect Element', 'Remedy Lane' and 'Be' and who was one of the most interesting and inventive progressive metal bands of the 2000s gratifies us with a raw musical diamond that will be very difficult to surpass. From the risky blues rock experimentations of "Road Salt" only remain the rougher guitar sound than before and a less symphonic production. As for the rest, "In The Passing Light Of Day" revives all the ingredients that make up the so particular style of the Swedes, this inimitable way of conjugating surly riffs and bewitching melodies.

From the very first track 'On A Tuesday', the listener is caught up in a primary and stripped down riff played on an odd rhythm. Then Daniel Gildenlöw alternates between whispered verses and sung choruses to which Ragnar Zolberg's almost feminine childlike voice responds, announcing the sumptuous melodic final theme. This alternation of metal riffs and heart-rending melodies is the keystone that gives the album its cohesion and makes it so addictive, transcribing into music the narrator's emotions, from anger ('Tongue Of God') to resignation ('The Taming Of A Beast', 'Angels Of Broken Things' and his magnificent Filmourian solo). Likewise, the emotional power of many tracks is sublimated by the alchemy between Gildenlöw's warm and deep voice and Zolberg's high-pitched voice as on the sumptuous 'Meaningless' or the tortured 'Reasons'. The album is exceptionally rich, full of ideas and ends with two unstoppable progressive tracks: 'If This Is The End', with its clear guitar, metal breaks and beautiful accordion, and 'The Passing Light Of Day' in which Daniel Gildenlöw exposes his soul, singing an overwhelming melody with his broken voice.

Pain Of Salvation offers us a graceful, introspective and very personal album that touches the universal. "In The Passing Light Of Day" is the testimony of one man's creative genius, Daniel Gildenlöw, who came back from hell stronger than ever. A moving masterpiece from the first to the last note. Beautiful to cry. - Official website

PAIN OF SALVATION

IN THE PASSING LIGHT OF DAY

INSIDEOUT MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL