BE

PAIN OF SALVATION's new album, "BE" is a really fascinating work of art. The music is fairly complicated and extremely well written, some of the most ingenious piece of music that the band has written in years. Daniel Gildenlow and co. has really outdone themselves this time around. It's definitely not recommended listening to this album without giving it your full concentration and attention, as the music and instrumentation are truly spellbinding and complex at every degree. Believe me, I have tried listening to this album while working and surely I did not get much out of it. After five spins I knew I had to really focus my attention if I wanted to enjoy the album and really appreciate the music. This is certainly not an album you would use as background music as you work or tend to other things. PAIN OF SALVATION has crafted another masterpiece of an album, binding an intricate story-line (another deep concept story of course) with musical ideas that are so cunning and thought-provoking...sometimes you begin to wonder...where do they come up with some of these stuff? On some tracks the band still utilize their Progressive Metal approach, while in this mode, bringing the heavy guitars and staccato riffing to the forefront. While on most of the other tracks they opt for a more diversified and less metal approach, these broad musical drifts and experimentation are really amazing and truly a pleasure to listen to. On some of the songs PAIN OF SALVATION have even gone completely left field; the Swedes inject a lot of flavor by blending so many diverse musical styles. There are heavy progressive sounds, symphonic movements, hard rock nuances, mellow acoustic pieces, folk music, rhythmic tribal pieces, and a lot more. It will take a lot of listening hours to digest all the material presented on this album, but once you have invested enough time with this disk, it will be time invested well. Although I must confess that I haven't spent enough time with this album myself. So I guess I should write another - more detailed - review in a few months time after I've given "BE" a lot more spin-time in my CD player. * DD - Paradigma Records/Star 105.5 FM (Surabaya, Indonesia) *