REMEDY LANE

One of the most emotional album's ever created in music.

The album can bring one to tears if they listen to it during a really depressing point in their life, but I can't help but recommend it, because you will feel at peace in the end. Daniel Gildenlow did almost everything on this album as he wrote the entire concept and lyrics as well as writing all the music except the instrumental in 'Rope Ends' which Fredrik Hermansson gets credit on that. That is quite the feat for an artist to accomplish, especially for a work like this. This supplements my reason to why I consider Daniel Gildenlow to be my musical idol. 'Remedy Lane' and the previous work, 'The Perfect Element' have the same sound in a way compositional wise, just like how 'Entropia' and 'One Hour by the Concrete Lake' had a little bit of a similar compositional style before they moved on.

The line-up is still consistent from the 'One Hour.' period. Daniel Gildenlow (Guitars,Vocals), Fredrik Hermansson (Keyboards), Johan Langell (Drums, Vocals), Johan Hallgren (Guitar, Vocals) and Kristoffer Gildenlow (Bass, Vocals)

As I mentioned before with the compositional comparison to the previous effort, this album is again broken down into three chapters.

Remedy Lane - 'Of Two Beginnings' This is basically just an intro to an album and possibly the greatest intro one could ever hear, with some great lyrics like this 'Now in this hotel room I lie wondering who I am. Never quite as sure after a life of questioning'. Ahhhh the goodness.

Chapter 1 - 'Ending Theme', 'Fandango', 'A Trace of Blood', This Heart of Mine (I Pledge' 'Ending Theme' was an interesting piece because it was thrown into the beginning, not really in agreement with the title of the track; it serves a greater purpose though. 'Fandango' is also another strange one, this is some of the weirdest vocal work Daniel has done, Mike Patton was probably proud of this. 'A Trace of Blood' is a tearjerker of a track; it is one of the finest they have done with some rapid changes of mood and an exquisite chorus. 'This Heart of Mine' is another one of those tracks similar to the peaceful ballads of 'The Perfect Element', nothing short of amazing.

Chapter 2 - 'Undertow', 'Rope Ends', 'Chain Sling', 'Dryad of the Woods' 'Undertow' is one of the most well known Pain of Salvation tracks, and unlike 'Ashes', good reason. It is a lyrically and vocally driven piece, with the instruments only supplementing the background until the chorus. At the end of the track Daniel is nearly screaming out the lyrics to make it an extremely powerful track. 'Rope Ends' is a poetic track. There are dueling vocals in the chorus except the one in the background is simply read rather then sung. There a pretty nice polyrhythm going on throughout the entire track, it is pretty cool and easy to follow. This track actually helped my fully understand what a polrhythm was. 'Chain Sling' is a strange one, because of the way the verse and chorus is sung. Very hard to describe and I don't think I have the ability to. 'Dryad of the Woods' is one of my favorite instrumental tracks, entire peaceful and very upbeat. Acoustic guitar and grand piano are at the forefront the most; towards the end it is taken in a new direction but keeps the overall tone of the track the same.

Chapter 3 - 'Remedy Lane', 'Waking Every God', 'Second Love', 'Beyond The Pale' 'Remedy Lane' is exactly what one should think of. It sums up what the listener has heard so far, except it is all electronica and ambience, very fitting track if you listen to the album all the way through, like you should with any album anyway. 'Waking Every God' and 'Second Love' both are very slow and passionate tracks, they try to end the album but at the same time build up to one of the most powerful closing tracks ever created. 'Beyond the Pale' is a conclusive track that takes a look back on what was covered in the album and puts it into glorious end. The chorus is some of Daniels best work on the microphone, with a crescendo singing 'Someone still this hunger, always growing stronger' that just sounds so epic. Followed by just spoken lyrics, where Daniel is nearly crying saying 'this is not who I wanted to be, this is not what I wanted to see'. 'Beyond the Pale' is a masterpiece of progressive music.

Well I just reviewed my two favorite prog-metal albums and I feel quite satisfied. I would once again recommend this to anyone and as a first for anyone to wants to check this band out. The album seems to me, much more accessible and is the one that led my to really dig this band and buy into their discography, something few bands were album to do to me which include as of now and certainly not in the future, Yes, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Mastodon and Canvas Solaris (The bands need to have 3 albums or more). Anyway, this is the most depressing album I have ever heard and I hope my OPINION could be taken seriously. I have heard a couple thousand albums so please take my advice.pick this album up.

Even after claiming this to be my favorite prog-metal band.perhaps after 4 years of listening I still have no clear-cut choice as to which my favorite album is between this and 'The Perfect Element'. Depends on my mood I guess, which is why this band works wonders.

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