ENTROPIA

Entropia is the debut studio album from one of the leading progressive metal acts Pain of Salvation. Pain of Salvation are from Sweden which is clearly heard in their very melodic sound. I purchased Entropia as my first Pain of Salvation album and I remember that I was quite disappointed when I came home with my purchase. I had been listening to the CD in the store and found some truly beautiful moments but now it seemded too incoherent and badly flawed. I have learned to appreciate Entrpia more these days, but only after listening to some of the later albums from Pain of Salvation like Remedy Lane did I get my curiosity back and ended up listening to Entropia again.

The music is pretty eclectic ( not unlike a band like Faith No More which Pain of Salvation is undoubtedly influenced by) and covers a lot of genres and moods from Funky parts, melancholic subtle beautiful parts and progressive metal parts with both clean singing and occasional rough guy vocals ( that I can´t stand). The music is just as I remembered it a bit incoherent but my biggest problem has always been with Daniel Gildenglöw´s vocal approach. Way too pathetic and theatrical at times which is a shame as he has a very beautiful voice. I want to stress that this is only a problem occassionally. I generally enjoy the vocals from Daniel. The music is very melodic but it takes some time for the songs to become memorable IMO. Some songs do catch on from the get go though. Oblivion Ocean has for example always moved me even though Daniel´s voice makes me cringe a time or two in that song too. I have always disliked the funky parts so a song like People Passing By has always been a bit trying for me, but I´ve learned to appreciate it more with time.

The music is very dynamic and shifts between beautiful melancholic acoustic parts and progressive heavy metal parts. I always liked the melancholic parts the best and found the heavy parts way too generic. Pain of Salvation is actually best when they play progressive rock and leave the distorted guitar riffing to someone who knows how to play innovative and progressive things. There are a few guitar riffs I enjoy but basically they are way too simple and trivial.

The musicianship is excellent and even though I have complained about el Gildenglöw´s vocal approach earlier I have to praise him for being a very skilled singer. He actually masters many styles. Too bad I don´t like some of them, but I guess it´s an aquired taste.

The production is good but not as good as the ones on later albums.

Entropia is still a disappointment after all these years, but it´s compared to what Pain of Salvation and other top class progressive acts like Dream Theater and Fates Warning have done on other albums. If you look at Entropia isolated from other great albums in the genre it´s quite a good album and deserves 3 stars. It´s one of those albums where I can fully understand why others would give it more. Sometimes it just comes down to personal taste. Pain of Salvation should be considered one of the most distinct and influential bands in progressive metal though, I won´t dispute that.