THE PERFECT ELEMENT - PART 1

The best way I can describe Pain of Salvation is prog-metal with a nu-metal attitude. Some may like that, some may despise it. I kind of fell somewhere in between.

This album starts out with "Used", which, unfortunately, sounds like Korn trying to be Dream Theater. I'm dead serious. So, I despise that track.

But after Used, the album soon becomes much more proggy, using little to no more rap and more melodic song structures, eventually concluding to the final title track, which I was very, very impressed by, even if the lyrics seem a little uninspired.

Overall, I'd recommend this to System of a Down and nu-metal fans looking to try out prog. It's a pretty good gateway drug. I would NOT recommend this to anyone who doesn't like metal of any kind, especially those who dislike Limp Bizkit and Hed P.E.