ROAD SALT TWO

Quite an interesting release by Pain of Salvation. It really leaves you wondering where they are going to go with their next album. But for now we have this. It's metal, with a very strong tinge 70s hard rock. For the metalheads out there, perhaps you've heard of "Pantera" vocalist Phil Anselmo's other band, Down. This album appears to sound like them in places, especially on the track "Mortar Grind" (which may also be the strongest track on the album).

So really, going into this album we'd expect something different. Pain of Salvation has been changing their style a lot as of late. This may have come as a bit unexpected though. Did it pay off? I say it did. We have an element of Pain of Salvation we don't see much: great fun. Sure they've been fun a few times, sometimes in a negative way (Disco Queen), but this album is an all around fun listen. We have some catchy riffs (which you're going to need if you're going to take on some 70s hard rock influence), great vocals from Daniel Gildenlow as always, and a nice flow to it all too. Still, it avoids sounding like an attempt at being popular and still carries that signature Pain of Salvation sound.

I'm not all too satisfied with the lyrics, as I hadn't been with Road Salt One either. The lyrics don't seem as emotional and subtle as we'd often get from the band, which is unfortunate. Hopefully this will change soon in the future.

Before I obtained this album, I didn't have high hopes. I had a sinking feeling the whole 70s approach was going to just come off as pretentious and trying too hard, but I was gladly wrong. This album, despite this, gives me the great feeling I used to get from listening to Pain of Salvation before the previous two albums, Road Salt One and Scarsick. Those albums disappointed me, but this one shows the band still has it. Great album, 4.5 stars.