ROAD SALT TWO

3.5 stars - this is a good album. When Road Salt 1 came out, I did not enjoy the 70s sound turn that Pain of Salvation took. I thought that, after a bad album like Scarsick, they ran out of ideas, and the songs from that album still look not so great to me. So I approached this Road Salt 2 with not much hope, and I was very surprised.

The songs can be very emotional even if their sound changed so much from the beginning. This is 100% Pain of Salvation, with all the elements I like in them: great emotions, tragic feelings, touching lyrics, a disquieting atmosphear and a voice which can express all of this in a magistral way. I thought I had lost this band, but I was wrong: Pain of Salvation are all here!

Of course their style has changed, but this is not bad. The songs are generally very short, and the sound is very raw and dry. But it is well produced and it fits for the purposes and the feelings that the songs want to transmit. As long as Daniel can sing like this, every piece will fit. I also appreciate the polishing work they did: what I generally disliked most about PoS is their habit to overfill the songs with arrangements and talk. They perfectioned their style by scraping all away, and the result speaks for itself. Just compare Of Salt (from the limited edition) with its "twin song" from Road Salt 1, Of Dust. The last one is so much simpler, yet it can go so much deeper.

It may appear too simple or too raw, far from the eclectic prog metal of the beginnings (but who cares if it's not prog metal) but it is still able to convey deep emotions. It is far from the level of their masterpiece (The perfect element 1) but still a great album.