REMEDY LANE

Pain Of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal group founded in 1991. The lyrics show deep concerns told through elaborate concept albums and the music is just all over the place. In a five minutes song, it's quite common for Pain Of Salvation go to different tempos, time signatures and musical atmospheres, changing from powerful aggressive parts to sweet and gentle melodies.

'Remedy Lane' is their fourth studio album and was released in 2002. It was almost entirely written during a two month period, from August to September 2001 by Daniel Gildenlow, and was recorded in autumn 2001 and released in spring 2002. The album was produced and mastered by Daniel, Anders 'Theo' Theander and Pain Of Salvation, and the Graphic Art and Multimedia was made by Daniel and Entropia Productions.

The line up on the album is Daniel Gildenlow (lead vocals and guitar), Johan Hallgreen (backing vocals and guitar), Fredrik Hermansson (keyboards and synthesizers), Kristoffer Gildenlow (backing vocals, bass guitar and cello), and Johan Langell (backing vocals, drums and percussion).

'Remedy Lane' has thirteen tracks. The concept and the lyrics are all written by Daniel. All the music was also written by him, except 'Rope Ends' which was written by Daniel and Fredrik. The thirteen tracks are divided into an introduction and three chapters. The first track 'Of Two Beginnings' is the opening track and is a kind of an introduction to the album. The second track 'Ending Theme', the third track 'Fandango', the fourth track 'A Trace Of Blood' and the fifth track 'This Heart Of Mine (I Pledge)', makes part of Chapter 1. The sixth track 'Undertow', the seventh track 'Rope Ends', the eighth track 'Chain Sling' and the ninth track 'Dryad Of The Woods', makes part of Chapter 2. The tenth track 'Remedy Lane', the eleventh track 'Waking Every God', the twelfth track 'Second Love' and the thirteenth track 'Beyond The Pale', makes part of Chapter 3.

As Daniel explains, the meaning of the album title 'Remedy Lane', is about an English expression 'Take A Walk Down Memory Lane', which means, to visit your past or going to a nostalgic trip. For him, that is what happened with this concept album, which is the need to reconcile ourselves with the past, to find remedy for our personal crisis.

'Remedy Lane' is a concept album, focusing on the search of a man to discover himself. It's also about love, sex, a crisis in a relationship and the interactions with other people. The story of the concept takes place in Hungary, in different places, where the songs take us. This album is a part autobiographical and a part fictional of a period of Daniel's personal life, and as he said, it's his most Pain Of Salvation personal album.

'Remedy Lane' is a superiorly recorded and released album, what is usual with all Pain Of Salvation albums. It has an excellent conceptual cohesion, which brings originality and diversity to the metal progressive sub-genre and in my humble opinion it represents the band's finest musical creation, until now. Musically, this album really goes all over the place and lives up to its progressive reputation. The song structures are wild and complex in their dissonance and the instruments are performed with technical ease, and the vocals of the singer and guitarist Daniel Gildenlow range from passionate to absolutely insane. The songs themselves are also packed with a good deal of variety and range and portray the stories of the lyrics well and offer something for just about any kind of listener.

Just one more thing! I'll leave you with the Daniel's main reason to like or dislike of Pain Of Salvation, particularly of this album. And I'm going to cite him: 'If you are looking for a band that sounds just like your favourite band, just forget about us. If you are looking for a band that will make you forget about your favourite band, we are there, just walk down Remedy Lane and you will never be the same'.

Conclusion: I met Pain Of Salvation by Progarchives, and 'Remedy Lane' was my first encounter with their music. I read that the group had an excellent reputation, but the real truth is that I wasn't really prepared for listen something like this, an incredible and beautiful album. Although, being not a specialist on progressive metal, one of my favourite bands is Dream Theater, I oddly missed the Pain Of Salvation phenomenon until now and I do regret it, sincerely. As you can see, 'Remedy Lane' is a very special album for me, because is so unique, so pure and so authentic. So, for those who don't met yet Pain Of Salvation, and after reading the Daniel's citation and be still interested on the band, I suggest begin with this masterpiece, despite their live album '12:05', be certainly more accessible. Surely this is an album that appeals to fans of Dream Theater and Opeth, or to everyone with a taste for something new and different.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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