SCARSICK

Thank god I don't actually Listen to people's reviews before I listen to an Album. Rather, I tend to listen to an album extensively before reading reviews. I guess I'm just curious as to what people are saying about a particular piece. In the case of Pain of Salvation's "Scarsick", it was an interesting read to say the least.

I guess I really just don't understand. Maybe everyone with a 1-2 star rating didn't actually give the album more than 1 spin. So far I'm hearing things like "Hogwash" and "System-of-a-Down-like" I'm sorry but if this is like System of a Down, why aren't they here on Prog-archives innovating the prog scene? Well because this is nothing like System of a Down. This is an extremely progressive, innovative, creative, aggressive, dynamic, melodic, and powerful piece of 'political hogwash' of an album. Clearly I don't agree with much of their views on America in general. But I'm unswayed by it. Avoiding a song by song review, I'll just mention a couple of stand out tracks. Although not to say they aren't all outstanding tracks. The song on here that really stands out in innovation not just for the band, but for the whole progressive metal scene in general, "Spitfall". Frankly, I've never heard anything like it, and it kind of off put me initially. However, with repeated listen, and the studying of the lyrics and ideas, I had come to enjoy it as a somewhat humorous yet powerful mocking of the hip-hop/rap scene. Lyrics aside even, this song is musically spot on, sure it's not as complex and dynamic as most of PoS's works, but it's quite suitable for the theme. And it's just well written. Another honorable mention goes to Kingdom of Loss. Although I don't agree with them, the points that are made here on this track, are clever and to a more easily persuaded young 'liberal' mind would seem like reality, although there are some underlying truths. Musically it's one of the most bitterly sweet songs written by the band. At first the music seems very simply composed, but there is plenty of things that go unnoticed the first few listens. The methods that PoS use to texture their music has always had this effect on me since their debut.

If you think that your going to miss out on Daniel's sorrow filled vocals, think again. They are very much here. On the contrary, they are more frequent here, and seem more personally agonizing. This could be due to the very controversial nature of the lyrics. After listening to this album countless times since it's release. I would recommend it to any serious Pain of Salvation fan. Heck, any serious fan of Progressive Music in general. I only offer this small (but obvious) piece of advice; You MUST have an open mind.

5 Stars - a Progressive masterpiece of music.