THE PERFECT ELEMENT - PART 1

It's hard to image a more essential example of smart metal music than this absolutely masterful release from Pain of Salvation. "Perfect Element" is a wonderfully varied, powerful, emotive, and dynamic journey through creative songwriting and memorable playing.

The melodies are flat-out amazing, and will stick with the listener for a long time, while the dark rhythmic textures are an undeniable delight for fans of the genre. The songs flow into each other nicely, and feature the band's signature dynamics better than ever before; additionally, the guitar solos are of strikingly higher quality than those in previous albums. Of course, it's impossible not to acknowledge the amazing Daniel Gildenlow's vocals, which will in all probably leave their mark on the listener. His voice has an almost incomparable range when compared to other popular singers in the genre, and makes the album for me (try not to scream along to "Reconciliation"!).

As essential a progressive-metal release as there can possibly be-don't miss it!

Songwriting: 5 Instrumental Performances: 5 Lyrics/Vocals: 5 Style/Emotion/Replay: 5