SCARSICK

I'm giving this album two stars and it's lucky to get that. I believe Pain Of Salvation to be an incredibly talented band, but find this to be their weakest offering to date. I think "TRoTZ" summed it up well by saying that the compositions seem to be mostly built around a heavy riff or pop theme. Because of this, the album is somewhat stale and gets old quite quickly. It to me, is definitely their least progressive record. I almost get the feeling that they got half-way thru writing this album and then got bored and wanted to finish it up as quickly as possible, just to get it over with. In comparison to such earlier works, such as The Perfect Element Pt. 1, Remedy Lane, and BE...this album definitely pales in comparison. Many seem to prefer this to BE, but I thought BE was a great work of art. Scarsick simply does not have the "majestic" quality that is found on BE.

Now, don't get me wrong...Scarsick is listenable. I just wouldn't consider it to be a PoS epic by any means. Standout tracks for me are "Spitfall", "Cribcaged", "Kingdom of Loss", and "Idiocracy". Many complained (as they have in the past) about the rapping that is found on Scarsick. It doesn't really bother me so much, although I prefer him to sing more than rap. I thought Daniel did a great job with "Spitfall". The lyrics to that song are so true in so many ways. But, I though most of the lyrics to be dull and uninspired on this album compared to past PoS albums. Besides the writing of this album, I also found the guitar tones to be the worst of any PoS record. What can I say, ...there are many things that just don't sit well with me while listening to Scarsick. In reference to the writing being 'half-assed', take "Enter Rain" for instance. Another song on Scarsick that to me had tremendous potential for being an excellent song, but fell very short in the end. This to me is most apparent in the chorus of the song. Like they wrote some great verses and then just drew a blank on the chorus. Very anti-climatic in my opinion. All in all, I find Scarsick to be a huge PoS disappointment. I really thought this album would be totally slaughtered by fans of PoS. Surprisingly, I seem to have underestimated how many fan-boys they seem to have. Anyhow, I know epic albums when I hear them...such as the PoS albums I mentioned earlier. This is the first time PoS has ever disappointed me. Hopefully, they will rebound from this and do better next time.