SCARSICK

I'll be honest, I was disappointed in this album. I have always loved Pain of Salvation for the simple fact that they are not afraid to try new things. I guess on this album, they weren't afraid to try mediocrity. Thats all this album is. I would even go so far as to say this is less than mediocre. PoS has always been invovative, intellegent and creative. Everything on this album has been done before. Here is what I would rate each song:

Scarsick - This song has it's moments. But I just felt their was to much rapping. It was a bit overkill. Daniels rapping never bothered me to much, sometimes I felt he did a good job and did it tastfully (He surely did it better than James LaBrie on ToT hehe). But anyways, thats not the real problem I have with this song. It's just a straight 4/4 time with really heavy guitar riffs and there isn't that much variety with the guitar riffs. All in all, it's not really a bad song, just not a great song. I'd give it a 5/10.

Spitfall - More rapping! Again, I don't really mind it. I actually have a problem with the chorus vocal melody. The one that starts "Theres nothing like a broken childhood..." This vocal melody just rubs me the wrong way. The guitar riff in the verse really bothers me too. Again this song suffers from what scarsick suffered from, lack of diversity in song structer. The riffs just feel like a bunch of riffs. It just feels like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, some dynamics here, verse, ect... it's predictable and pain of salvation isn't supposed to be predictable. All in all, this is not a terrible song, just not a great one 5/10.

Cribcage - This song is just silly. It's a song that points out something we have known since people were famous and that is that famous and rich people are douchebags. The anthematic melody just doesn't do it for me. The melody just feels like theres no effort. The lyrics are silly, the melody is terrible, and this song suffers from whta the first two sufffered from. Daneil is capable of more. 4/10

America - This song sucks. plain and simple. And I'm not saying this because I'm Ameican. I mean from a musical standpoint. This song blows. There is one riff that they play just a little bit that reminds of the PoS that I know and love. But the cheesy melodies kill the song along with the lame chord progression. It just sounds like they were trying to be a bit more mainstream and it just didn;t work out. 3/10

Disco Queen - Umm... wow... I don't know what to say here about this song. I'm left with more questions than answers. Like how did this song make it on the album? Seriously, what is this song doing here? It is completely out of place. The cheesy disco beat and melody, the dumb vocals. There is absolutly nothing to walk away with from this song that you can say "well, atleast that was ok." It just sounds like it's them screwing around. 1/10

Kingdom of Loss - Now here is were we get into the sound that pain of salvation is good at. However, even though this song sounds like the pain of salvation we love, it would be a mediocre PoS song. There are just 3 riffs that alternate back and forth for almost seven minutes. That aside, this song is a breath of fresh air after listening to the trainwreck/airplane crash/50 car pile up that is Disco Queen. A decent song I would have to say. 7/10

Mrs Modern Mother Mary - This song is not half bad either. Again, its more like the Pain of Salvation I came to love. However, the song writing isn't very great here. It is 4 minutes of just 2 different riffs going back and forth. The same damn thing, just different variations of it. But I would still listen to this song and it is still an ok listen. 7/10

Idiocracy - This song is ok also. It reminds me of O.S.I. a bit in its feel at some points. I don't mind this song to much and actually enjoy it. Nothing big to complain about it that I have not said already. 7/10

Flame to the Moth - This song is interesting. The screaming at some points remind me to much of hardcore sometimes. I can't get over that. I can't stand hardcore so this song pushes me to the edge of skipping it sometimes. But thats just my bias towards that genre of music. This song is still miles ahead of the first five songs though. 7/10

Enter Rain - This song is ten minutes but far from an epic. Its an ok song, there just isn't anything that jumps out at me to make me love this song. It is just a mediocre way to end a mediocre album (and I'm being kind here). 7/10

All in all, I give this album a 53% (if we were in school here). Thats an F. The songs after disco queen were not that bad, but that can't make me forget the rubbish they made me listen to for the first half. I gave it two stars because I was sure as hell not going to give it three and call it "Good" as the rating system here indicates. So sorry Dan, I round down...

I really expected more out of this album. But every band has their bad moments. Hopefully the next release will be better than this. Just for the sake of the moral of their fan base. I really could have done well without hearing this album. Ohwell, maybe next time.