ONE HOUR BY THE CONCRETE LAKE

I'm so glad finally have an experience listening to other Pain of Salvation album, One Hour by the Concrete Lake. And I'm looking forward to having another chance with their other records, even if it's so hard to find it in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

I love PoS merely due to few factors. First, the outstanding vocals delivery, not only the lead vocal by Daniel Gildenlow, but also the backing vocals by other PoS members. Second, the strong musicianship not in term individual solo show off but more in the way they play instrument so that the emotion and message in each song can be delivered effectively to the audiences. Third, the intelligent lyrics mainly written by mastermind Daniel Gildenlow, has depth meaning and with no deviation can express the message he wants to communicate. Fourth, the intellectual concepts deal with social, politics, humanity, nature, and other mature issues, which presented in very classy way. The logical consequence of concept album is the music arrangement of each song must have connection without being too similar between each song although as individual song it must have its own character. And it's a difficult task to do such thing but PoS are very capable of doing that. That's the fifth. Is there anything else I've not mentioned yet?

Now back to the album. I'm quite familiar with the song like Inside and Handful of Nothing because I've already listened to it far before I have the complete album. The keyboard works of Inside and Daniel's screaming in Handful of Nothing always stuck in my mind. And after I finally listened to all songs in this album as a whole, I am really impressed with the flowing of the music. Each track has its own identity for sure but all together builds a unified musical flow, so listen it from the beginning till the end and while doing it you must read the lyrics and feel the passion lives in you. My favorite track goes to Black Hills, it's dark and has a beautiful bass guitar in the instrumentals section, but the rests are very very good indeed. And my CD also contains the bonus track, the touching Beyond the Mirror, its lyrics and music written by Daniel when he was merely 17 years old!

Well, another excellent CD by Pain of Salvation will complete your progressive metal collection. Intelligent lyrics, outstanding vocals, passionate music and political senses concept create such a great CD. I can't wait to have another chance listening to other records by Pain of Salvation.