BE

I've been a huge fan of the band for quite some time now, and whilst I admire them a lot, I was VERY disappointed with Be... I was expecting the album of my life, the best album ever done to man... and it just came as a good album, but there are few genious touches on it... and this makes it less special than the others, since no one would be able to create musics like the past 4 studio albums, but this one could easily be composed by any talented musician. This is more a musical album than a band album.

The performances are top-notch, as usual, even though Daniel Gildenlöw is "hiding" his skills on this one, on both guitar and vocals. I was hoping to get more vocal melodies and less "chord progression" instrumental... this one lacks riffing (the same amount as Entropia had it exceeded, which means A LOT). It does have a lot of feeling, specially Iter Impius and Vocari Dei...

Deception (-1)!

Well, the other taken star is cause I can't hear originality in this album as I hear in all of their other albums. When I hear VOcari Dei I can't stop thinking it's a Dryad Of The Woods ripoff. When I hear Imago I can't stop thinking it's a Chain Sling ripoff, but with less emotional impact, therefore, worse. Pluvius Aestivus is just the X-Files theme with an orchestra (hehe). Dea Pecuniae is just Pink Floyd, only a little gay. Nauticus is just Pilgrim sang with a very low voice (which didn't appeal to me at first, but ended up having an interesting effect).

But calm down, they have geniousity in here as well, as stated before ("but there are few genious touches on it..."). Deus Nova, Lilium Cruentus, Iter Impius, Nihil Morari and Martius/Nauticus II are absolutelly brilliant, masterpieces. These are the ones I hope they try to play live, even though it will miss some of the "classical" feel from the orchestra. (I'll never have the privilege of seeing them, cause I don't live in Europe nor USA nor Japan).

Lack of originality (-1)!

Well, the last taken point comes from the concept. It's just... silly! Any usual power metal or prog metal band could come up with something like it. I won't comment on lyrics, cause I haven't red them yet, but they sound repetitive (lots of "forests" and "oceans", as well as some other words...)... They missed the spot with this one. Their concepts have always been very intimate, while this one is the opposite way, it's just too broad! And I can't stop thinking on the Ayreon saga on this one, specially the Universal Migrator storyline... too similar? Hmm... I don't think that was a smart move, but either way, it was interesting, even though it took the third star out of it.

Broad and not so original concept (-1)!

Now... I must tell you that I REALLY like this album. Only it's the worst piece of music done by them so far... which means it still is far superior from most of the bands out there! But it also was the biggest let down for me, ever, on the musical scene, since they're one of my favorite bands ever (now one step down the ladder)...

That's it! A GREAT album, shadowed by their past releases, which are purely brilliant...

Oh, and before you guys come bashing me, I love all the influences (folk and stuff) brought up to this album, I just didn't like the way they were put. Now I just hope Daniel doesn't mess up with TPE2...

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to
• Report this review (#32657)
• Buy PAIN OF SALVATION music online with PA partners
• Show all PAIN OF SALVATION MP3/Stream
• Go to PAIN OF SALVATION page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Be page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PAIN OF SALVATION related discussions