PANTHER

Iconic prog metal innovators Pain of Salvation released their eighth studio album 'Panther' in August of 2020 through Inside Out Music, and this new recording serves as a successor to their absolutely brilliant 2017 offering 'In the Passing Light of Day'. The band presents a collection of nine new songs spanning across some fifty minutes of playtime, giving the world of heavy music a real breath of fresh air in the face of their ever so innovatively daring experiments - the peculiar approach to songwriting, the memorable choruses, the thoughtful lyrics, and the sonic richness of each album. There is, however, something that sets this record apart from the rest of the band's catalogue. It has to be its exquisitely personal and sincere nature, almost like a sheltering place for all the wayward sons out there, a very realistic reflection on the current condition of the human spirit.

'Panther' is just as dark as it is heavy, engaging and reflective, while demanding the listener's full attention for all the subtle shifts and playful bits, as is the case with most releases by this excellent Swedish band. The album kicks off with the powerhouse 'Accelerator', a memorable piece full of angst with some tremendous technical playing, while the following track 'Unfuture' is a grim number with a somewhat urban aesthetic, generally unfamiliar for PoS. 'Restless Boy,' on the other hand, stands an exquisite piece of a carefully crafted studio track, with all of its manic sounds and electronic dispositions. The band's more "progressive" leanings are on full display on 'Keen to a Fault,' through the denser nature of the song and the quirkier playing, and while the rest of the album does lose some steam along the way, there are still several surprisingly pleasant moments that preserve the general intensity of the album.

In a word, 'Panther' is a strong addition to the Pain of Salvation catalogue, an emotive yet darker mixture of innovative prog metal with art rock and some alternative aesthetics, all aspects that define in one way or another the musical identity of one of metal's most important and boundary-crossing acts.