ONE HOUR BY THE CONCRETE LAKE

It's a bit funny with this album for my case. The cover is so familiar with me as I heard the band quite sometime ago around year 2000 when some friends of mine were engaged in local classic rock FM radio in my city. Many friends praised this album and tried to seduce me for having a spin or two. I denied it because most friends that promoted this album were coming from metal end of the prog genre which I was not particularly "in the mood" on it. One of the promoters was broadcaster member of a program called Metal Malem Malem (Metal for Night Time) dedicated for headbangers for that FM radio. It's a complete fallacy: seducing me with that kind of strategy. And you know what? By the that time I was in neo prog or symphonic kind of mood and did not favor metal. Time went by and as you know it I have written some reviews of the band's albums: Perfect Element, Remedy Lane, 12:5 and Be - that's enough to say that finally I could buy the music idea of Daniel Gildenlow and his friends. I just bought (last month) this CD for US$ 15 something from our local cd shop with very good prog rock collection: Aquarius Pondok Indah, Jakarta. I'm proud that we, Indonesian prog rockers, have this shop in our country as this shop is the most complete CD and DVD shop, not only in Indonesia but in the region. The range of collection is much much better than HMV, Gramophone, Borders, Towers in Singapore. Well, I'm not promoting the shop as I have no financial interest with them. But they helped me finding good prog albums like PoS, ACT, TFK, etc. Bravo Aquarius man! Who says there is no market for prog in Indonesia? (Btw, this shop even was rebuilt with better building and facilities after it was burn down during 1998 riot. Prog on! Prog life must go on! Yeah . Prog rulez!).

It was tough for me to digest this album despite the fact my familiarity with PoS music. I even consulted with my prog guru down here, Andy Julias, on how to position my ears, particularly my mind, enjoying this what should be a good album? BE, who some people claimed as a very inaccessible album, could go straight into my mind only at second spin and it immediately bought my heart and my mind - blew me away and it still having fair amount of share at my CD player. The first reaction about this album was a kind like an unpredictable music in terms of melody and musical flow as the structure is not straight forward (therefore, it's prog, isn't it?). The other thing that bothered me was the production quality that sound bit rough to my ears - especially on drums and some guitar work. Was it mixing issue? I don't know. On vocal department, it sounded weird to my ears. But that were all the beginning. After the 7th spin (of entire album) I could finally get into the music.

The weird voice of Daniel Gildenlow in most of the songs had even made the music of PoS particular and unique. That's the first thing that made me feel great about this album. The second thing was the staccato style of some rhythm section performed in relatively fast speed followed with Daniel's shout "Yeah!". This has truly characterized the music of Pain of Salvation (PoS). The other things worthy to be mentioned is the composition: the music flows beautifully from one passage to another with a balance of smooth as well as abrupt transition. The music is strengthen with an excellent orchestra that helps the textural aspects of the music harmony. Last but not least is the musicianship. I have to (ouch .. sorry .. I should say "I choose .." as no one force me to say this ..) admit that PoS has talented musicians - all of them! You can sense it through the beauty of their work in all passages of music offered by this album. The other issue that I have, in addition to sound production quality, is the long silent space at track 11 before the voice of Gildenlow returns back. It's too damn long. Nevertheless, it's a recommended album. Keep on proggin' .!

Progressively yours,

GW - Review #321

"I'm awake! I see the mistakes I make. Hiding wounds won't ease the pain. Sleep won't make you whole again. Change the inside ." - "New Year's Eve" (Pain of Salvation). WOW! With this powerful lyrics combined with excellent music, how come you don't have this album in your collection? What thing inhibit you from owning a copy of it? JRENG!