Pain of Salvation is finally back with a new album, and this review is rather late. Scarsick has turned out to be the eagerly awaited "The Perfect Element - Part II", a continuation of their brilliant album from 2000. After giving it a few months to sink in it is with decidedly mixed feelings I am writing this review. Whereas a new
Pain of Salvation album usually is a journey of discovery into a fascinating musical universe this new effort feels much more forced than usual and less interesting. Compared to earlier albums I found my joy of exploration seriously injured by the album's general attitude. That was especially true for the first many listens. At one point around the 20'th listen the album finally started opening up and evolved into a momentarily shining but ultimately very flawed release.
Lyrically Scarsick is quite a mouthful. The lyrics are best seen in the context of the broken souls the story revolves around, but too often they feel as a venting opportunity for the band. Anger and frustration are the reigning emotions and society in general is the scapegoat. The title track takes a swipe at anti terror laws that have come to effect and questions the loss of individual rights in return for percieved safety.
Spitfall comments on glorified artists with tongue-in-cheek humor.
Cribcaged continues this and ends with the effective conclusion:
The only cribs that we should care for
Are the ones that we are here for
The ones belonging to our children
That do what we do
Scar from our wounds
From here on the punches come hard and fast. Everything from materialism to organised religion to whole countries get hit on the head. The provoking lyrics are generalizing and filled with a towering ideology of knowing best. The lyrics are way more direct than usual and they often end up feeling too forced, even coming off as arrogant and infuriating at times. It's not so much what the lyrics say, it's the way it is said. I feel tempted to stoop to the same level and quote Kelly Osbourne here, but I won't. Other times the lyrics hit the mark. In the end I find the society critical lyrics unconvincing and thus they fail on an inspiration level.
Ok, back to the music.
Pain of Salvation is one band where the term progressive is a perfect fit. Every album has evolved and been different from the one before. You never quite know what to expect. Scarsick takes this approach to extremes. The album is superbly varied, filled with wild experiments and odd musical endeavors. Some of these work terrifically, but more often they do not. One thing that shines through in the music, and my main problem with the album, is the need to repeat passages and riffs over and over. This trend is true for almost every song. It is as if some inspiration is severely lacking.
From Daniel's rapping in
Spitfall to the asinine spoken parts of
Kingdom of Loss, the album has a lot of moments that make me go "Yo! no this doesn't work".
The title track and
Spitfall open the album in a cold, aggressive way and the first song that moved me me was
Cribcaged. A certain melancholy is captured perfectly by the gentle melodies.
America is super catchy and aggravating, both in equal amounts.
Disco queen is just about the worst song the band has ever done. It is a major turn off. The inane chorus has never gotten under my skin.
The album makes a slight change halfway through with not as many experiments clobbering up the latter part of the album.
Besides the aforementioned spoken parts which almost ruin the song,
Kingdom of Loss has a wonderful chorus line that works extremely well.
Mrs. Modern Mary never develops into anything else than a bore. The recurring riff and melody fails to make an impression.
Idiocracy has a strong riff and a dark atmosphere going for it, but in the end it falls short because of a lack of variation.
Flame to the moth is a potentially great song but the "extreme" vocals don't work.
Enter Rain goes on and on for far too long without justifying it and ends the album on a bleh note.
Scarsick is really a mood album. There are times that I can't stand it and other times when I absolutely love parts of it. I know I have focused mainly on the negative aspects of the album in this review. Often I notice details in the music that grab my attention and suddenly that addictive PoS atmosphere lures me in. The following day however, like The Emperor's new clothes, I just don't see it.
Comparing with other recent Progressive Metal releases I find the new albums by Neal Morse,
Threshold and
Redemption far more interesting and rewarding than this. Scarsick is above average album but compared to other
Pain of Salvation releases it is a grave disappointment, especially in the light of this being a continuation to The Perfect Element. If you want to discover
Pain of Salvation, do yourself a favor and get one of their first four albums before moving on to this one. You will need that preparation.
Written by
Steen Thursday, April 26, 2007
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