PAIN OF SALVATION — Remedy Lane (review)

PAIN OF SALVATION — Remedy Lane album cover Album · 2002 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Negoba
I have tried very hard to like this album. I think TPE deserves its place at the top of Prog Metal lists, and Remedy Lane often is rated on an equal footing. (Across different sites and boards, this is variable) I obtained both albums at the same time, after having Entropia for several years. At first I thought that maybe my Pain of Salvation circuits had just been overloaded, so I've given it a couple months before trying again. And my opinion has deepened a bit, but in the end my overall feel has not changed. I actually find some of this album unpleasant to listen to. The clean guitar tones on this album are tinny and grating, but moreover, many of the ideas Gildenlow uses on this album just don't work. PoS pushes harder on this album than TPE, and there are indeed some great moments, (Fandango is my favorite). But the vocal delivery is much like a stage show (not that that's unique to this album) and too often melody gets lost in the place of overlong dramatics. Like a classical piece, there are again thematic melodic elements (unimaginatively named Ending Theme here, though I'm sure the authors found that ironic or clever). There are lots of highs and lows, heavy and soft, time changes, but much of it seems too intentional and doesn't flow. I really never get lost in the music itself.

The album begins with a section that feels like the start of act two rather than the start of act one, though the song itself (Of Two Beginnings) is strong enough once it gets going. In fact, the whole beginning I would rate as simply good with rough patches but the album heads south midway. Tracks 9-12 are extremely forgetable, most of all the cigarette lighter ballad Second Love. Luckily, the album ends on a high note (Beyond the Pale) where the clucky plucked clean guitars actually make musical sense for the first time, though they still are pretty grating to my ear.

Before submitting a review this harsh, I went back one last time and scanned through the tracks, and thought to myself that there really is a lot of good material here. Perhaps it's just an early draft that needed more fine tuning. But in the end, where The Perfect Element continues to pull me in, impress me, and pique my musician's sense, Remedy Lane makes me search for interest, instantly brings out my inner critic, and simply doesn't succeed for me.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed