Pain of Salvation
| Pain of Salvation | |
|---|---|
 Pain of Salvation at Sweden Rock Festival, 2008 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive metal |
| founding | 1984 as Reality 1991 as Pain of Salvation |
| Website | painofsalvation.com |
| Founding members | |
| Daniel Gildenlöw | |
| Joakim Strandberg (until 1990) | |
| Mikael Petterson (until 1990) | |
guitar |
Daniel Magdic (until 1998) |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, guitar |
Daniel Gildenlöw |
guitar |
Johan Hallgren (1998–2011, since 2017) |
bass |
Gustaf Hielm (1990–1994, since 2013) |
Drums |
Léo Margarit (since 2007) |
| Daniel Karlsson (since 2011) | |
| former members | |
bass |
Magnus Johansson (1990) |
bass |
Kristoffer Gildenlöw (1994-2006) |
Drums |
Johan Langell (1990-2007) |
bass |
Simon Andersson (2007-2008) |
bass |
Per Schelander (2008-2010) |
guitar |
Ragnar Zolberg (2012-2017) |
Keyboard |
Fredrik Hermansson (1996-2011) |
Pain of Salvation is a progressive metal band from Eskilstuna , Sweden .
origin of the name
The name "Pain of Salvation", which means "pain of redemption" in German, comes from Daniel Gildenlöw, who wanted to represent a kind of balance of opposites in life: good and bad, light and darkness, pain and redemption:
“I wanted a name that meant something, a name that was more than a cool expression. For me, Pain of Salvation has the meaning of balance. Taking the good with the bad. It is also a good expression in everyday use, when something does not go the way you planned; "well, that's just the pain of salvation," to indicate that this is just a slight setback on an otherwise painless journey towards your goal. "
“I wanted a name that meant something, a name that was more than just a cool phrase. For me, “Pain of Salvation” means balance. Taking the good with the bad. It is also a good everyday expression, for example when something does not go as planned: "Oh, that's just the pain of salvation" to show that it is just a small setback on an otherwise unproblematic journey to your own destination. "
The band was called Reality until 1991 . Gildenlöw justifies the name change with his personal change of character:
“I formed my first band at eleven, I called it Reality. When I turned 15, I decided to change, because I did not do the same as in the age of 11. I tried to come up with a new band name. It was during a math lesson, I was writing band names. I wrote Pain of Salvation and it stuck. I showed it to my classmate, who later became a member of the band, he said too long, nobody would remember that! "
“I started my first band when I was eleven, I called it Reality. When I turned 15, I decided to change it because I wasn't the same as I was when I was 11. I tried to come up with a new band name. While writing band names in a math class, I wrote “Pain of Salvation” and it stuck. I showed it to a classmate who later became a member of the band, he said "too long, nobody could remember it!" "
Band history
The early days (1984–1986)
The band was founded in 1984 by the then eleven year old Daniel Gildenlöw under the name Reality . One of the first members was Daniel Magdic , who stayed in the band until the first album was recorded in 1997. In 1987 Reality qualified for participation in the annual Swedish band competition Rock-SM, through which Europe became known years before . They were the youngest participants in the history of the competition, and Daniel Gildenlöw won the award for the best singer.
The year 1990 was marked by various line-up changes when Gildenlöw and Magdic had difficulties musically implementing their ideas with the previous line-up. In particular, the then 14-year-old drummer Johan Langell and bassist Gustaf Hielm joined them. A year later the name was changed to "Pain of Salvation" . The next three years the band was able to record various successes in competitions in Sweden; some of the songs from that period are on the early albums.
Gustaf Hielm was replaced in 1994 by Daniel Gildenlöw's younger brother Kristoffer Gildenlöw ; this new line-up remained stable for years and soon led to the recording of the first serious demo "Hereafter", which contained both old and new material and was intended as an application to a record label. Since the keyboard was still missing for the recordings, the band started looking for a suitable keyboard player. Fredrik Hermansson , who heard the Hereafter recording through a fellow student, was invited to audition and in 1996 became the fifth member of the band.
The first album (1996-1997)
Two of the first addressees the demo was sent to were Marquee / Belle Antique (a Japanese label) and Roasting House (a recording studio in Malmö ). In 1997 the recordings for the first album "Entropia" took place in the roasting house studio. In Asia, the album was distributed by Marquees Avalon label from August and received positive media coverage. With the emergence of online music stores, Entropia spread internationally, which made Pain of Salvation more popular and brought in another record deal with the Romanian label SC Rocris Discs.
The album was only released in Europe in 1999 by InsideOut Music after the second album "One Hour by the Concrete Lake" sold successfully. In South America it was released that year, through Hellion Records.
The follow-up album and the record deal
Daniel Magdic left the band during the preparations for the second album, the reason being the constant differences of opinion with the other members regarding the increased time required due to success. After a short selection process, he was replaced by Johan Hallgren , who had previously played with Magdic in the band Crypt of Kerberos . Hallgren was immediately involved in the recording of the second album, although that meant an enormous study load for him in a short time. Since Daniel Gildenlöw was aware of the complexity of the guitar parts, he was already preparing to record the parts himself, but Hallgren surprised the band by learning all the pieces in just three weeks and thus being able to function as a full band member. As a result, he officially became Magdic's successor in April 1998.
The resulting album "One Hour by the Concrete Lake" was distributed in Asia by Avalon again from July 1998 and was even more successful than its predecessor. It was quickly dubbed a masterpiece and received great attention from fans and magazines around the world. It was described as heavier, darker and more mature than "Entropia" and achieved such a great response that the enthusiasm spilled over to Europe. This ultimately led to a record deal with the progressive-rock-oriented label InsideOut Music and later also to the US subsidiary InsideOut Music America . As before, Hellion introduced the album in South America, and it was released in May 1999.
Also in 1999, the band made a European tour, where they played as support act for other progressive metal bands such as Threshold (in Great Britain) or Eldritch (in Italy). The first appearance at the ProgPower Festival in the Netherlands also came about.
Appreciation by critics (2000–2003)
After a short break, Pain of Salvation began recording the third album The Perfect Element, Part I in July 2000. After it was released in October of the same year, it garnered enormous international acclaim. The band then toured again in Europe and could also be heard in the USA at ProgPower USA .
Just one year later, the recordings for the fourth album Remedy Lane took place, which was created by Daniel Gildenlöw in just two months. When it was released in January 2002, it received praise from the progressive metal community and was named the best work to date. During the tour that followed, Pain of Salvation was booked as a special guest opening act for Dream Theater .
Both albums were said to refresh the genre with originality and diversity after it was already felt by many to be stagnant:
“You can't help but get the impression of stagnation. As about the prog legend of the blissful 70s, today the shroud of unimaginability hangs over the prog metal genre. Where are the ideas, where the originality, where the fresh blood? Quo vadis? One could almost despair if there wasn't a light in the gray night in gloomy Sweden. Probably no prog metal band has been so heatedly discussed, damned and adored as Pain of Salvation, who in 2000 with The Perfect Element pt.I put their echoing "!" Behind the "We're still alive" of prog metal. "
They are often praised for the successful context of the concept. The Perfect Element, Part I looks at the events that shape a person on his way from youth to adulthood. The 2007 album “Scarsick” can be understood as The Perfect Element, Part II , despite the different name . Remedy Lane describes a partly autobiographical, partly fictional story from Daniel Gildenlöw's life, in which he deals with the topics of love, lust and the miracle of childbirth. Both albums were re-recorded in the roasting house studio.
On May 12, 2003, Pain of Salvation gave an acoustic concert in their hometown Eskilstuna in front of around 80 visitors, which was recorded and published in 2004 under the name "12: 5", an allusion to the concert date. The songs played, including works from the albums Remedy Lane and The Perfect Element, Part I , sometimes differ greatly from the album versions because Daniel Gildenlöw didn't just want to record an unplugged album, he wanted to create something special. Therefore, both the band and fans regard "12: 5" as a separate work. While it was positively received by many for its bold interpretations of the pieces, others found the acoustic versions to be less successful.
"BE" (2004-2005)
From 2003 Pain of Salvation spent most of the time working on their most ambitious album to date, BE , a concept album about the essence of the existence of God and man. Daniel Gildenlöw had been working on the concept since 1996, in which a small symphony orchestra was to take part in addition to the actual band. However, before the material was recorded for a CD, the band played the entire program at concerts in Eskilstuna. The concerts were designed as full shows with costumes, stage props and projections. Along with the band played the nine-member Orchestra of Eternity (dt. Orchestra of Eternity), which strongly comes with the songs advantage. The track Vocari dei occupies a prominent position : It contains recordings of an answering machine that the band switched on and encouraged fans all over the world to call there and leave a message on the "answering machine of God". Quite a few callers used this opportunity for sometimes very moving messages, during which they laughed, cried or poured out their souls. The recordings were accompanied by a calm instrumental accompaniment. The band themselves describe the song as the most poignant they have ever recorded.
Only in February 2004, after completing the shows and further detailed adjustments by Gildenlöw, did the studio recordings begin. When the album was released in September 2004, it promptly split the fan base because of the musical experimentation, the philosophical content and also because of the low status of progressive metal in the individual pieces. The band's first DVD was a recording of one of the Eskilstuna shows.
Scarsick and renewed line-up (2005-2008)
Pain of Salvation has not played in the US since 2004 because of Daniel Gildenlöw's refusal to allow fingerprinting of all foreign visitors and because of his negative attitude towards the Bush administration. He believes that these measures undermine democratic rights and the right to self-determination. On January 22, 2009, he announced his support for the newly elected US President Barack Obama and lifted the concert embargo, but reaffirmed his stance on fingerprinting.
On February 21, 2006, Kristoffer Gildenlöw was kicked out of the band after there were disagreements about his low attendance at band rehearsals, as he lived in the Netherlands and the rest of the band in Sweden. Gildenlöw has since worked on other progressive metal projects like Dial . His brother Daniel played the bass tracks on the upcoming recordings.
For the next album Scarsick , which came out on January 22, 2007, Daniel Gildenlöw played the bass tracks. The album was recorded mixed, especially the new direction of the band was criticized. For the tour that followed the release, Simon Andersson was hired as tour bassist and on March 10, 2007 was declared a full member of the band. He also played in the concerts recorded for the second live DVD Ending Themes (On the Two Deaths of Pain of Salvation) . This includes a cover version of the famous Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah . The DVD was released on May 24, 2009 after several postponements.
Due to his wish to have more time for his family, the drummer Johan Langell announced in an official announcement on April 29, 2007 that he would be leaving the band, which he ultimately carried out after the tour was over. Although they wanted a Swedish drummer as a substitute, at the end of the long selection process, Léo Margarit from Toulouse was most convincing. On October 6th of the same year it was announced at the Motstøy Festival in Notodden that he would replace Langell. Both were present at this concert, the latter made his band debut with a three-minute drum solo at the end of the piece Nightmist . Already at the end of 2008 Pain of Salvation had another exit: the bassist Simon Andersson left the band to have more time for his side projects and to recover from the Scarsick tour.
The Road Salt series (2008-2014)
On February 13, 2009, Pain of Salvation announced that they would be participating in the Dream Theater-sponsored US tour Progressive Nation 2009 - this would have been the first tour of the US in more than five years. However, it was thwarted by the bankruptcy of SPV , which forced Pain of Salvation and Beardfish to cancel the tour due to a lack of funding.
The bankruptcy also meant that the band's original plan to release a double album in 2009 could not be implemented, although the instruments had already all been played. On November 1, 2008, however, a new song Mortar Grind was released, which should appear on the future album and on a planned EP. The album should follow a concept similar to that of Remedy Lane , but musically "be different from everything the band had done before". Since InsideOut Music was soon taken over by Century Media, the financial basis was given again and the album could be completed, but divided into two individual albums, the first of which will be called Road Salt 1: Ivory . While they were still working, the band announced in December 2009 that the title track Road Salt would be the contribution to Melodifestivalen 2010, the Swedish national competition for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Pain of Salvation made it to the first semifinals with this song, but reached there only the fourth of eight places, with which the band was eliminated.
Road Salt One was finally released on May 17th in Europe and on June 8th 2010 in the USA in two slightly different versions. This album was also accused of further distancing itself from progressive metal; In addition to classic hard rock and blues numbers, it also contains a waltz and ballad-like pieces. The following tour took the band not only within Europe but also to India at the Manfest in Chennai .
Work on the next studio album was initially interrupted because singer Daniel Gildenlöw had become a father and was taking care of his family. On September 23, 2011, Road Salt Two was released by InsideOut Music . This was followed by a tour in the opening act for Opeth in 2012 and a headlining tour through Europe in 2012 . On the tour in spring 2013 the band was accompanied by Anneke van Giersbergen and the Icelandic band Árstíðir .
In autumn 2014 the acoustic album Falling Home was released , which contains a new song and acoustic versions of earlier works as well as two cover versions.
style
The characteristic sound of the band consists of punchy, accented guitar work and guitar solos as well as clearly sung and partly spoken or whispered vocal lines by Daniel Gildenlöws over several octaves.
In their songs, brutal guitar riffs alternate with rather worn passages. The band experiments mainly in terms of polyrhythm . The other band members sometimes sing second or choir voices.
To this day, all of the Pain of Salvation albums are concept albums on which Daniel Gildenlöw processes personal experiences, memories and sociocultural issues with text. Gildenlöw designs most of the CD covers himself.
Discography
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Albums
- 1997: Entropia
- 1998: One Hour by the Concrete Lake (thematic discussion of the pollution of Lake Karachay )
- 2000: The Perfect Element, Part 1
- 2002: Remedy Lane
- 2004: 12: 5
- 2004: BE (ChinassiaH)
- 2007: Scarsick (The Perfect Element, Part 2)
- 2010: Road Salt One - Ivory
- 2011: Road Salt Two - Ebony
- 2014: Falling Home
- 2017: In the Passing Light of Day
EPs
- 2009: linoleum
Video albums
- 2005: BE (Original Stage Production) (Live-DVD & CD)
- 2009: Ending Themes - On The Two Deaths Of Pain Of Salvation (Live-DVD, Documentation & CD)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Beyond the Pale - German fan club
- Interview with Daniel Gildenlöw
- Pain of Salvation on the baby blue pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dutch Progressive Rock Page, August 7, 1999
- ↑ Interview with Pain of Salvation ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from 2008 at the metal e-zine Kronos Mortus
- ↑ see page XIX in the booklet of the album "BE"
- ↑ News entry on the PoS website from August 10, 2005
- ↑ Pain of salvation Daniel Gildenlöw Scarsick concept P 2. YouTube January 22, 2007, accessed 26 July 2011 .
- ↑ PAIN OF SALVATION Scarsick music reviews. Progarchives.com, accessed July 26, 2011 .
- ↑ Progressive Nation 2009 Tour Page
- ↑ Progressive Nation 2009 North American Tour - Lineup Change ( Memento from April 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b Matthias Mineur: Pain of Salvation: serial novel . In: Metal Hammer . November 2011, p. 65 .
- ↑ [PoS] Le new album sera un DOUBLE album! ** SPOILER ** • Inside The Pain. (No longer available online.) Insidethepain.com, archived from the original on July 13, 2011 ; Retrieved July 26, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Sweden reveals artist names for Melodifestivalen. ESCToday, November 30, 2009, archived from the original on December 3, 2009 ; Retrieved July 26, 2011 .
- ^ Baby blue pages: Pain of Salvation - Road Salt One
- ↑ Frank Thiessies: Review of Pain of Salvation - Road Salt Two . In: Metal Hammer . October 2011.
- ^ Acoustic Tour Announced. (No longer available online.) Painofsalvation.com (band website), January 23, 2013, archived from the original on May 30, 2013 ; accessed on May 20, 2013 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Announcement of the album Falling Home on InsideOut Music. October 2, 2014, accessed January 4, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Chart sources: Sweden - Germany - Austria - Switzerland
