This band, like most of the stuff I listen to nowadays, was recommended by a fellow kvltsite denizen some years ago. Their debut Swanlike had me intrigued, with its interesting approach to combining melancholy doom with proggy touches here and there. However, with their follow-up Existence, my stance shifted from mild interest to something a lot more like jumping-on-my-seat enthusiasm. The guys had shifted more into prog territory – Axeman Maik Knappe had tightened up the guitar lines, which resulted in some fantastic infectious numbers like The Euphoric Sense and Anemone, as well as leaving space enough to infuse some of the other tracks with a great mellow atmospheric feel. Singer/drummer Niko Knappe had taken several pages out of Daniel Gildenlöw's 'How to Croon' book, and even though he lacked Dan's staggering range, he was able to pump out some pretty cool and feely vocal lines.

So, it was with a healthy dose of optimism that I received the news that their third effort was out, especially when I heard that Kristoffer Gildenlöw was lending his considerable talents on the bass. Were the brothers Knappe planning on making Pain of Salvation II? It was a concept worth getting excited about. So, anyway...you know what? Optimism is a bitch.

Going through the album, it becomes apparent after a while that songwriting has taken a nosedive. You can make out signature cool parts here and there, but they're all held together in a very rickety framework, and the cracks are showing. Passages rest uneasily against each other, and other parts sound good at first but then either overstay their welcome or fizzle out. There are several times when it sounds like the album is finally going to get off the ground, but then it loses momentum and starts belly-scraping again.

They're certainly experimenting further, and throwing in a whole mess of ingredients into the pot – there are flute sections here, tribal percussion segments there, electronic drumbeats in places, some Tool ripoff passages and even blastbeats that make a limited appearance. But it feels a bit haphazard, like they haven't thought out how they're going to utilise it, just playing around to see what sounds cool and then going with it. That's a formula that could work for some outfits, but clearly not this one. It's a source of immense frustration to note that there's not a single song where a few great parts don't occur, but there's also not a single song which can sustain them over its length. Except maybe the opener Stampede, but that's more like a 3 minute introduction to an album full of long songs.

The verdict sounds sort of harsh, but really, this band have the potential to be doing a hell of a lot better than this. I hope they haven't gone too far off track, and that Kris stays with them long enough for the synergy to produce something more comfortable the next time around.



Year of release: 2008
Label: Prophecy Productions