Pain of salvation, Entropia

Since this has been a slower month in terms of albums I’m truly interested with, I’m going to share some thoughts about my new-found love, Pain of Salvation’s Entropia. I guess it’s no secret by now that In the passing light of day brought back a severe POS obsession, so I’ve been listening and listening and listening ever since, and so I discovered that there was one album that I was missing, and that was Entropia. 

As their first album, it’s amazing how much like POS it already sounds, it didn’t take long for them to find their individuality and build their own personal and unmistakable style and Entropia is full of everything I love POS for. It has Daniel’s mesmerising and moving vocals, it has the abrupt changes of rhythm in the middle of the song, it has unexpectedness, rawness, gentleness and most of all, it has tons of emotion. It’s not quite up there with the other albums, but a good POS album (instead of a fantastic one) is still miles away in terms of quality from most of the music out there. And being their first record and seeing how they’ve managed to stay true to their sound throughout the years, but at the same time experiment and grow, makes me appreciate them even more. 

Why do I say it’s not the best album? Well, for one because that wonderful craziness of theirs that we’ve come to know and love by now is not fully polished. There are a lot of funky or jazzy moments and there’s the typical POS clamour in the middle of what appears to be a sweet ballad, but they don’t always manage to achieve coherence with all of their jumps. Sometimes, they use that teasing growth at the end of which I expect a well deserved explosion and it sometimes never comes (like in Revival) or the finality is not clear and satisfying enough (as it is with Winning a war). 

Other times, they seem to be too ambitious in creating something original and unexpected, and they don’t come out as truly authentic. This is something I appreciate them immensely for, that in the midst of all the huge aspirations and unbound creativity, they somehow remain relevant and real and it doesn’t seem like they’re doing it just to impress, but it appears to be genuine. On this album they haven’t fully achieved that yet and this is most obvious in To the end. However, since in reviewing an older album, I’m comparing them to their own standard of excellence, it’s only natural for them to fall a bit short, otherwise where would they go to improve if everything was perfect on their first attempt?

And even so, I can say with my hand on my heart that it’s a great album. It manages to surprise me plenty of times, going into places I never expected they will go, with resolutions that few would ever guess, but that feel so natural once you actually hear them. They’re playing with rhythms and moods and Daniel’s vocals are very theatrical in order to suit the story, but most of the changes seem connected and logical. 

As always, their true shining point is the out-pour of emotion. Daniel is of course the driving force behind this, both through his amazingly touching and intense vocals (just listen to that primal yell near the end of Nightmist and tell me it doesn’t turn your heart inside out), and through his style of writing. Although it’s not a self-centered album like In the passing light of day or Remedy lane, you can still find plenty of honesty and self-revealing in Entropia, as he writes about some of the subjects that are known to occupy his mind. 

This being said, it’s no surprise then that my two of favourite tracks are Oblivion ocean and Plains of dawn. Oblivion ocean is a gorgeous moving ballad, so simple musically, without all the technical jumps I was talking about earlier, but with an impact and emotional weight that are hard to achieve by most other bands. I’ve said it before, for me this is what they’re truly best at. They’re surprising and don’t sound like anyone else I’ve heard, but the amount of candor and feelings they put into their music is just fascinating and it always anoints my heart. Plains of dawn might seem a bit different because of the unexpected clatter at the end (though seriously, after how many times I used the word “unexpected” in relation to POS, it’s kind of starting to loose it’s meaning), but overall it’s just as touching and heartfelt as Oblivion ocean and I simply can’t get enough of the warmth mixed with sadness in Daniel’s voice. And I believe I should also mention People passing by as a great track, and also Revival (despite of the teasing at the end), and Void of her… and you know what, it would be easier to say I love all the album with the exception of To the end (which isn’t bad, just not their best and most representative work). 

To be honest, I should just say I’m a huge fangirl who loves pretty much everything about Pain of salvation and who’s not in the slightest bit objective and it would definitely be more accurate. But in all truth, this being their first work is definitely something to appreciate and respect, it’s rare to have such a representative and well rounded album from the first try, especially from a band that’s so bold. There are many places where they could’ve gone wrong and their ambitious nature took them to a place where it’s very easy to fall and lose yourself, but while they did slip up a bit, for the most part they did an excellent job.