Customer Reviews

Linoleum EP

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Linoleum" is but a prelude to something great, an appetizer before a glorious feast. I've been really looking forward to Pain of Salvation's upcoming 2-disc release "Road Salt", and this 5-song sampler is doing a great job of tiding me over until then. The great thing about this band, as I've said many times before, is how each album brings us something new and exciting, and this is certainly no exception. However, I think this will be more than just another great album from PoS. I enjoyed their last two albums, but I felt like they were a notch below the band's best material. This album, however, could very well be right up there with "The Perfect Element" and "Remedy Lane".

This EP is just a microcosm of things to come. "Road Salt" will clearly take us into darker and more experimental territory than ever before. The title track starts things off innocently enough, a more straight-forward rocker reminiscent of vintage Zeppelin. However, things soon take a dark turn with the sludgy, sinister "Mortar Grind". "If You Wait" is a bit softer musically but still heavy emotionally, with an anguished and earnest delivery propelled by Daniel's fragile, fractured vocal.

But wait, we're just getting started. The next track, "Gone" is the song that's really gotten me the most excited about this album. A huge, dense epic, filled with thick crushing walls of guitars and Daniel's powerful voice nimbly matching the song's subtle twists and turns. This is the darkest, creepiest song PoS has ever done. It almost reminds me of Neurosis at times.

So that's all we get from "Road Salt", at least for now. But, in addition we get a fun little bonus in the cover of the Scorpions' "Yellow Raven". This is an excellent cover, completely faithful to the original, with Daniel's golden voice adding even more emotion to an already beautiful ballad. This really makes me wish they'll one day do a full cover album, but maybe that's too "conventional" for them. You never know.

Anyway, this is of course only a small percentage of the upcoming album, but if this is any indication, this could be a 2-disc emotional tour de force to rival Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" and Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Pain of Salvation have always stood out firmly from the unfortunate "progmetal" label, and I think "Road Salt" will bring them even further into a category all their own. I'm glad we've got this in the meantime, because it can't get here fast enough.

As with every Pain of Salvation release, this CD is a little different from the others. Actually, this one's quite different from the others, but still excellent. It has more of an "old school rock" feel to it, which befits the phenomenal cover of the Scorpions song "Yellow Raven" included on it as a bonus track.

It's not "The Perfect Element," nor is it "One Hour By The Concrete Lake" or "Entropia." If you're looking for "volume 2" of either of those fantastic discs, you might be disappointed, because this is quite different...but still fantastic. It's just yet another aspect of Pain of Salvation.

Enjoy.

The writing on this seems to be an extension of the scarsick... mostly gone is the progressive metal riffing of perfect element and remedy lane....it almost bears no resemblance to previous history of the body of work.

I'm not going to say I dont like it, but it is just boring to listen to and seems like there is a big piece missing in the writing process. I love daniels voice, but with boring music to sing over it just doesn't cut it. The packaging and liner notes on this is fantastic and on par with every other release. IMHO this release lacks the hunger of their earlier releases, while the songwriting has matured gone is the furious riffage and slick guitar playing, and in its place we have strummed power chords and pop-guitar playing.

I understand that bands change, and this is a beautiful thing. I feel that they have strayed so far from their past its almost a different band even though the 2 guitarists and keyboardist still remain...If you're a completist purchase this, if your a fan of the older material, and didn't care much for scarsick, you wont need this and IMHO will just be disappointed.

As I said, it kicks ass. I don't know what the band's whole new take on life is, and I don't really care to be honest. The important thing is that the music is great. When I first saw the video for Linoleum, I thought it was kind of simplistic, but then when I received the CD and gave it my full attention, I realised that the music is full of little details and subtleties that are not immediately perceived. The keyboard isn't in your face, but it's definitely there and it completes the mainly guitar-driven music in an incredible way. It's kind of paradoxical, the "loud" rock attitude, and yet all the intricacies and details that require an infinite amount of listens.

73 thumbs up.

I was very excited when I received news that POS was coming out with a new album (DEC 09). It was not long after listening to this album that I was very disappointed. This album lacks the creative element of POS that I have come to appreciate. This album falls way short of their best album "BE" and other great albums like "SCARSICK" and "REMEDY LANE". I can only hope that the upcoming album "ROAD SALT" brings back my confidence in POS.

Jerry Sanseri