Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most original progressive metal albums., November 13, 2000
"....."That's what I first thought after listening to Pain of Salvation's debut album for the first time. It was really unlike anything else I'd ever heard, and I didn't know what to think. Entropia is such an eclectic synthesis of so many different musical styles that it truly is original and, well, progressive. That wouldn't be worth much if the songs were badly written, but Pain of Salvation is headed by one of the most brilliant writers/vocalists in the genre. Most progressive metal copies Dream Theater's Images & Words album, and that gets real old real quick. But some bands, like PoS, actually bring fresh ideas to the genre. Yes, Entropia's got long songs, melody shifts aplenty, weird time changes, and varied song structure, but none of these things are really progressive. Being progressive is about pushing boundaries on musical composition and musicianship. Entropia does this. This is unique album This innovation comes with its challenges, but if you don't enjoy challenging music you should probably skip this review and this band entirely. I found the album album quite hard to get into because it is so different. Also, sometimes the implementation of so many styles sometimes seems to have been done in a sort of random way, with no real regard to how it fit in the context of the song. There are some awkward herky-jerky musical moments where flow of the song becomes disjointed and suffers. It mostly works ("Revival", "!", for instance), but sometimes it doesn't. Despite some criticism, the album largely works well. Melody changes are seamless and mostly make sense. Listen to how a song can naturally move from a chugging and vicious guitar riff to a surreal jazzy interlude and you can't help but be amazed. With Entropia, PoS took a chunk of metal and tossed it into the blender with everything from jazz, symphonic prog rock, extreme metal, funk, among other things (most of which can't be individually identified because they are implemented very well, but you know they are there). It's a weird mix, but it's also weird that it works so well. The vocalist might be an acquired taste for some; like the music, he uses a huge variety of styles, with a delivery running the range between soaring broadway-esque moments and vicious metal growls. I'm not sure who to compare him to, since he's not really like anyone else. There's no denying that this guy has range and power. My only problem is that he sometimes tries to sing far above his range and he loses power at really high notes, where his voice just stops sounding good. (He has improved upon this on later albums.) One thing you'd probably never guess is that this guy's European...there is only a slight trace of an accent and the lyrics are very strong. Since Europe is well-known for its bleak wasteland of power metal where lyrics are utterly bad, Entropia's effective poetry is a nice surprise. Speaking of the lyrics, the disc is a concept album of sorts. It doesn't progress in a story per se, but rather it's a sort of commentary dealing with the impact of war on people (I think). Unless you've heard other PoS albums, you've probably never heard anything like this. Compared to other PoS albums, it is more experimental and diverse than One Hour by the Concrete Lake (which is more song-oriented to my ears), and less dramatic and "lush" than The Perfect Element. Entropia is like Remedy Lane in that both albums are rhythmically extremely sophisticated and diverse, but Remedy Lane is much more personal lyrically. Either way, I think all progmetal fans should listen to this at least once...love it or hate it, it will probably change the way you think about the genre.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
truly progressive AND exhilarating, December 13, 2001
My Pain of Salvation collection started with their latest and greatest masterpiece, Perfect Element, and then their second release One Hour by the Concrete Lake. Both albums made it into my favourites real quick, as seems to have been the case with many others who've given this awesome new prog-band a chance.I thought two PoS albums would do me fine for a while so I delayed purchasing Entropia. Now that I've got it, I can't believe I didn't buy it sooner. I was blown away with this band again, just as much as I was when I heard the Perfect Element. This is not as coherent and masterfully crafted as the Perfect Element, nor as refined as One Hour by the Concrete Lake, but it's different enough to deem comparisons irrelevant. You don't get the beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies that you'll find throughout the Perfect Element, but you get more rhythmic diversity and adventure, with lots of tempo changes and unique structures (that actually work well), and fairly prominent infusions of funk (the slap bass works really well), jazz and thrash in a progressive rock mindset. This album should particularly please those who found The Perfect Element and One Hour to be lacking in heavy guitar work. This is a very daring album that exhibits immense originality and diversity, supported by superb musicianship. It is progressive in every sense of the word. Much more so than most of the essentially recycled material that passes as 'progressive' rock/metal just because it was considered progressive when somebody else did it first. The production on Entropia is, surprisingly, much cleaner than that on PoS's subsequent two releases. Anyone that was impressed by the Perfect Element and One Hour by the Concrete Lake should own this album for a different but equally satisfying PoS experience. This album could even win audiences that the other two could not, particularly those who enjoy stuff like Faith no More or Living Colour.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amaizing, a revolution in progressive music!, November 10, 1999
I don't want to sound too overbearing, but Pain of Salvation's first album, Entropia, is possibly one of the most original and revolutionary musical masterpieces of the second half of this century, comparable to "Sargent Pepper" of Beatles fame. This music takes the super-genre of progressive metal and rock to a higher level, infusing influence from anywhere from classical, funk, to death metal. This is NOT an album for the light-hearted or un-adventureous. Daneil Gildenlow (lead vocalist, guitarist and composer) shows an amaizing array of flexebility in his music and in his heart, this is truely emotional music for the complexity of the human spirit. Like any great work of art, it has it's unsettling statements and character that challenge our comfort level, almost getting too undeniably close to the questions and answers that plague our society and our human nature. Guildenlow has an incredible voice, but more importantly, he has an incredible amount of a soul and spirit, and you can feel this through his voice and music. There is a wide veriety of influences to this band, you can hear Debussy to Faith No More, Dream Theater, Schostakovich, Pink Floyed, Marillion, and quite a bit of light opera (some of the parts very much remind me of the style of Les Misserables, the band pays special tribute to Jesus Christ Superstar).The album itself is a thematic concept album, as it has no plot in the traditional sense, but more reocurring metephores and themes. The main themes of this album are anti-war and anti-hate. The lyrics read like poetry. It is very deep, intellectual outlook onto the dark side of humanity and society. As for the music itself, there is EVERYTHING on this album, I've never heard a cleaner mix of styles. As said before, there are many influences, but they are so well integrated, that it's impossible to point them out moment to moment. The music is sometimes very demanding and driving (somehow this band is able to achieve amaizing grooves, but while going in and out of odd time signatures) while other times are extremely poignent. The ballads are incredible, all the background and choral vocals are done by the entire band (there is very little overdubbing) and they are incredible, sometimes singing ocapella sections that will make your heart melt. Every piece on the album is a highlight, each one stands out for itself, from the dramatic opener "!" to the ambient choral ballad, "Plains of Dawn," to the drivinly funkadelic (for lack of a better term) "Stress." This album is incredibly demanding as well, it demands attention, throught, and time (you may be completely lost during the first few listens to this work). There is no other music remotely similar to this band, it is incredibly groundbreaking. This album may have you crying, feeling emotionally fullfilled, or angry, but none-the-less, it WILL change you.
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