Finding the perfect element

[1]

Never even in their wildest dreams did they imagine that thousands of screaming fans would be chanting “POS” in their first ever concert in a country, known to them as the home of the magnificent Taj Mahal. Not anymore. Swedish progressive band Pain of Salvation, which recently toured India, couldn’t have been happier to find a significant fan-base in India.
“Frankly speaking, I didn’t know what to expect from our concerts in India. But we were pleasantly surprised with the fans that turned out in huge numbers to attend our shows,” says Daniel Gildenlöw, the frontman of Pain of Salvation.
The band performed two shows in the country, one at IIM Lucknow and another at IIT Madras. In both these concerts, it heavily promoted its latest album, Road Salt One, described by its members as “a mix of metal, pop, funk, disco, blues, goth and folk with Arabian and Oriental influences plus other more or less extreme musical styles into a homogeneous whole”.
“I was restless and wanted to do something new,” says Daniel, the vocalist-cum-guitarist, explaining the unique sound behind the album. Though, most POS albums are characterised by powerful accentuated guitar work, broad vocal range, abrupt switching between heavy and calm passages, intense syncopation, and polyrhythmic experimentation, the latest is slightly different. It emphasises more on emotional depth, beauty and fragility thus facing stern criticism from many for departing from their technical prowess and pop sensibility style.
“The music I create depends a lot on the state of my mind. And, it changes with the passing years,” explains Daniel, also the main composer of the band.
For sure, unlike albums like The Perfect Element, Scarsick, Be or Entropia, not many metal heads and fans of tech music got instantly hooked to Road Salt. But the classic rock and roll lovers loved it. So is the band going the classic rock way or just experimenting with their influences? Daniel puts these speculations at rest by saying, “In music there are many possibilities.”
As the band heads back to Sweden, its main focus will lie on its next album, Road Salt 2 set to release some time in the coming months. Well, fans can expect something different for sure.