Review Summary: Many rewarding secrets unearth themselves the longer one stays tuned.
Like many other bands, Pain of Salvation strives to make albums more memorable than their individual songs. In order to do this, they look beyond conventional songwriting and into finding exactly what experience they are aiming for. This train of thought led The Perfect Element to be a concept album. Unlike a lot of other stories told through the means of albums, it is actually the emotion of the music that shapes the story. Without ever having to follow the lyrics closely, the band manages to tell what it is trying to tell in a mammoth way.
The album is densely soaked in a distinct feeling all its own. The instruments carry with them a wall of sound, engulfing you in the album. It flows naturally through the beginning and end with each song building off the last. Throughout the journey a massively sounding chorus refuses to stay bound in one song and is reprised twice more after, an epic theatrical interlude is revived 20 minutes later into pulse pounding guitar riffage, lyrics are repeated in the first and last tracks, and many other rewarding secrets unearth themselves the longer one stays tuned past a few songs.
You can feel a sense of dark desperation layered across the melodies and sounds the band writes, which gives the entire LP its identity. The guitar is dark and aggressive in its play style and percussion is backed by synths and symphonies. Most noticeable in the mix is Daniel Gildenlow’s outstanding vocal performance, as it is incorporated perfectly and helps to further define the sorrow ridden tone of the album. Moments like the opener’s haunting verse, the reprised solo in Idioglossia, or the climax of In the Flesh are awe striking in the way his voice harmonizes or carries with the rest of the band so emotively.
Time is where the album will always struggle. It expects dedication and patience with its longer song lengths and 1.2 hour run time. Slow build ups in songs can also exhaust listeners eager for the epic climaxes Pain of Salvation pulls off so well. However patience is key, and makes each and every corner of this album more rewarding.
