Review Summary: Gildenlow and Co. keeps driving over new musical landscapes, sometimes for the better, othertimes for the worse.
Carrier summary: POS are mostly only known by Prog fans and impressed some of them back in the days with their debut "Entropia" which both had funky, rockish, heavy and jazzy elements.
The follower "One hour by the concrete lake" seemed at times a bit more streamlined thou it still had the endless signature changes and Daniels distinct articulate voice. Next came "The Perfect element part 1" which are by many progmetal fans considered one of the greatest prog metal albums ever recordet. -
The album had both the progressing and changing long parts as it´s presidures, and the clearer sound of it’s follow ups.
Then came "Remedy Lane" which are probably the most streamlined and songorientated so far in their catalogue. More song orientated yet very "progressive" and POS like.
Next came "BE" which contained a lot of classical and accustic instruments and was based on the beginning till the end of mankind and had a lot of different genres to set the moods for the timeperiods and characters of the concept.
Next came "Scarsick" which was meant as a part two of TPE. It´s quiet political and are based a lot around the dark sides of the USA and have again many different styles to offer, thou more streamlined and at times a bit "Nu Metal" like if you want. - See "Spitfall" with a Gildenlow rapping.
But here my folks, we have their latest full-length "Road Salt One" after the little pre-taste EP called "Linoleum"
“I don’t really know if i think the idea of an EP right before this was a good idea, of cause it gave a pre-taste of their previews sound, but on the other hand they could save some of their fans some money by putting Linoleum as bonus material, like Porcupine Tree did on "The Incident" I actually do think otherwise would have been a little better idea by Daniel and co, especially because one of the tracks on "Linolium" is allso on "Road Salt" and i cant really stop blaming myself for buying it, when there are so many other great bands out there putting LPs out”
The album is “70 like” some say, with the stripped down and raw production, and I kind of understand, but i don’t really think so otherwise, cause I don’t recall hearing anything from the 70´s sounding like POS. The guitars are more bluesy and less metal distorted than ever, and it would fit great in a new version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" the opener "No Way" most of all sound like a pure musical rocker which has a catchy chorus, and a little awkward off beat section saved by the bell by the organs.
Another favourite so far has to be the ending track “Innocence where the band rocks out in a very powerful drop D-drone most of the time, and its all in all a song I would pay money to hear be played live, eventually on a festival high and/or drunk as the festival sucker I am.
But all in all i think it lacks the magic and atmosphere of some of their earlier stuff, where they had the ability to close the listener into an emotion and atmosphere like good prog does, the stripped down production just doesn´t allow you to do that the same way.
IMO too much of the material on here could as likely be on the EP or some random B-side material, or just a Daniel Gildenlow solo project maybe. Too many short kind of interludes with very few instruments and Daniel scatting his way through just doesn´t do the job for me thou it rocks pretty well sometimes, including the good tracks there are.
Daniels lyrics are as on f. ex. "Remedy Lane" surrounding somehow around desire and sex, with a sometimes pretty self-destructive tone. The album doesn’t always have the serious tone that we are used to from them, some of the lyrics are pretty silly, thou funny, like in "What she means to me" which is a short kind of interlude where the band ends up singing "I don’t know where I needs to be, but it is not here inside her" and Daniel as always delivers a great vocal performance and the rest of the band great performance as well, but don’t expect a new TPE or Remedy Lande cause they chance from record to record pretty much, one you might like, the other you might not, which is both one of their strong sides, but also a weapon to keep some people including the average metalhead on a 50 miles distance. They are Prog in the purest sence.
RATING: Somewhere between "Good" and "Great"
