Scarsick
Pain of Salvation remains one of the most complex and fascinating acts in all of progressive metal--the group's last studio album, the restless and imaginativeBe, nearly required that the listener hold degrees in philosophy and theology in order to process all of the record's weighty lyrical themes.Scarsickproves an exceptional and equally complex addition to the PoS oeuvre. Listeners get a good dose of the progress ("Spitfall"), the unapologetically metal ("Scarsick"), the far-out ("Disco Queen," a track that wouldn't be out of place on a Frank Zappa or Mr. Bungle album) and the utterly epic (the 10-minute "Enter Rain"). In short, Pain of Salvation's music may be the musical equivalent of reading a Samuel Beckett or James Joyce novel, the kind of stimulating and challenging endeavor that few will undertake and even fewer will see through to the end, although those who do complete the perilous intellectual journey will find the sum of the parts richly rewarding as it fuels the powers of both the intellect and the imagination.--Jedd Beaudoin