Gildenlow’s lyrics are crystal clear in regard with his career. He wants to play everything in the wide spectrum of music and make his talents known to the music community. After all his abilities and his talent are undisputed. “Road Salt Two” picks up where the first part stopped. It’s a given fact that Pain of Salvation no longer fit in the metal genre (only a few bits one can find in their sound). They present a respectful prog rock product and not only this but they do it quite successfully, I must add as they have chosen a 70s influenced compositional style (eg. The song “Eleven” owes a lot to Zeppelin). An additional observation must be made on the structure of the songs as they seem to allow room for innovation and improvisation during their live shows. On the other hand, there are –luckily only a few- moments that can be really tiring.
Pain of Salvation is not anymore the band that made the heavy metal world take a good listen to them. They refer to a vastly different and most demanding audience but I believe that their long time supporters will carry on following them.
On a personal note, I’d choose “Conditioned” as a really good, old-school rock track as my favorite moment on the album that reminded me of the past. Maybe the rest of the bunch would appeal to us…in the future.
