Every time Pain Of Salvation give us a new album we know that it will be different from their previous work, so it’s no surprise that -once more- Daniel Gildenlow returns with new sounds and reminds us that prog doesn’t mean just superb technical skills, but also experimenting with new sounds and colors. Having said that, we expect that –once more- fans will be divided in two groups, those who will love the album and those who will hate it. But, I have a feeling that Daniel’s priority isn’t the fans’ demand, but only what comes from inside of him. This time the main concept of the album is the diversity of someone with uncompromising spirit (the panther) in a world of complacent ones (the dogs).
The first samples of the album were three video clips and the truth is that they were so different one from the other, that I got a bit confused. But, now that I listen to the full album they all find their place nicely, although “Resteless Boy” still sounds mediocre. From then on, there are so many other compositions that worth here, as there is constant music diversity, from one song to the other, from the prog metal of “Accelerator”, to the slow industrial of “Unfuture” and then the weird -electro driven- “Restless Boy”.
From that point on the album takes off to high standards with the beautiful “Wait” which is already my favorite (it starts with a piano melody and an acoustic guitar while Daniel’s emotional performance is great). “Keen To A Fault” is another good track, melodic with nice layers of synths and great vocals by Daniel again. “Fur” is just a short interlude that leads to the title-track “Panther”, a track that will make many people feel uncomfortable due to the electro rhythm and the rap vocals by Daniel, but the super melodic chorus will melt down your resistance. “Species” is another beautiful composition with its lyrics condemning the human specie for its continuous mistakes. The closing of the album is ideal with the 13-minute long “Icon”, a pure prog composition with variety, a classic rock solo and no electro elements. Another great album by Pain Of Salvation, thank you Daniel!
