I have found myself the perfect company for those late nights when I'm in the mood for just laying awake and having a philosophical thought or two, BE has a sedative but also very inspiring effect on your mind.
Pain Of Salvation has lowered the heaviness, brought lots of real orchestrations into the picture, made the piano play a leading role, written a far reaching and exciting concept and thereby created BE, something that is as original as it gets, sounding completely inspiring and abundantly creative.
I will not make myself the judge of what this album is all about, it has to be evaluated and experienced personally and I think it can be understood in more than one narrow way.
The concept is highly complex and interesting, intelligently raising some relevant and important topics that concern the human race dealing with greed, faith, fear and essential questions of what existence is all about; my advice is to check out the lyrics more than once.
I could spend days trying to describe the songs on this album, they truly hold lots of context and interesting passages, instead I will shortly comment on what I find some of the most intriguing compositions.
That we are dealing with a band that has evolved its sound even further becomes clear with the amazing
Imago (Homines Partus), a tribal/folk inspired track combining lots of string and wind instruments mixed into a profound structure with a binding melodic refrain.
When I heard
Pluvius Aestivus for the first time I found it to have a slight link to some of the instrumental passages on Virgin Steele's The House Of Atreus albums. A beautiful piano driven song added atmospheric orchestrations making up a warm, calm and also mystic composition.
Lilium Cruentus (Deus Nova) is the first track where we are treated with some heavy guitar riffs and powerful drumming, I really love the way this song shifts between hard and soft passages and Daniel's emotional voice is no less than brilliant.
Vocari Dei is built upon a brilliant idea of having people leaving a message on God's answering machine, talking about whatever they wanted. The messages contain some very deep thoughts, feelings, doubts, fears and questions and to support these spoken parts a wonderful relaxing background scenario of soft acoustic guitars and warm classic instruments has been incorporated, this song is both totally unique and touching.
At a fitting point on this journey Pain Of Salvation's harder side once again shines in
Diffidentia (Breaching the Core), having some fantastic groovy parts. The slower passages works as a spellbinding counterweight and the tight and deep bass sounds phenomenal, especially towards the end.
The beginning of
Nihil Morari sets a very dark and tense mood, these thick atmospheres are clearly one of the albums biggest strengths. Experimental keys and technical drumming are some of many cool elements in a very progressive mid-section that fittingly splits the song in three parts.
As the album enters its final songs the mood gets more and more sombre and depressing and thereby following the story line.
Iter Impius succeeds in being both dramatic and moving at the same time, its calm guitar solo sounds fantastic and the diverse vocals enhance the tension.
The only song that doesn't do it for me is the extensive three-parted
Dea Pecuniae, the voice parts sounds too weird and overdone, the overall structure is much too loose and overall I just think that it breaks the smooth flow that had been building up so nicely.
It also annoys me that the song titles are in Latin and as a last critical comment I think that some songs would have gained by some more melodic elements. I love the atmospheres but once in a while I lack a catchy lick or memorable refrain to set some songs a bit more apart from the very integrated flow.
You really can't put a finger on the production skills, mixing so many elements together is a demanding job and the result is comprehensive, profound and deep.
I really admire the way this album is put together, its extremely complex and I will continue to spend hours and hours to experience this thrilling journey over and over again. The bands craftsmanship is top notch in every aspect all though this album demands a more united summoning of the powers and a little less sole extravagance.
BE succeeds in being what it is, a tremendous ambitious, comprehensive and fascinating tour de force of progressive music that enters a new sphere of musical and lyrical expression.
Written by
Tommy Saturday, November 6, 2004
Show all reviews by TommyRatingsTommy: 8/10Members: 8/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
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 | Steen (Staff)
Rating: 8/10
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