Well, 2002 has been a great year for Heavy metal, and after we started
RevelationZ Magazine I have been lucky enough to get the change to listen to a lot of brilliant music. Some of the bands I have 'discovered' this year have become some of my favourite bands ever.
So which bands did I actually 'discover this year? A lot of progressive metal or rock bands have opened my eyes to the world of progressive metal/rock. A few years ago I would never have thought that I would like Progressive music in any way or form, but this year changed my mind drastically. Here is a list of the bands that I 'discovered' this year and have grown to love.
· Pain Of Salvation
· Spock's Beard
· Transatlantic
· The Flower Kings
· Shadow Gallery
· Time Requiem
· Planet X
· Eternity X
· In Flames
· Pink Floyd
· Dead Soul Tribe
· Psychotic Waltz
· Star One
This is a funny list considering the fact that I didn't use to like Death metal or Progressive metal/rock, but now my taste in metal has become very vast and that is a nice thing, because I don't get sick of just listening to Power metal or just Heavy metal. This way it's way more fun too, because I get to listen to all the different styles and get more inspired to do something of all the genres. If I'm lucky 2003 may be as good a year as this was musically, perhaps I will get the change to dive deeper into the music that I really love and become an expert of some sort, or perhaps I just become boring and only listen to the same tired old albums all year.
With all this said, it's time to reveal my favourite album of the year 2002, drum roll if you please...
And the winner is
Pain Of Salvation: Remedy Lane, Inside Out Music 2002. Why? you might ask, well basically it's the only band that I discovered this year that has earned the rating of 10. As a matter of a fact all their albums offer something special, and the mood of
Remedy Lane has taken me by surprise and helped me to fall in love with this brilliant band. As you might know I went to Copenhagen to see them live, and that helped me make my choice.
So for all you who don't know
Pain Of Salvation too well, I will try to give a summary of their style and the impact that the band has had in my life.
My introduction to
Pain Of Salvation, came through a very bald man called Baldric or as you probably know and love him
Steen 'chicken legs' Jepsen (the nick name is a very silly story), any way he was trying to influence us all to listen to this Swedish Progressive Metal band called
Pain Of Salvation. He had made the mistake of giving Tommy an empty cd cover, of
"One Hour At The Concrete Lake", so he hadn't had the chance to listen to the band. Then at a party a Steen's I heard a track called
"Used" and that didn't impress me much at first, but when he played me some tracks from the latest album
"Remedy Lane" I was interested in listening to the album.
After a few times listening to the album, I had to order it at
EMP and along with it, the album
"The Perfect Element - part 1". Those two albums fought each other for the spot on my cd player, and
"Remedy Lane" won. I still remember calling up Steen to tell him I had gotten the album, and just sitting and reading the brilliant lyrics to the just as excellent conceptual album, he went crazy that I had bought the album, and that he now knew another Danish
Pain Of Salvation fan.
In a matter of months I had the whole collection of
Pain Of Salvation albums, which are:
"Entropia",
"One Hour By The Concrete Lake",
"The Perfect Element- part 1" and
"Remedy Lane". With that done I had a problem, what to do next; I had everything with this brilliant band. So I started to go deeper into the lyrics and the concepts of each album, and I discovered that
"Remedy Lane" was not the only brilliant album, by the Swedes. I was amazed to discover that each album was as brilliant as the next, and I am still trying to decide which album is the best one.
Then I tried to introduce Christian to the band, at first he was a bit reserved but he quickly changed his mind and opened his heart to the Swedish Progressive metal band
Pain Of Salvation. And we have been trying to introduce it to Tommy ever since, but that guy just don't know what great music is all about (Just kidding Tommy, you Poser hahaha).
Well, my mission was finished I thought, but then this home page was brought to life, and I had the idea to contact
Daniel Gildenlöw, for an Internet interview and he agreed, so I was totally ecstatic when I got the reply to my questions back from Daniel. And he told us to come and see them on tour when they where coming to Copenhagen and so we did (
read my review here, or
Steen's review here). Well that was one of the biggest musical experiences this year.
Seeing that Pain Of Salvation was as great if not better live, than on the albums, was a major kick. I was so psyched when I returned from Copenhagen that I did nothing but listen to Pain Of Salvation for a month.
Pain Of Salvation has really changed my mind regarding progressive music in general. I have started to listen much more to progressive bands since I was introduced to
Pain Of Salvation, and that is why the biggest part of my list above is progressive bands in some form or another.
The feeling I get when I listen to the
Pain Of Salvation tracks are: I feel I get a nice look into the soul of mankind and I really like the aspects that
Pain Of Salvation enlightens in their music. It is from happiness to Damnation, with everything in between. This is set to life with the brilliant music that this band keeps writing. I am one of those fans that hates waiting for the next album, but waiting for the next
Pain Of Salvation album will be kind of nice, because I have the chance to listen to the four brilliant albums they have already made. And getting to know the feelings and the stories of these tracks are something that really helps me to understand some of the things in my life that I am wondering about.
These albums are a kind of therapy for me, in the sense that I begin to think about my life when I listen to them, and then I discover something about myself, and that is a really nice feeling to have. In my opinion this is what makes a band stand out and really become something big in my eyes.
Pain Of Salvation is for me a way to discover things that were hidden deep within me before, and now thanks to
Pain Of Salvation they are here for me to see and use. In a way you could say these albums have helped me become more mature, I know this sounds corny but that's the way I feel about
Pain Of Salvation. And this is also why I think
Pain Of Salvation deserves to be honored for their brilliant music.
This is my opinion about
Pain Of Salvation; if you agree or even disagree please let me know, so we can discuss it. This is a very interesting thing in my opinion.
Another Great Band - Spock's Beard
Another band that has made an impact on me is the American progressive rock band
Spock's Beard.
Spock's Beard is in my opinion one of the greatest Progressive rock bands in the world, ok I must admit that I haven't heard that much progressive rock, but of the few bands I have heard, this band is the one that has made the greatest impact on me.
Spock's Beard has a special sound that is filled with so many different layers of music that it at times seems to be very hard to get the brilliant music. It takes a while before you fully appreciate the brilliant sound of
Spock's Beard.
Just like
Pain Of Salvation,
Spock's Beard has found a special place in my heart, it's the same kind of feelings I have about this band. I really think that
Spock's Beard has everything that is needed to use the different styles they do in their music. The mastermind behind
Spock's Beard and lead singer
Neal Morse has one of the best vocals in progressive rock.
Neal's voice is so powerful and in your face, which I can't help trying to sing just like, unfortunately I don't have a clue of how to sing so my version is very poor.
The musicians of
Spock's Beard are really great, unfortunately
Neal Morse decided to leave the band in the fall of 2002, and I just hope that he will return someday. The rest of the band is working on the new
Spock's Beard.
The members are:
Alan Morse: Guitar
Ryo Okumoto: Mellotron and Keyboards
David Meros: Bass
Nick D'Virgilio: Drums and lead vocals
Mads Erdland Aanum
Pain Of Salvation addict
