Road Salt One

Press play and get ready for a bewildering time travel, then you start wondering and just about then realization dawns, this is Pain Of Salvation and they can get away with almost anything. No stretch of imagination can bind this record to any boundaries defined by time or genre nor by the rules that defines commercial music. Gildenlöw has created something unprecedented, taking pieces of musical influences from late 60s and 70 and combining them with some serious lyrics has concocted a deadly portion called Road Salt One.

When I listen to the sound of Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and Jimi Hendrix, i see depth in music expressed with surprisingly simple retro lyrics. It won't be an overstatement if I say that Gildenlöw has spawned a new path for the evolution of music, he went back in time took the musical trends of 70s removed the seemingly shallow attributes and replaced them with the depths of Pain Of Salvation. Here the music is mostly simple with some refreshingly dark lyrics exploring the psyche of a man mostly driven by deception, carnal tendencies and at the same time exhibiting a tinge of conscience. The real brilliance of Gildenlöw lies in camouflaging such lyrics in a package of seemingly harmless style of musical inspiration. Even the song names do not give away anything, couple of listens and you get a feel that the psychedelic and the blues influences are used in a uniquely strange way, it actually intrigued me to dig more deep which ended up opening a Pandora's box.

The lyrics cracked opened a whole new dimension to the Road Salt experience which literally killed my initial impression of music being a tad shallow. In fact, the unparalleled intensity of the lyrics is matched only by the vocals, the experience is almost like watching a movie shot in an uncomfortably silent mansion deserted following a violent death. The songs tend to accentuate a tussle between the sense of morality and dark eroticism. The lyrics are blunt, blatant and shows no discretion when expressing the train of thoughts plaguing the subject's mind. The frivolous old school romance is replaced with imagery created by poetry describing the desires which can find a place only in the lyrics of a black metal album.

This record does seems to tell a story, the starting is revolving around the thoughts of a character who loses his girl to another guy, the lyrics emphasize how the reasons for his abandonment is not clear to him even though deep down he seem to know them but still prefers the mode of denial. "Sisters" is a kick ass haunting track, complete funereal like ambiance writing about the events and thoughts which seems to make the guy get infatuated by his ex-lover's sister, this is a really extreme quality creation, totally sets the mood. Following tracks unravels and explores how his desires over power his conscience and turns into complete prurience, the lyrics tend to reiterate the feelings of the guy as mostly physical but with intense passion. The two songs "Sleeping Under The Stars" & "Darkness Of Mine" signify the craving for lecherous dark eroticism but the same is not the case with the female who seems to get hurt for reasons which are possibly related to the one dimensional instincts which the guy exhibits to her, this is very much emphasized by the track "Curiosity". The record does end with a feel of contemplation amplified by the song "Innocence" but hardly undoes the carnage of the previous eleven songs.

Gildenlöw made music even more enigmatic, i could have never imagined how lyrics can subdue the ambiance created by music, how a seemingly simple rock music record can burgeon into an inferno. The mastery of Gildenlöw is visible in the method in which he made his point, this record proves beyond doubt that the soul of the music is the feel not the genre influences, in other words an old school blues influenced rock and roll mixed with ample lyrical imagery can do the same job as black metal record. The vocals are beyond the description of words, this is exactly what makes you analyze the music more, the immense feel is like a ticking nuclear arsenal which creates a holocaust when you explore the lyrics.

The compositions are simple, there are no progressive elements at all, no riffs, no lengthy songs, we can see a good deal of Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin & Blue Oyster Cult influences. "Curiosity" is one of those songs which also has a very heavy alternative rock influence, mainly due to the vocals and drumming, same is the case with "No Way". It won't be an over statement if I say that the bluesy "She Likes To Hide" is like Gildenlöw's retort to Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" and "Sleeping Under The Stars" could be how the "Whole Lotta Love" would have been made if it was done now. In the end when you get lost in the transcending spirit of this creation the relevance of all the musical influences pale in comparison with the sheer brilliance of vocals and lyrics which together form the crux of this ravaging record.