Pain Of Salvation

Pumpehuset, Copenhagen - 2012

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

After the excellent support offered by Cryptex, we were all now pumped for the arrival of the main act of the night, Pain Of Salvation. As I had checked an earlier setlist from this tour out on the net, I was wondering how a set of mostly slower, emotional songs would bear up against the energy discharge that Cryptex had delivered...

”We’re Pain Of Salvation, you’re Denmark. Let’s have sex!”
- Daniel Gildenlöw (vocals/guitar)


Well, as soon as the comic flute edition of the 20th Century Fox theme was finished, Pain Of Salvation dived head first into the song Softly She Cries, the real opener of the latest album, Road Salt Two, and as soon as they did this, my thoughts of an easy going night was quickly laid to rest – Pain Of Salvation was rocking the roof of this building! On that note, I’d like to sidetrack for a second and mention that it was Pumpehuset they were playing, and that this was my first visit to the larger stage on the upper floor since the reopening of this place, and man was I glad to be back. The people behind Pumpehuset had done a really nice job with the place, and both lights and especially sound was as close to perfection as I have ever heard at a live event, and what better show than this to show this spectacle off with?

The band had a few new faces amongst the ranks – keys had shifted hands from Fredrik Hermansson to Daniel Karlsson, bass saw the return of Gustaf Hielm (of Meshuggah fame), and finally on guitars we were sad to see the departure of the charismatic Johan Hallgren but were glad to welcome Icelandic hot-shot Ragnar Zolberg. All of these men were, not surprisingly, very skilled in their various fields and seasoned performers as well, so the only note here goes out to Mr. Zolberg. Please loose the eye make-up; it looks childish and frankly quite silly, and it doesn’t play well with as mature and serious a band that Pain Of Salvation is. Looking beyond this little flaw however, the man played excellently and did a great job on the backing vocals as well. I wouldn’t worry too much about the personnel change, Pain Of Salvation was clearly still lean, mean rocking machine!

At the same time, back at the gig...
Yes, Pain Of Salvation was proving that even though several of the songs in the setlist were of a slower persuasion, it did not mean that a metal crowd should be bored watching the band; the performance was as wild and intense as anything you could hope for!
The way they had built the stage, with the drums on the very front of the stage and several plateaus in the back allowed for a versatile and lively show, and especially Gildenlöw and Zolberg made good use of this to move around the place when they weren’t locked at the mic’s singing.
Jumping ahead for a bit, the band also mixed things up a bit for the encore which began with the band simply jamming for a while, but with the noticeable difference in the line-up that Gildenlöw had now taken over drum-duties, something he was apparently perfectly at ease in doing, and I was impressed with his expertise in playing. But where was Léo Margarit?
This was soon revealed as the jamming seamlessly moved over into a cover of The Moody Blues’ classic hit Nights In White Satin, which saw the Frenchman take the role as main vocalist, again taking this reporter aback with the sheer multi-instrumental skill of all the members of this band!
The multi-instrumentalism also came to its right in the Road Salt Two track Healing Now, which saw the whole band shift to an acoustic outfit using mandolins instead to capture the right sound and atmosphere of the song...

I mentioned that Pain Of Salvation was delivering a show which should not bore a metal crowd, and from the people around me it was easy to see that this wasn’t something that was about to happen either.
Even though the numbers easily could, and should, have been bigger (a mere 150 paying guests I was informed), the crowd was loud and rowdy. I can’t count the many sing-along’s and rhythmic applause this show saw, but trust me, there was a lot of this going round, and the band seemed genuinely pleased with what they saw and heard. For this we were rewarded with an extra encore song in the form of the beautiful Sisters, although it might not have been so special after all if one were to listen closely to what Gildenlöw said when he introduced it; ”...you, and the rest of Europe...”
Well, special or not, this track proved to be the perfect way of rounding off a perfect evening. I know some were missing Disco Queen (this was shouted as a suggestion from time to time during the gig), but I must say that even with my love for this particular track, I have a hard time seeing how it would fit in the current set the band was touring with.

Lunah Lauridsen, our photographer might have called it first, but I whole-heartedly agree with her that this was, so far, the best concert of the year, and even though I know we have only reached the middle of March, I have a feeling it will stay in this position for a very long time. Cryptex came like a lighting out of a blue sky, and I can honestly say that I have never seen Pain Of Salvation better than this; their performance was a gripping and emotional roller-coaster, in a good way. Denmark, pull yourself together and pay up next time these guys are in town, it doesn’t come much better than this!

Setlist:

Road Salt Theme
Softly She Cries
Ashes
Linoleum
The Deeper Cut
1979
To The Shoreline
Iter Impius
Chain Sling
The Perfect Element
Stress
Kingdom Of Loss
Healing Now
No Way
Jam Session
Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues cover)
Enter Rain
The Physics Of Gridlock
Sisters

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