Entropia (1997) - Pain of Salvation

Entropia - Pain of Salvation

No, Mr Goldblum, it's got nothing to do with chaos theory; Entropia is in fact Pain of Salvation's debut effort into the wacky and wonderful world of progressive metal. For any of my non-existent readers that are unaware of the exact history of this band;

1. Kill yourselves
2. You should know that PoS might as well be called the Danny G show, as the guitarist/singer Daniel Gildenlöw has written all music and lyrics for all the albums and plays most of the parts, and is currently the only original member left in. Here's an interesting graph that shows how long the other THIRTEEN members of the band lasted before they were shown the door (note that the 13th member (aside from Danny G) was kicked out before the graph starts, hence is not on the graph)

Taking a Lord Sugar approach to hiring team members

What makes Entropia particularly interesting is that it's the only album where Danny G has let a mere mortal interfere with his gift of music to the masses: the guitarist Daniel Magdic co-wrote much of the album's instrumental and vocal parts. The other thing that makes Entropia interesting is that it's fucking sick.

The album tells the story of a soldier's family's fate in a world called "Entropia", but might as well be called Earth as Danny G has essentially mirrored every aspect of our society in Entropia. That begs the question of why he bothered in the first place but we'll let that slide because

Without further ado here's the track listing:

1. ! (Foreword) (I can only assume this song is named after the noise guards make in MGS)
2. Welcome to Entropia
3. Winning a War
4. People Passing By
5. Oblivion Ocean
6. Stress
7. Revival
8. Void of Her
9. To The End
10. Never Learn To Fly (Japanese bonus track (wtf))
11. Circles
12. Nightmist
13. Plains of Dawn
14. Leaving Entropia (Epilogue)

Across the breadth of the fourteen songs - which is quite a few songs for a prog album, a staple of Pain of Salvation's "No Epics" approach that links all the tracks together - the fate of the three characters; the soldier, his wife and their child is mapped out to a chilling end. Aside from the opening and closing tracks (and the Japanese bonus track, but you probably won't hear that anyway), each song involves itself with a different part of the demise of these three essentially innocent characters - a demise that can only be blamed on Entropia (read: society) itself. 

To make this concept even more effective (albeit less accessible to the average listener who doesn't analyse the lyrics before listening to the album) much of the story is not told in chronological order. In track three "Winning a War" the soldier goes to war "leaving reason behind" along with his wife and son. This track itself tries to be pretty poignant (look up the lyrics, I don't have time here), but I simply don't think that at this point in PoS's career that Danny G has reached the level of lyrical maturity that we'll see later on. In any case, the point is that "Winning a War" begins the chronology of the album, but the next song "People Passing By" happens a long time in the future, long after the soldier returns from the war. My chronological order for the story of the album goes as such:

1. To The End
2. Void of Her
3. Revival
4. Oblivion Ocean
5. Stress
6. People Passing By/Circles
7. Nightmist
8. Plains of Dawn

This begins with the soldier's war, continues with the death of his wife "To The End", then to the death of his child "Oblivion Ocean" then to his own death and ascendance "Nightmist/Plains of Dawn". Ok, now that we've got that out of the way we can talk about how the songs fit together, which is pretty cool.

The centrepiece of this album is without a doubt the fourth track, "People Passing By" which is not only the best thing your ears will ever be graced with, but also contains the key to many of the other tracks. For example the final melody to "Still could be strong, could be prophet" (nice grammar there Danny...) is the guitar melody from "Void of Her" and the lyrics are recycled in "Void of Her", "Circles" and "Leaving Entropia". I really like this kind of unity within an album as it makes all the tracks feel like part of one conclusive whole. When you give this album a listen (and you will!), I'm sure you'll notice many of the nuances that bring the separate parts together. But.

There's always a but. I suppose it's much easier to talk about things that could be better than things that couldn't although I always feel a bit bad. In any case, there are a few of the dreaded buts to come, as well as lots of things I do like. Although there is this central connection to "People Passing By" (aka "the eargasm"), much of the rest of the album is pretty paratactic, both in its connection to other songs and in its internal structure. Take for example the song "Nightmist". Although the lyrics continue the concept of the album in an interesting way, the music really makes no sense. The song is about the soldier's eventual death on the streets of Entropia, moving through the so-called nightmist to the other side. However the musical themes of the song simply do not connect with anything else in the album. You'd think the death of the father/husband might share some similarities with the death of the wife ("To The End") or of the child ("Oblivion Ocean"), but thematically there's no link! It's a concept album, but such obvious links as death and war in other pieces seem to have slipped their mind while writing, which is a real shame because in later albums such as Remedy Lane, BE and The Perfect Element Part I they hone this ability down to a tee. I blame Daniel Magdic for this entirely because

and also because the quality of organicism, lyrics and music only goes up from here in the band's history. 

It's mostly this kind of disconnectivity throughout the album that stops me labelling it as an ultimate prog album. This does not stop me labelling it as a good metal album. As far as PoS goes, Entropia is pretty damn heavy. In fact, as far as much prog goes, Entropia is pretty heavy. Luckily Danny G never engages in growling or screamo, instead only gracing us with his perfect singing voice, but instrumentally this album is pretty brutal. We're looking particularly at songs such as "To The End", "Winning a War" and some parts of "Stress" and "Revival". It's these heavy bits, however, that make the album a little less outstanding than it could be, because at these points you could be listening to anything. It could be Symphony X, Opeth or even Dream Theater's "Train of Thought". It's not the Pain of Salvation that I know and love. 

Saying this, there are lots of things that I do love about this album. The aforementioned "People Passing By" is one such instance. From start to finish, this piece is better than a cold shower after a day of lifting rocks in the midst of the Sahara desert surrounded by salamanders who are only kept at bay by a dragon with particularly bad breath. It's so good that I've set it as my ringtone. The introductory bassline is sublime, coupled with Danny's utterance of "Daybreak" (followed later in the piece by "Midday" and "Goodnight"), along with the thought-provoking lyrics about how we just "pass by" with "smiles for protection" and its intriguing chronological placement in the album. The best part of the song, however, is the guitar solo right at the end, which blows all four of my testicles off every time I listen to it. Thanks Danny!

I'll quickly blitz though some other personal highlights:

1. The intro to stress
2. The chorus "I'm not afraid" in "! (Foreword)"
3. Danny's heart-wrenching vocal harmonies in "Plains of Dawn"
4. LISTEN TO HIS VOICE AT 4:33 OF "NIGHTMIST" AND TELL ME YOU DIDN'T DIE

But aside from those in particular, there's no point in me going into descriptive mode and simply writing about the audible aspects of the album that I like. You can hear those and make your own mind up about them without me telling you what to like. The main element of this album I wanted to point out was the concept, how it's dealt with and some links between songs. I think this last point is important, especially when compared to later albums as (like I stated above) Danny's total control of music and lyrics in future is certainly a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

The Good: The songs themselves are, generally, of excellent standard. When you begin to appreciate the concept behind the album (lyrics) along with the instrumental prowess, this becomes at the very least an interesting album. You won't get bored. However I think it deserves a lot more than that. Danny G's incredible vocal talent alone makes any PoS album worth listening to and this is no different. Also songs like "Stress" and "People Passing By" are certainly worth a listen even if you hate the rest of the album.

The "To be improved": As I said, the songs aren't all that connected in this album which is a shame. Watch out for that later. In addition, the ones co written by Magdic do lack a certain subtlety that the thought-provoking lyrics of later albums provide. The main problem to be overcome. however, is the spread of generic metal riffs, solos and lines throughout the album. They don't sound original - and if there's one thing I associate PoS with, it's original. They never please all their fans, but they don't piss about with what they want to do and that's something I really respect. Except in this album. I'll give them a break though, it's only their first try. And for a first try it's pretty incredible.

So what's the verdict? Because I hate assigning an arbitrary number to anything, all my ratings are done on a scale of "One to Coma", One being disgustingly awful and Coma being so good that it sends me into unconsciousness on the spot. I'd say this album scores a pretty solid 

Pot of Rainbow Gold

See you next time

~Foster