Prog Stories: Pain of Salvation's Remedy Lane

1st Listen.

I didn’t pay much attention to individual tracks. At first I was impressed by the clever use of blast beats in ... was it Fandango? or Ending Theme? or A Trace of Blood? But by song’s end I thought they’d been overused, which is what I almost always think is true of blast beats. I didn’t like the repeating spoken word bit in Ending Theme, but I liked the moment later in the song when it gets developed and escalated. I sat up and took notice as one song was ending, thinking, “Oh, that was quite good,” so I checked the name: Rope Ends. I must have played Chain Sling several times way back when I first tried to get into this album, because the riff and melodies were familiar. Great song. I thought I remembered liking Dryad of the Woods in the past too, but this time was only impressed by one section of what I guess would be called the main riff. Second Love was impressive too, but negatively. I hadn’t loved what I remember as the album’s other ballad, This Heart of Mine (I Pledge), but the lyrics seemed compelling. This song I straight-up disliked (in the vague way that I dislike songs on albums I know I will replay; a kind of uncommitted, wavery dislike). It sounded like a cliche of a power ballad. As in: this is exactly the kind of ballad that a metal band would try to write. It made me think how much better Daniel became at writing slow/pretty/melodic songs come Road Salt. Beyond the Pale, though! A lot of terrific guitar parts! Great guitar tone. Great doomy mood. Great vocals. I had just relistened to the back half of Road Salt Two, an album in which I love the songwriting but, in a certain sense, or on certain songs, like 1979, especially dislike Daniel’s approach to singing. He can be emotive to the point of theatricality, and on a soft song like 1979, I find it grating. The words are great, the melodies are great, the arrangement is great; but then there’s Daniel “oversinging” (as I would put it to myself, while of course knowing and respecting how much artful satisfaction that kind of singing gives Daniel, and of course how many fans, including you Zaya, love it; it’s my failing that I can’t enjoy Daniel’s approach to vocals, not his). I think you really nailed an aspect of my taste when you said I prefer when lyrics speak for themselves. I would clarify that as lyrics plus melodies (and arrangement). I like to be pushed into feeling something by the musical tone of the song, and I want to hear the lyrics and be able to make the emotional connections myself. I like when heavy lyrics are understated. This is not always and exactly true, because I do love some vocalists who emote a lot, like John Lennon and Roger Waters. So there’s more to this aspect of my taste than just resistance to emotiveness. I haven’t figured out exactly how it works yet. Anyway, what Beyond the Pale got me to think is that maybe I prefer when Pain of Salvation makes a musically great heavy song instead of a musically great soft song, because in the heavy songs, Daniel’s dramatic approach doesn’t stand out as much: there’s so much other complex, dramatic noise going on. In softer things like (let’s say) Second Love or 1979, the vocals are so much at center stage that I can be more bothered by them. Perhaps Panther is my favorite Pain of Salvation album because it’s almost relentlessly heavy and fast; maybe also because I think the electronic treatments sound great when mixed with Daniel’s vocal approach; and maybe also because he’s tempering his own emotiveness vocally? I still hear a little bit of that 1979-vocal thing in the soft parts of Icon, but it isn’t strong enough to throw me off. Even in In the Passing Light of Day, where there is still definitely a lot of emotional singing, it doesn’t interfere with my enjoyment the way it does in Road Salt or in Remedy Lane’s ballads.

2nd Listen.

Already starting to love this album. I’m writing this paragraph with A Trace of Blood paused halfway through. I enjoyed each of the first three tracks this time, and found myself beginning to notice interesting differences between the songs, and cool parts in each. Earlier today I listened to Progcast’s episode about the Pain of Salvation discography. It included snippets of Daniel talking about each album, from the perspective of 2020 and Panther’s impending release. One of the things he says about Remedy Lane is that he wrote the whole album really fast to make sure that the band would have new stuff ready to sell when they opened for Dream Theater. Writing so many new songs in a hurry, he decided to let his emotions come out basically unfiltered, straight out of the (apparently dismal) place that he found himself in at that time in his life. That knowledge is coloring my listening in an interesting way. I’m gearing myself to hear the urgency and honesty, and I am hearing it, and enjoying it. In the interview Daniel also talks about how Ending Theme was written as a parody of some “whiny” (Daniel’s word) hard rock or metal band. That contextualized the dumb dramatic delivery of “To be honest, I don’t know what I’m looking for,” and on this second listen, with what Daniel said in mind, it made me laugh out loud. But parodies have a way of propelling a writer deeper than they perhaps originally intend to go, and the initially silly-seeming spoken word stuff actually became my favorite thing about the song this time. Perhaps it was intended in a spirit of satire, but then Daniel the writer got into it, realizing the potential inherent in “whininess,” and inadvertently (or, who knows, painstakingly?) making it work.

Listening further: I get why Rope Ends stood out. It’s the catchy chorus.

Terrific outro on Dryad of the Woods. More of the guitar melodies in the early parts of the song stood out this time, too. There’s a curiously ... mid-’90s ...? sheen to the guitar tone. Or a bit of late ‘80s, even! Maybe it’s the classic metal influence? Definitely doesn’t sound like something I’d expect to hear on an album recorded in 2001. Ever since you told me (between the first and second paragraph of this 2nd listen section) that the album got remixed in 2016, I’ve been paying more attention to the mix, and not hearing problems, so I’m curious what an authorized remix will emphasize. Also, I forgot to mention this in the above paragraph, but—especially in one of the opening songs, maybe Of Two Beginnings?—it’s interesting that there’s so much of what sounds to me like nu metal influence. Not only on the song I have in mind, but to some extent throughout the whole album. Nu metal with harmonies? Sounds like an oxymoron! But that’s one of the cool things about Daniel, in terms of what I’ve gathered from the interviews I’ve read or listened to, that he listens to very little prog himself, but brings in what he loves about different kinds of songs from other genres into his own band’s pungent prog stew.

I’ve had this thought several times, and here it is again during Waking Every God: I don’t like the guitar solos on the album. Which goes against expectations, in that I love the guitar solos on Road Salt. Only eight years separate them. Did they change lead guitarists, or did Daniel just get better at writing guitar solos?

Agh! A clarification of why Second Love stood out to me badly! The rhyming! “night / bright / tonight” ... well, it’s not the end-ryhmes themselves that bother me, but that nothing interesting happens in the words inbetween. I feel like a lot of songwriters feel they have to rhyme, because that’s what songs do, they rhyme. This reads as lack of creativity to me. If you just like rhyming, if you enjoy the challenge of finding surprising routes to commonplace or predictable endposts, that’s one thing, and of course if you’re Eminem then it’s another thing altogether, but it seems that so often songwriters rhyme because they think that they have to, and they don’t look for or can’t find ways to make the rhymes feel new or unexpected... I think I rant about this in the Dylan series, Zaya, so you’ll get to see me being more articulate about the issue there. Anyway, I’m bobbing my head to Second Love’s chorus.

And what! Here already are the great guitars of Beyond the Pale! This listen to the album felt FAST. I like the line that goes something like, “We’re always more human than we wish to be.”

Oh yeah, hey—exactly halfway through Beyond the Pale (before a solo that’s a little, only a little, more to my tastes than usual... Kirk Hammet-esque) there’s a nu metal breakdown. Maybe it’s just Daniel’s gruff rapping style in this era? Come Scarsick (I think... been a while since I heard Scarsick) and definitely Panther, he’s rapping more conversationally.

I like the moment around 8:45, when the bombatic choruses make way for the return of that cool, brittle-sounding rhythm guitar.

3rd Listen.

Guitar solos aside, I like pretty much everything about Ending Theme. Great black metal synths in the background. Good lift on the chorus.

Ah, the song I had in mind with the blast beats is Fandango. I love the electric guitar/piano (later just piano) riff. Daniel does great singing to/around it in the verses. The choral style singing around three minutes gives me very welcome Dancing Mad vibes. (I didn’t notice anything special about Of Two Beginnings this time around, and can’t hum it yet, but I know I enjoy it. It’s really quite a strong three-song opening punch.) Oh! I was wondering what other familiar tonal note I keep hearing in Fandango. It’s Origin of Symmetry-era Muse! Now that I check, they’re both from basically the same time! Origin of Symmetry out in 2001, Remedy Lane in 2002.

The frantic, tinkly piano part at the beginning of A Trace of Blood makes me think of F-Zero for Super Nintendo. Ah, and this is the song that first made me think about nu metal. It’s Daniel’s “doo-diggity-doo-hya!” backing/rhythm vocals. It’s an oddly cheerful and campy-sounding song for being about a miscarriage. But I’m all for happy-sounding songs with sad lyrics, and sad-sounding songs with happy lyrics. I’ve written a lot of the latter kind myself.

Very pretty, atmospheric intro to This Heart of Mine, great contrast after A Trace of Blood. But now that I’ve noticed how good the verses sound, I find I like the chorus less. The bridge seems merely decent.

Another good transition, into the opening riff of Undertow. The rhythm guitar tone (here and elsewhere on the album) puts me in mind of System of a Down, but with grungy early-’90s Alice in Chains reverb. Interesting sound. Listening to Undertow now, I’m reminded that after the first listen, I wanted to complain about how tonally uniform the album is (with a few obvious exceptions: Dryad of the Woods, the power ballads, Beyond the Pale), especially compared to a later work like In the Passing Light of Day. But now I’m noticing that in fact there’s no shortage of dynamic peaks and valleys: most songs are in “go! go! go!” mode, but there are definitely ups and downs, accelerations and decelerations.

Cool rhythm/tempo shift a little over a minute into Rope Ends. And I never registered this jazzy breakdown in the middle before. Hearing Rope Ends this time, I’m reminded of what you said once about In the Passing Light of Day, that it’s an album full of things the band had already done better in earlier albums. Often, as I listen to Remedy Lane, I find myself thinking, “Yeah, this is cool, but I like it better when they do it on In the Passing Light of Day!”

Dryad of the Woods sure is pretty. I love how the drums drop in and out. Would you believe that I’ve met a professional musician who once said to me that all ride cymbals sound bad when they’re recorded in the studio? Opposed to the ride in principle! How could one be! Dryad of the Woods, case in point. And ohhhh that outro. Especially just as it’s starting, so good. The last twenty seconds, excellent too.

I’ve heard the title track three times now, yet still nothing stands out. The same is true of Waking Every God.

Second Love has me head-bopping again. What a pretty chorus. It may be a cliched power ballad, but it’s a good cliched power ballad! Unexpectedly, another System of a Down connection comes to mind: the arpeggiated guitar at the beginning and at the end sounds like Lost in Hollywood. Again with the almost-overlapping time/sound-threads spread around the world. Muse and Pain, Pain and System. Mezmerize was just a couple years away. 

Beyond the Pale is my clear favorite for now. The riff that comes in around 2:30! I don’t love the chorus (aka the part that starts around 2:50) or the ... second chorus (3:05 or thereabouts)? But all the other parts in this lavishly long song are pretty awesome.

4th Listen.

Woke up in the morning with Chain Sling in my head.

You reminded me I should count some thoroughly distracted listens in among the six, which I did this morning, walking back from work, my attention mostly on, alternately, Death Masks and the street. The impressions that broke through nevertheless were these.

There is a great moment in one of the first two songs, where very gruff vocals suddenly give way to beautiful, ethereal singing.

I haven’t done a “listen while reading the lyrics” listen yet, or even explored the album concept, so take the following complaint with the grain of salt it deserves. Originally, back in Listen One, I was intrigued by the lyrics of This Heart of Mine despite music that didn’t click with me. This time, it was the lyrics that jarred. In the interviews I listened to recently, Daniel spoke about how much he values profound simplicity as a lyric style. (Little wonder he treasures Leonard Cohen!) I love that kind of lyric-writing too. Now, keeping in mind my complete lack of context (which could well render the words meaningful or even chilling, as in our recently-discussed “this is just/not a test” example in Restless Boy) I hear a big distance between “I will wake you with a smile / I will hold you when you cry / I will love you till I die” and “I’m mostly doing fine / They rarely see me cry / But you are always on my mind.” Of course part of that is the music, the simple fact that musically I like Icon better than This Heart of Mine. But it also seems to me a serious improvement in lyricism. It’s a heartening thing: figure out what you want, push forward in that direction, and in twenty years you might really get somewhere.

My single favorite moment on the album is the first time Daniel sings “walking down remedy lane through this interlude of paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!”

I love how in Dryad of the Woods, the drums are markedly behind the beat. The instruments do their well-timed thing and the drums follow, like sadness trailing behind a pensive walker. I’ve heard from more knowledgeable music-folk that there are two ways of drumming, just ahead of the beat or just behind it. Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers is an example of the former. Dryad here is a glorious example of the latter.

Mixed feelings about Dryad’s outro on this listen. I really like the way it begins, and I like it again right at the end, when the piano comes in. Not so sure about the stretch in the middle.

There’s finally a section of Waking Every God that I noticed liking, the one around 2:20.

Hearing Beyond the Pale this time, I noticed how many sections of the song I’m not enamored of. It’s weird, but as I listen to Remedy Lane more, it seems that as some songs grow on me, others that I was impressed with early on (Rope Ends, Beyond the Pale) recede a little. Nonetheless (he writes, later that same evening) various bits of various tracks run through my head often, and sound good there.

The “favorite track right now” throne has been usurped by Fandango.

4.5th Listen.

This was a listen to the officially released 2014 live version. Starting the concert with the title track (the studio version, played through venue speakers, sounds like?) was epic, and it made me realize that, unbeknownst to my own self, I do like it and am even able to hum along with some of its melodies. Definitely got me pumped. Then the first three songs were SUCH a blast. It’s truly a great opening trio. I don’t love every moment in all three songs, but their cumulative effect is awesome.

We were just talking about Ragnar, and here he is on Remedy Lane... damn I love Ragnar... such a pity he and Daniel couldn’t have kept their partnership going for at least a few more albums (and tours). SO much potential.

In the interview where Daniel goes through the Pain of Salvation discography, he mentions that many of the differences in tone and sound that will stand out to someone who is listening through the studio discography, fall away when the band plays live. Remedy Lane live is a case in point. Fandango, of all songs, sounds like it could be on Road Salt!

On this listen I got really into the refrain of A Trace of Blood. Also started to really register the sadness in the lyrics.

I love how the crowd hums along with the opening riff in Undertow. I have zero interest in performing my own songs live, but when I listen to the crowd’s appreciation in this show, I get how performing for people who love your music could become addictive.

I still don’t love all the songs but I definitely like them all. The precise expression that came into my mind at one point as the live Undertow was building its head of steam was “banger after banger.” And MAN does Ragnar do a great job with this song. Only now that I’ve heard him singing lead on it, do I realize what a powerful song it is. 

 

5th Listen.

An insight into why the live version, which is mostly so faithful to the original, sounds more like the late albums I’ve come to know and love: no nu metal scatting! Also because the original guitar and bass tones weren’t replicated live.

A Trace of Blood has definitely grown on me. I like the lyrics that I catch and the melody in the main chorus.

I like the way the lyrics at the end of This Heart of Mine offset, or contextualize, the lyrics earlier in the song.

The fifth listen got paused after This Heart of Mine because I arrived home from work. Vanya had just woken up, so I got to spend time with her and play with her. I found myself singing something to her over and over, and noticed it was something from Remedy Lane. I figured it was one of the songs I had heard on the walk home from work. I tried to think through them, then had to grab the Walkman and investigate. Of Two Beginnings? No... Ending Theme? No... probably Fandango! But no... A Trace of Blood, no... definitely not This Heart of Mine... obviously not Undertow... turns out that it was the chorus of Rope Ends! The song is back in favor! Pulled some stunt behind my back. And indeed, when I listened to Rope Ends again, continuing Listen 5, I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

I’m listening to the 2016 remix this time. Looks like I would need to be much more familiar with the original mix to notice the differences. But the piano sound in Undertow stood out to me in a way it hadn’t before, and for the first time I noticed the great drum beat behind the verse (starting around 1:26), and that canned sound of the drums!

Daniel doesn’t do a bad job, certainly, but I think Ragnar sang Undertow a lot better...!

Chain Sling is just excellent. I love the way the lyrics fit around the sneaky, oddly-timed riff. The “I am so, so sorry but if you love me, you must let go” bit is great.

For the first time, I noticed the Ending Theme reprise in the title track. Cool!

Waking Every God is definitely my least favorite track. I’ve heard it six times and I still can’t remember anything about it except that it’s heavy. Maybe the upcoming Lyric Read-along Listen/Listen 6 will make a difference. If even the lyrics don’t help, then one of these days I should probably play it on repeat thirty times in a row and see what happens. I’ve come around on many a song in that manner.

I love that “main”/organ(?) riff in Beyond the Pale. So wonderfully timed, with the missing and added beats, and then the two-beat vocal aggressiveness between riff repetitions. I was singing it to Vanya earlier...

6th Listen.

Finally reading along with the lyrics, including the dates next to the song titles and the unsung material. I think it’s cool that there is unsung material. Dryad of the Woods and the title track actually “have” “lyrics” !

I enjoyed following the story and characters back and forth across time, but none of the songs had lyrics that made my appreciation for the song grow. Maybe Undertow. I like the injections of uncertainty: “probably to survive,” “maybe to proceed.” But mostly now when I hear Undertow I just wish it were the version with Ragnar! Overall my conclusion from these six listens is that I like the 2014 live Remedy Lane considerably more than either mix of the studio version.

Waking Every God did benefit a little from my reading along with the lyrics. I like the first and second choruses, and the way the emotional emphasis changes. But once again I can’t bring any musical elements of the song to mind. When I look at the lyrics I can hum that main chorus, but when I look away—the melody is gone again.

I noticed that Chain Sling has the riff I love in Beyond the Pale, and that Remedy Lane reprises Rope Ends as well as Ending Theme. There must be other throw-backs or toss-forwards that I haven’t caught yet, both in the title track and throughout the album as a whole.

Final ranking of the tracks! Just for fun! Of course future listens will bounce these around further, but especially given all the jostling the tracks have endured already, it feels nice to instill a semblance of order. Even if it can’t last long.

1. Beyond the Pale (yep, back on top... the parts I find bland I still find bland, but the good parts are too good)

2. Undertow (if I’m allowed to rank the Ragnar Zolberg version; if not, slot it below Fandango)

3. Dryad of the Woods (ultimately all six minutes are irresistibly pretty, and the song is well-sequenced, a great resting place in the middle of the album; plus the unsung lyrics are good)

4. Chain Sling (also better live, with Ragnar taking the refrains, but I’ve got nothing to fault the studio version for)

5. Ending Theme (the “whiny” spoken word elements remain my favorite thing about the song; they even gain some lyrical resonance in context! ... more and more often I get up from my chair and head to the kitchen, or leave the bedroom and proceed to the living room, and discover upon arrival that I have no idea why I got up and why I went there, which makes me tempted to permanently incorporate the sentence “To be honest, I don’t know what I’m looking for” into my daily life, of course following Daniel’s cadence exactly)

6. Fandango

7. A Trace of Blood

8. Second Love (no denying that catchy chorus; I strongly dislike the lyrics but I still sing along)

9. Remedy Lane

10. Rope Ends

11. Of Two Beginnings (but if I could rank it together with Ending Theme and Fandango as a single extended opening sequence, it’d top Beyond the Pale)

12. This Heart of Mine (I Pledge)

13. Waking Every God