1st Listen.
Back around 2010, when you and I did our Top 100 Albums projects (we’ve talked about updating since then but never actually plunged in, right?) I spent a good deal of time with this album. I’ve come back to it now and then over the years, too. So these will be 6 Listens of Rediscovery rather than, as in all other cases but Scarsick, which I’ve heard a few times but not nearly as much as “BE”, 6 Listens of Discovery.
By the time I hit Breaching the Core, I was flabbergasted. How could I have thought that the Pain of Salvation I love best gets its start in “Road Salt, maybe Scarsick” as my party line goes, and not here in “BE” ?! This is not just a few steps but a massive leap ahead of Remedy Lane in basically every element that matters to me: melodies, tones, arrangements, dynamics, concept. Of the nine first tracks, the only one that didn’t captivate me on this first-listen-in-a-long-while was, actually, Vocari Dei, but of course there’s not much wrong with it either. Three songs had revealed themselves as just WHAT THE, THIS IS UNEARTHLY-GOOD, namely Imago, Dea Pecuniae (every minute, every section), and Breaching the Core. Pluvius Aestivus, Lilium Cruentus, and Nauticus are great too. How could I have remembered this album as anything short of brilliant?
I soon had the answer: because I have yet to fall for any of the songs after Breaching the Core. 25 minutes is a substantial stretch! The Imago reprise at the end is fine, with a nice new riff and of course amazing drumming, but I think for me it’s a case of “too little, too late.” So the big question in the five listens ahead is whether Nihil Morari (I do like the opening riff here, and part of it reprises Deus Nova, which of course I like), Latericius Valete, Omni, and Iter Impius will grow on me.
The concept/story is ambitious and creative, but it too drops off for me in the last stretch. Daniel doesn’t make the end of the world interesting enough.
2nd Listen.
I feel like Daniel should have found better actors to play God. God’s speeches are well-written, captivating even, but delivered so blandly! Is it meant as an intentional foreshadowing of what happens to Mr. Money at album’s end? Or as a reflection of God’s lack of self-knowledge at album’s start? But the sentiments expressed in the lines don’t lack passion. Whatever the case, I think the blandness of delivery harms the project. I love that there are different voices speaking as God (and I love the harsh scary one that comes rolling across the field of sound sometimes) but none of them sound committed! They sound like they only just saw the lines, like the band used the first take of their read-through.
The anxious piano that starts Deus Nova! Goosebumps. I feel like Daniel learned a lot about drama (as in, a sense of the dramatic, not the artform that happens on a stage, although I bet Daniel studied a lot of that too... hmm, I know what my 4.5th listen will be this time) in the mere year that separates Remedy Lane from “BE”. And it also goes to show just how much I’ve learned to appreciate Daniel’s brand of camp over my long years of wrestling with his band. I remember that, way back when I first tried “BE”, which as you may recall was the first Pain of Salvation album I ever heard, I hated the way Daniel recites the year and population figures in Deus Nova and Nihil Morari. Now? LOVE it. He doesn’t sound stupid to me anymore, he sounds as purposefully unhinged and excited as the music. And such music! The guitar sound is phenomenal! It kicks the ass of every guitar on Remedy Lane. Even the guitar solo rules in Deus Nova. So frantic. And I love the nature field-recording sounds that accompany God’s creation narrative at the end of the track. Very Pink Floyd.
Imago is simply one of the best folk-rock songs I have ever heard. In this listener’s Folk-Rock Valhalla, Imago is right there with the best of Jethro Tull. Daniel sounds so good when he sings low. Sometimes I like it when he wails way up high (he’s in command of six octaves, I think I read...?) but I always like it when he goes low. Of course he goes even lower soon on Nauticus. But there’s such melodic timber in his delivery on Imago!
Now I notice that the riff which begins the Imago reprise in Nauticus II is in fact present in Imago too. I had thought it was a new riff set to the old chords, but instead it’s a formerly background part made prominent. Either way, it’s cool.
The Riff (I can only mean one riff) has shades of System of a Down again, I think! I was singing along with it today, and found myself inadvertently slipping into a Serj Tankian “la la la” delivery. Perfect match.
The Imago drumbeat is unreal.
Wild beauty in Pluvius Aestivus. Dryad of the Woods is great, but this is how you deliver an instrumental. I generally would much rather do without string arrangements in my rock/folk/whatever music, unless the strings are doing something abrasive or weird, like throughout A Moon Shaped Pool or anywhere Warren Ellis of the Dirty Three and the Bad Seeds appears; but here the strings are used traditionally, and yet I love the part that they play.
Lilium Cruentus seems to sit outside the album, somehow. Maybe it’s the first-person, almost story-style lyrics? It’s personal and vulnerable in a way that nothing but Vocari Dei, and maybe Iter Impius, are on “BE”. I love the instrument (a recorder? an organ?) that plays the main riff in the verses.
Nauticus: the Road Salt before Road Salt. Speaking of learning to love Daniel’s inclination for the dramatic and the funny, oh the dialogue that leads into Dea Pecuniae! “I mean, of course I was joking ...................... I would never let you drive my car...”
Vocari Dei seems to have a bit of that retro production vibe going, with the gloss on all the instruments, especially the acoustic guitar. I think it’s the only song on the album that makes me think, “Oh, okay, I can see how this album is the direct follow-up to Remedy Lane.” With everything else, the leap forward (as I would describe it) seems so pronounced.
And yeah, about that “everything else” ... so typical, I should’ve seen it coming ... but on this listen to the post-Diffidentia stretch, I had no idea what made me so dismayed on first listen. It’s all good! Granted, Iter Impius still gives me the impression that its overcoat is covered with flakes of “by-the-numbers prog bombast,” but I’m expecting it to shake those off soon. But the others...! I loved everything about the Imago reprise in Nauticus II this time, SERIOUSLY thrilled by its build-up. I can’t recall how the music of the Martius section at the beginning goes but I know I found it gripping too. But the earlier tracks too! Latericius Valete is so ominous! It reminds me of one of the “we’re all feeling anxious” tracks in the FF7 soundtrack. I think there’s some melodic overlap there. And now it’s going to bother me... I’ve gotta look up which one it is... I’ll report back in the comments for a future listen. Omni has great organ. Nihil Morari perhaps remains the most lackluster of the bunch, but I love the moment in the second half when the Deus Nova heaviness stops and the song shifts back to the great guitar figure it opened with.
3rd Listen.
Ah, so the doomy piano at the beginning of Deus Nova is part of a preprise of Breaching the Core!
I noticed that Imago begins (and ends) with digital sounds, which suggests to me that the God who speaks to us in the first track is just another computer, part of a long cycle of repetitions.
The main riff in Lilium Cruentus reminds me of Matsuda Yasunori.
I have mixed feelings about the strings. Like I’ve said, I generally hate string arrangements in rock music. And there are definitely places here where I would have liked them to be absent, like in the quiet parts of Breaching the Core—such beautiful melodies and vibe, but when the strings are playing along, they distract me. But there are a number of other spots, like the aforementioned beauty fest Pluvius Aestivus, where I like what they’re doing. There’s even one heavy song where I think the strings actually RAMP UP the heaviness. But right now I can’t remember which it is. Nihil Morari?
Even when I dislike the strings, though, I tend to notice how well they’re mixed. It’s not easy to be a pummeling, punishing, progressive metal band, and simultaneously find appropriate space for strings. There are moments where it feels like the strings, barely audible, are trying to rise up and howl above the cacophany of the band. I like those moments.
Back when I was first trying to find my way into “BE”, all those years ago, I remember loving the first half of Dea Pecuniae and finding the second half tiresome. I do genuinely like the melodies and arrangement of the whole song now, but (a decade of songwriting having passed in the interim) my newfound respect for the song/suite is also due to how ingeniously I think it’s written and constructed. So many distinct parts that flow so well. Also, I’m pretty sure that it (the first half in particular) is a tribute to Pink Floyd’s song Money. Dea Pecuniae has that same loping, slow swing beat, begins with a catchy bassline, and gets taken over by a marvelous bluesy riff. Since Daniel’s song is about a character named Mr. Money, I figure the tribute is intentional.
The harmonies on the “Daily Finance” verse are phenomenal. And an example of Daniel rhyming cleverly: “Here’s to happiness / Success / Good press / No stress.”
Now that the last stretch of the album is growing on me, Vocari Dei has landed emphatically in the “current least favorite song” slot. The musical arrangement is decent, I don’t actively dislike it, but it doesn’t have any of the “oh damn there go my heartstrings” moments that all the other soft parts of “BE” do. Some of the recorded messages touch me, but others feel too mannered, too rehearsed. The “let me fly” ending of one otherwise compelling message, for instance, and the one that goes something like “why are we faced with an increasing amount of injustice in the world...” Often it sounds like people are talking to a cultural construct rather than to a divine being, which is fair enough, if the divine being is not one they’ve met. But combined with my least favorite musical setting on the album, it makes Vocari Dei the only “BE” song that I wish were over sooner. Granted, it’s a good and necessary dose of softness between the miles-over-the-top glamour in Dea Pecuniae and the darkness of Breaching the Core. I just wish I found more in it to like.
The album’s final third gets more and more enjoyable. This morning, I awoke with Iter Impius in my head. Go figure: my second-least-favorite song, making its claim...
And as is obvious already from the questions I’ve been sending you, the concept is a lot of fun to think about.
4th Listen.
I love the bridge in Imago (“see me!”).
The great heavy strings are indeed in Nihil Morari, around the two-minute mark.
My favorite song segment in this listen was Martius. Again, at the expense of poor Dryad of the Woods, I found myself thinking, “Aw yeah, now THIS is how you do an outro.” I know it’s technically a new track, but for the first time I noticed how excitingly Martius flows out of Iter Impius. And the whole long, elaborate bridging section between Martius and Nauticus II is phenomenal. In my experience, one of the hardest things to do in a song is to connect two distinct songs or songlike things smoothly. Anyone can do an abrupt cut, and they often sound great (see Rope Swings). But to spend several minutes luxuriously connecting one song to another, so that the listener doesn’t even notice what is happening—now that is a challenge.
I love when Latericius Valete gets heavy after the population drop. I tried to figure out which FF7 track it reminds me of and couldn’t. I think it’s related to the way several of the “anxious” songs get played: Who... Are You and Who... Am I and The Great Northern Cave might be references.
The Nihil Morari to Nauticus II stretch keeps on growing on me, but overall, this listen suffered somewhat from my having spent quality time recently with Road Salt and In the Passing Light of Day. “BE” sounds mindblowing to me coming after Remedy Lane but, while remaining wonderful, pales compared to what’s ahead. Thus I become ever more curious about Scarsick. What exactly happened in the middle there, on the way from “BE” to Road Salt? And just how crazy I will be about Scarsick after six listens? Did you know No Way is a straight-up Scarsick outtake?
4.5th Listen.
I was looking forward to the “BE” DVD, but it didn’t give me the kick that Remedy Lane live did. In that 2014 show, the band didn’t try to rework much, but a completely different line-up of musicians helped the songs sound a little different and fresh. “BE” live in 2005 is an almost identical version of what the band had perfected in the studio not long before. Nothing adventurous or new there, just a straightforward performance ala The Wall live (but even The Wall live expanded some songs or reworked or extended some jams). I don’t like the stage set-up, with so much distance between the musicians; what the hell is Daniel doing half a world away from Johan Hallgren?! They can’t feed off of each other’s energy at that distance!
I didn’t like the directing either, and least of all the multimedia visual stuff. I think that, on general principle, I’m averse to music having visual aid outside of album art and the sight of a band performing the songs onstage. The grin on Daniel’s face as he hammers out the riff in Nauticus II says so much more than all the artsy video footage. Besides, I prefer the imagery my own head supplies.
Having said that, I did like seeing Daniel dressed up like an elf of Beleriand for Imago and Pluvius Aestivus. And Kristoffer Gildenlöw on bass is coolness incarnate, but thanks to the director (or Daniel’s own wishes...?), he’s almost never onscreen.
I like Iter Impius, but I’m not sure it will ever be among my favorites. It’s the one song on “BE” that sounds to me like a holdover from Remedy Lane. The Pain of Salvation fanbase apparently concurs, with the “BE” haters unanimously singling Iter Impius out for praise, “why couldn’t the rest of the album sound like this?” a common moan.
5th Listen.
I love the moment early in Lilium Cruentus, before Daniel starts singing the first verse, when the heavy chorus part kicks in for the first time. It’s Daniel’s nu metal leanings honed to perfection. I wonder whether the Unseen Historical Musical Forces allowed the genre of nu metal to come into being simply so that it could serve as a tool in Daniel Gildenlöw’s toolbox.
The rap part in Diffidentia is so good, Daniel end-rhyming “God” with itself four times in a row, a decade before Kanye made that trick trendy.
My single favorite moment on “BE” is 1:41 in Diffidentia, that genius extra beat before the chorus riff reasserts itself. It’s the heaviest moment in what is already a deliciously heavy song (marked by such beautiful contrast in the soft parts! those last two minutes are mesmerizing—“we failed...”).
Thoughts I had, listening to Nihil Morari:
1. The prog rock approach to riffing, where you add or drop beats simply because you can, just for the fun of it, is one of those things in music (like reggae, or certain blends of sunnny gospel-folk) that for some mysterious reason I find extraordinarily easy to enjoy. I don’t like every weirdly time-signatured prog rock riff, just like I don’t like every reggae song, but if someone wanted me to fall hard for a song which, in its basics, was already well-written, all they would need to do is either make the arrangement reggae (hey Holy Diver!), or drop and/or add beats in the riff.
2. I’ve only just noticed the part in which Daniel actually sings to the Deus Nova music!
3. Daniel’s singing throughout the whole track is top-notch, and amounts to some of my favorite vocal work on the album.
4. Curiously, the more I listen to “BE”—which I initially heard as such a mighty leap forward, and which I do believe in many regards it is—still, the more I listen, the more of Remedy Lane I hear in it. My current theory about the role of “BE” in the Pain of Salvation discography is that it is a masterpiece in the traditional sense: a work presented by the apprentice to the master, proving that all the requisite skills have been learned and that the apprentice is ready to go out and honestly ply their trade on their own. “See here,” the band seems to say, “we can do fast and heavy, we can do slow and heavy, we can do prog rock riffs; we can also go gorgeously, tenderly soft, and make beautiful piano-&-strings instrumentals, and build songs around news clips and other found sounds; we can do folk, we can do a showtune, we can do blues, we can do gospel. Set us loose.” And it does seem that “BE” was the album that kicked open the doors. After it, Daniel apparently felt at liberty to be more and more unabashedly experimental.
I love the sound of the church organ in Omni. The vocal melodies are weird but great. It’s like the polar opposite of Nauticus, Daniel singing as attention-grabbingly high in Omni as he sang low in Nauticus.
6th Listen.
I didn’t make this final listen a lyric read-along, because I’ve been referring frequently to the lyrics all along—studying the concept was too much fun.
The music in Vocari Dei has grown on me a little.
I’ve realized that my favorite part in Dea Pecuniae is not, in fact, the Floydian, Money-esque opening third, but the quiet, lonely bridge. So short, so good. And I realized how cool it is that Vocari Dei next on the tracklist, because Dea Pecuniae is a song that celebrates power, while Vocari Dei is all about powerlessness.
Now for the “final” ranking (heh), sans the two installments of Animae Partus.
1. Martius/Nauticus II (you were telling me recently about how you prefer the second half of The Perfect Element, but that you only prefer it because the groundwork for it is laid by the first half, so that without the first half, the superior second half couldn’t be as awesome. That sounds like the way Nauticus II works. Imago is, strictly speaking, the better song, but Nauticus II is so powerful as a reprise! The riffs, the melodies, the build-up and build-down! And the drum & percussion bursts at the end! ... but wait there’s more, because this track also includes Martius, the phenomenal “outro” to Iter Impius, which, if it were its own track, like Latericius Valete or Omni, would be in my “BE” top five)
2. Imago
3. Latericius Valete (such dread, such beauty, and such badassery once the population drops)
4. Diffidentia (the HEAVINESS; and the contrasts! and slow rapping! a-and 1:41! and the long, heavenly outro!)
5. Pluvius Aestivus (piano and strings, not my favorite things; but look here, nothing but strings and piano and it’s still #5)
6. Nihil Morari
7. Lilium Cruentus
8. Deus Nova
9. Dea Pecuniae (amazing song, but if I’m not in the right mood, I drift off during the big bombast-fests in the middle and end)
10. Omni
11. Nauticus (good stuff, but smacks just a bit of “genre exercise”)
12. Iter Impius (no shortage of attractive elements, but for me they don’t cohere into a moving whole. Or to put it another way, listening to the song is never unpleasant, because there is always something cool going on, but it has never left me thinking, “WOW that was great!” when it ends. However, that may be partly because what I am usually busy thinking instead is, “Oh shit, oh shit, here comes Martius!!!!”))
13. Vocari Dei
