Inside Out

I just don't know where the hell to begin. I don't think that there's been another band that has taken such a drastic fall from grace in such a short amount of time. I used to eagerly anticipate new Pain Of Salvation releases. Now I just dread them, only giving them a chance out of a faint glimmer of hope that is usually wiped away once I push the play button. I know what they are theoretically capable of and don't think it's unreasonable to expect better. And Road Salt One isn't it.

Unlike the previous two albums, Be and Scarsick, Road Salt One is an intentionally stripped-down affair. I guess you can say that it's closest to 12:5 in sound, but definitely not in quality. The band doesn't take much advantage of the interesting creative opportunities that a scaled-back, mellowed-out sound would bring. Most songs can be thrown into the "boring-as-hell" category without a second thought. No Way and She Likes To Hide starts off the album without any good ideas and meandering into limbo. Sisters is arguably the best track on the album, a six minute song that actually has the band progressing and building off of ideas, something that made their early albums so beloved by prog fans. The band loses that minor good will with the yawn-inducing Of Dust and Tell Me You Don't Know. C'mon, do something interesting!

Sleeping Under The Stars... holy mother of fuck! No. I won't encourage this tripe by acknowledging its existence. Darkness Of Mine is more jerking around. Write complete songs before recording them! This sounds like an uneventful jam session. This whole album has that vibe and it's not good. Next is Linoleum, which was already on the Ep of the same name. Since I've been hearing this one for a bit longer than the others, I've taken a liking to it, enough to rank it among the better songs here. It's a short list. Curiosity has a bit more inspiration behind it, even if it still doesn't result in a good song. The last three songs are a trio of wasted time. Don't bother, just turn off the cd after Linoleum.

Or better yet, don't even play this at all.


01. No Way
02. She Likes To Hide
03. Sisters
04. Of Dust
05. Tell Me You Don't Know
06. Sleeping Under The Stars
07. Darkness Of Mine
08. Linoleum
09. Curiosity
10. Where It Hurts
11. Road Salt
12. Innocence

Score: 4/10