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March 2025

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Pain Of Salvation: Panther

Progressive Rock

4.0/5.0

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InsideOut Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 19.08.2020 | Released: 28.08.2020

Once more we return to the wonderful, strange, and sometimes wacky musical world of founder, vocalist, and principal songwriter Daniel Gildenlow and his Pain Of Salvation. Panther, the band's eleventh album, features new guitarist Johan Hallgren who replaced the departing Ragnar Zolberg in 2017. Gildenlow describes Panther as a "concept piece that delves into the conflicts and contradictions between so-called normal people and those who are wired entirely differently."

Pain Of Salvation

Panther also finds Gildenlow up to his usual and unusual musical mischief. He can't stand still nor rest on past accomplishments or musical ideas. Nope. He needs to find new sounds to make his songs and Pain Of Salvation new and different. For lovers of progressive music that's what we want, even if Gildenlow's compositions are equally eclectic, entertaining, and sometimes confounding notions. That's to say, while I like what I hear, I often don't understand what I'm hearing. I found this with the mostly vocal, synth and poly-rhythmic Accelerator, the slogging bass driven Unfuture, or the heavy synth rock and rap vocals of the title track. Is that banjo, guitar, or sitar in the short instrumental Fur? Species seems more deliberate in its intentions, musically soft in the front half, then expansive, heavy and dense in the second half, yet with little appeal. The lengthy Icon offers somewhat more familiar prog territory with the ebb and flow of rhythm and groove, timing and tempo, and juxtapositioning of voice and instrumentation. And it has an actual guitar solo, which is probably why I liked it best.

All said, if you like your progressive music to be eccentric, eclectic, creative, and unhindered by monolithic musical conventions, you will be pleased with Daniel Gildenlow and Pain Of Salvation's Panther.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

If you like your progressive music to be eccentric, eclectic, creative, and unhindered by monolithic musical conventions, you will be pleased with Daniel Gildenlow and Pain Of Salvation's Panther.

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Here's a fun fact about Swiss legends, Gotthard: their last 16 releases, excepting their debut album, went to number one in their home country, making them one of Switzerland's most successful acts and ... [ Read More ]