Pain of Salvation - One Hour By the Concrete Lake

"I swear there’s someone inside Fighting to get outside Just give it all an hour By the Concrete Lake!"

Pain of Salvation started out, back in the 80s under another band banner, but it wasn't until 1991 that they began to appear live under this particular name. Their first studio album "Entropia" was recieved quite well and embraced by the progressive community that was looking for something darker and different than anything else currently being produced in the genre.

"One Hour By the Concrete Lake" is PoS's second album, which displays an even more progressive side than the first which was more thrashy industrial than purer prog. Musically, the album is laid out upon a foundation of beautiful keyboards, omnipresent and effective in enriching the melodies supported by excellent rhythm guitars and drums that range from progressive trappings to forceful blasts in their most thrashy moments. Its a strange mixture of Faith No More, Kings X, and a host of bands that are essentially the fathers of modern day progressive metal: Dream Theater, Queensryche, and Fates Warning. At times Pain of Salvation can be compared to Magnitude 9. Very little shredding can be found here, but in its place are thickly swirling guitar melodies. The overall feel is quite diverse, since the listener is never too sure which way the music will dive, but all the while retains a somber atmosphere rivaling that of the melancholy greyness of Fates Warning's "A Pleasant Shade of Grey". Massive onslaughts of sound are the rule rather than the exception. Crisp clean production brings out the gentle acoustic lappings with crystal clarity and the industrialized crunchiness perfectly, allowing even the heaviest parts to keep the deep intricate layers of sound as the complex arrangements are woven. Daniel Gildenlow's aggressive vocals may perhaps be the biggest turnoff on the band, but on the flipside doubles as one of their grandest assets. Displaying a variety of styles, gutteral growling, a bit of half-rapping, ear piercing cries, and a pleasing range inbetween the two main extremes with hints of Fates Warning's vocalist, Ray Alder, David does it all. However, only when he slows down and allows himself to truly 'sing' in the comfortable Alder-ish midrange does his voice shine in all its true beauty. A mixture of these vocal styles at times feels a slight overwhelming as they crash down one upon the other or without warning morph from one stage to the next. True talent, yes, but unnerving, especially during the more industrial parts. Gildenlow is not only the band leader and frontman, but is also the guitarist, lyricist and musical composer. The lyrics are brilliant, even with their enviromental basis, and its concept is one of the strongest points of the album, which will be explained in detail. His studies in the Nuclear Physics and Peacework at the University of Gothenburg were the inspirational true to life basis for the mostly fictional story.

"One Hour By the Concrete Lake" is meant to be listened to in one sitting, very few songs stand out on their own, but fit perfectly in the winding scheme of the album. Shakily taking off, the disc begins on firm prog laden territory, much like a murkier Dream Theater. But these moody progressive melodies are often buried underneath thrash ridden sonic waves that swallow up everything in sight. The labyrinthine layout twists and turns on a dime, from harsh industrial brutality to introspective reflective acoustic periods. The volatile nature fits the storyboard and concept of the album. The ever shifting dark, often depressing outlook illustrated by the lyrics and brought to life by the sickeningly bleakness of the accompaning arrangements, can leave the listener disturbingly cold as it winds down to its anti-climatic, yet mournful ending.

Saving perhaps the best for last, is the story this musical work is based on. Here we have a man, contemplating and looking back over the past century or so, and the thoughtless and terrible mistakes the human race has made through it all. Mostly enviromental in nature, the wasting of water, taking the land from the Indians, violence and the building of the 'big machines', guns and other mechanical creations of war. This takes place over the first two sections of the album, tracks 2 - 4 titled "Part of the Machine", 5 - 7 being "The Spirit of Man". It is only until we get to the third part, does the concept become truly fleshed out. 8 - 11 come under the heading of "Karachay", which is the 'catch' of the album: the man's mental journey relecting over the injustices in life, happen to have taken place in the last hour while he stands near "the concrete lake". Near the end of the album he realizes that he only has weeks to live because of this, but only then does he accept 'this whole charade that is life'.

But here is where the fiction ends and the reality begins. For as horrific and even morbid at times, as the album may seem, the story's turning point takes place in an area that is disturbingly real. For those not familiar with 'the concrete lake' this comes straight from the liner notes of the album:
"...Karachay… This lake in Kyshtym has swallowed nuclear waste for almost fifty years now. Radiation was earlier so high that one hour at the shore of this lake would cause death in just a few weeks. Karachay, the entire lake, is now covered with concrete..."

And for those interested in a little more detail involving the Lake itself:
Reservoirs were created to keep water from flowing out of the most contaminated areas, and plant wastes were discharged into Karachay Lake, which has no outlet, instead of into the river. The lake, actually a bog, eventually accumulated 120 million curies of the long-lived radionuclides cesium 137 and strontium 90. By comparison, the Chernobyl accident released one million curies of cesium 137 and 220,000 curies of strontium 90. In 1967, wind dispersed radioactivity from the lake, contaminating about 18000 square kilometers. Today, radioactivity in the ground water has migrated two to three kilometers from the lake. A person standing on the lake shore near the area where wastes are discharged from the plant would receive about 600 roentgens of radiation, a lethal dose, in an hour. The lake is now being filled with hollow concrete blocks, rock, and soil to reduce the dispersion of radioactivity.