Sweden's Pain of Salvation has been around for about 16 years, and in progressive rock circles (do those exist?) is a favorite among the heavier bands. For me, they're on the border between progressive rock (a la Yes) and progressive metal (like lots of the other bands you'll see if you stay with me), sort of like Dream Theater, only more varied in terms of influencing genres and sounds. As far as I know, every single one of their albums dating back to 1997 is a concept album, meaning the songs are all related to each other and some overarching theme or story. There's no denying their musicianship, as you can hear below.
If you listen to the song below, you'll hear fairly typical Pain of Salvation (although their sound can be pretty varied): loose, somewhat improvised vocals, musical influences outside of metal or even rock, varied instrumentation and feel, and thoughtful compositional form. It's the last track on my favorite of their albums, entitled "Be". The song starts with a movie soundtrack sounding introduction which includes strings and a snare march-like cadence for time. At 1:53, it shifts gears... still kind of movie-ish but with a more urgent, kind of eastern sound and some synthesized winds. At 2:36, a really difficult guitar riff in three starts and is joined a bit later by flute. It builds through some odd meter stuff, until it finally resolves to a more relaxed, bluegrass feel at 3:32 back in three. That builds, adding instruments and growing in intensity, until 5:37 where it becomes a folky, Riverdance percussion solo (almost) before ending abruptly with a slamming door or something reminiscent of one. It's an interesting song and worth checking out for a taste of Pain of Salvation. See what you think, and let me know.
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