Trademarks include concept albums focusing on social, environmental, philosophical, and emotional issues as well as songs that incorporate complex rhythms and time changes but retain flowing melodies.
The band was formed by Gildenlöw in 1984 under the name Reality. The band used to participate in many music contests in their homeland of Sweden. The first EP, Hereafter, was recorded in 1996 under the monicker Pain of Salvation, which has been the name of the band since 1991. The Lineup of the band was the same for their first official full length album, Entropia(1997).
After the departure of Daniel Magdic for continuing disagreements with the others over committing to the increasing demands of the band, the band recorded One Hour By The Concrete Lake(1999), a concept album about the issues of nuclear power/waste, disposition of indigenous peoples,industry and human discovery. The band began to receive more attention from critics and magazines all around the world. In 1999 they also played at the famous ProgPower festival in The Netherlands.
Their third and most famous album, The Perfect Element I was released in 2000 and received a great response from the crowd and critics, making them the second most famous Progressive Metal band over the world: a success confirmed by their fourth album, Remedy Lane (2002), a semi-autobiographical album written by Daniel Gildenlöw about loss, love, and life.
2004 saw the release of two different albums, an acoustic live show recorded at Eskilstuna called 12:5 where the band played most of their old famous songs rearranged, and the epic concept album about the origin of humanity and God called BE: It was the first album to divide the fan base in opinion, due to its musically experimental and philosophical nature; and perhaps also its lack of cohesive progressive metal pieces.
BE album was also released in a special DVD edition called BE: The Original Stage Production (2005). With a live CD recorded during the 2003 presentation of the album and a DVD rappresentation from the same dates.
On 21 February 2006, Kristoffer Gildenlöw was asked to leave the band due to him not being able to attend rehearsals, since he lived in Holland and the band lived in Sweden. Kristoffer has a solo album planned for the future, as well as a side project called Dial.
The new album, Scarsick, was released on January 22, 2007. It is more band oriented than BE, with Daniel Gildenlöw playing bass in the studio. Recent interviews with Daniel have revealed that Scarsick is, in fact, the second part of The Perfect Element, confirming the speculation of many fans.
A European tour to support the new album has been announced (it started February 17, 2007). The band will be playing with Simon Andersson, a new replacement bassist on this tour. On the 10th of March, after the Copenhagen show, Simon Andersson was welcomed into Pain of Salvation as a full member. The band issued this message on their website:
He (Simon Andersson) did an outstanding job on the tour and we are looking forward to the coming years with great anticipation. Since his girlfriend is a huge Pain of Salvation fan, we happily expect to see this decision put a little silver lining on their sex life as well, since she can now all of a sudden go to bed with a member of the band :-) Congratulations Simon, and welcome to the family!
In May 2007 it was announced that drummer Johan Langell had decided to leave the band to spend more time with his family.
For Progressive Nation 2009 Tour the band took a new bass guitar player - Per Schelander.
According to their website, there is a new EP "Linoleum" due in November 2009, while a double album "Road Salt", consisting of two parts (Ivory and Ebony) is recorded and to be released in 2010, 2011.
Current lineup:
Daniel Gildenlöw – vocals, guitar
Johan Hallgren – lead guitar, backing vocals
Léo Margarit - drums
Gustaf Hielm - bass guitar, double bass, vocals (1992–1994, 2011–present)
Daniel "D2" Karlsson – keyboards, percussion, backing vocals
Former members:
Daniel Magdic – guitar, backing vocals
Kristoffer Gildenlöw – bass guitar, double bass, backing vocals
Johan Langell – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Magnus Johansson - bass guitar (1990)
Joakim Strandberg - bass guitar (1984–1990)
Mikael Pettersson - drums (1984–1990)
Fredrik Hermansson – keyboards
Simon Andersson - bass guitar, backing vocals (2007-2008)
Per Schelander - bass guitar, backing vocals
Ragnar Zolberg - guitar, vocals, mandolin
Chapter II: To the End
Pain of Salvation Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
"Time kills!" he whispered.
Not a word: they watched him leave again.
Grief need not her grave - nothing left to save.
She went up with the sunrise that day, planned her future as every day. Spent her last minutes in tomorrows she would never experience.
Live your life each day, meet the tides my friend.
We're all nomads forever on our way: a journey to the end! (She walked there every day without even knowing it was the place to which she was going)If you knew the number of the steps you would ever take, bitter I wonder: would you run or cease to walk?
Looking back now, he could have saved her
but there's no one left to save him.
'Cause we're all walking in tomorrows we may never experience.
Live your life each day, meet the tides my friend.
We're all nomads forever on our way: a journey to the end!
(daniel magdic)
(daniel gildenlow)
So now he has knowledge but what has he won?
All pages are empty - he's already gone.
He lost what he lived for and losses won't mend:
alive just to enter a journey beyond the end.
The lyrics of Chapter II: To the End by Pain of Salvation tell a melancholic tale of grief, loss, and the inevitability of death. The song begins with a narrator describing how sorrow transforms into hate and how anger can become a tool for coping with pain. The grieving protagonist mourns the loss of a loved one, and even though people advise him that time will heal his wounds, he understands that time can also be a killer. He feels misunderstood and leaves, feeling disappointed by the lack of support and understanding from others.
The lyrics describe the sadness of unfulfilled dreams, the regret of missing out on experiences and the impossibility of reversing irreversible loss. The singer wishes he had saved his loved one, but it is too late to do so. He reflects on the fact that even though we are all walking towards an end, it is essential to live life to the fullest every day, and experience everything it holds.
The song's overarching message is one of the transience of life and the importance of making the most out of every moment. The choice is ours: we can either put off living until it is too late, or we can embrace life's journey, accepting the fact that it is finite and make the best of every twist and turn.
Line by Line Meaning
Sorrow turned into hate. Anger became a thread, to climb with faith. Tasting the life she shed
Feeling immense sorrow transformed into hate and anger, which became the driving force to move forward, albeit with faith. He tasted the pain and trauma that she went through before her death.
"Time will heal" they told him - just if they knew his pain.
"Time kills!" he whispered.
Not a word: they watched him leave again.
Grief need not her grave - nothing left to save.
People often say that time can heal all wounds, but they don't understand the extent of his pain. He realized that time is not a healer; instead, it makes things worse. No one said anything as he left again feeling overwhelmed by grief, knowing that everything is gone, and there's nothing left to save.
She went up with the sunrise that day, planned her future as every day. Spent her last minutes in tomorrows she would never experience.
On the day she died, she woke up with the sunrise and planned her future, as she always did. But it all came to an end, as she spent her last minutes thinking of tomorrows she would never experience
Live your life each day, meet the tides my friend.
We're all nomads forever on our way: a journey to the end! (She walked there every day without even knowing it was the place to which she was going)
Life is temporary and unpredictable, and we must live every day to the fullest because we don't know what tomorrow holds. We're all wanderers on a path to the ultimate end, even if we don't realize it. She walked to her fate every day, not knowing where she was heading.
If you knew the number of the steps you would ever take, bitter I wonder: would you run or cease to walk?
If you knew exactly how many steps you would take in your lifetime, would it make you run towards your future, determined to live life to the fullest? Or would you cease to walk altogether, knowing that your time is limited?
For her sake he lived - nothing more to give.
Looking back now, he could have saved her
but there's no one left to save him.
To honor her memory, he chose to keep living. However, he regrets not being able to save her, and now he's lost and alone, with no one to save him.
'Cause we're all walking in tomorrows we may never experience.
Live your life each day, meet the tides my friend.
We're all nomads forever on our way: a journey to the end!
We never know what tomorrow holds, and we might never experience some of our tomorrows. Therefore, we must cherish every day and live life to the fullest because life is a journey, and we're all nomads on our way to the ultimate end.
So now he has knowledge but what has he won?
All pages are empty - he's already gone.
He lost what he lived for and losses won't mend:
alive just to enter a journey beyond the end.
He learned from his experiences, but he feels like he has lost everything that made life worth living. There is no solace for his losses, and he feels like he's already gone, living just to embark on a journey beyond the end.
(daniel magdic)
(daniel gildenlow)
These lines represent the songwriters of the song.
Contributed by Aaron A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Sir Marcus 'Ninguém' Santana
Ending Theme
Pain Of Salvation
And so I find myself here once again
First step down remedy lane
Budapest you tore my world apart, well, here I am
Worn with rope ends on my mind, torn with blood scarred in my eyes
But now I'm back to shake that from my life
Ending theme, ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
Back again at deak ter
I know I could have left her there
It was the feeling of leaving myself that I could not bear
The same old hotel room in pest one night before the sziget fest
Hungarian princess will you share my rest?
To rest in my
Ending theme
Ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
To be honest I don't know what I'm looking for, who to be
Sitting here as once before, weeks ago
Just waiting for a knock on that door
And I have left all I thought was me to find out, to make sure if it was you or me
That made me feel so free and real, but when we kiss I don't know, I just don't know
'Cause it leaves a taste of emptiness, and I think what if I'm simply depressed?
blind, just finding rest from my mind here in Budapest?
Confusing zest with the joy of being blessed with the bliss of self-escape as we kiss?
And mixing my being unstressed with your being undressed and the taste of being true
With the fresh taste of me and you as we touch? I don't know
But I saw so much of me in you, the me I've missed, the young and free in you
But still, that doesn't mean a thing, may not mean anything about my needing you
But I guess we had to meet, to be near, to make sure, and still my dear
Beyond this bed and that door, to be honest, I fear I just don't know
Ending theme
Ending theme
Fanning flames to dreams of belonging
Ending theme
Ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
To be honest I don't know what I'm looking for
Lying here, watching you leave through that door
Felipe Kezam
muuuito bom!! essa musica é maravilhosa...
Sir Marcus 'Ninguém' Santana
Ending Theme
Pain Of Salvation
And so I find myself here once again
First step down remedy lane
Budapest you tore my world apart, well, here I am
Worn with rope ends on my mind, torn with blood scarred in my eyes
But now I'm back to shake that from my life
Ending theme, ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
Back again at deak ter
I know I could have left her there
It was the feeling of leaving myself that I could not bear
The same old hotel room in pest one night before the sziget fest
Hungarian princess will you share my rest?
To rest in my
Ending theme
Ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
To be honest I don't know what I'm looking for, who to be
Sitting here as once before, weeks ago
Just waiting for a knock on that door
And I have left all I thought was me to find out, to make sure if it was you or me
That made me feel so free and real, but when we kiss I don't know, I just don't know
'Cause it leaves a taste of emptiness, and I think what if I'm simply depressed?
blind, just finding rest from my mind here in Budapest?
Confusing zest with the joy of being blessed with the bliss of self-escape as we kiss?
And mixing my being unstressed with your being undressed and the taste of being true
With the fresh taste of me and you as we touch? I don't know
But I saw so much of me in you, the me I've missed, the young and free in you
But still, that doesn't mean a thing, may not mean anything about my needing you
But I guess we had to meet, to be near, to make sure, and still my dear
Beyond this bed and that door, to be honest, I fear I just don't know
Ending theme
Ending theme
Fanning flames to dreams of belonging
Ending theme
Ending theme
Ripping at the seams, for an opening
To be honest I don't know what I'm looking for
Lying here, watching you leave through that door
Webofscience
Guitars are sounding but none are being played. All is good if I close my eyes though... This song (in fact the whole album) has a lot of meaning to me personally. Truly magnificent.
odosrock
Minha música favorita do metal <3
Luiz Oliveira
GREAT!!! MY FAVOURITE BAND!!! Great video, great song!!!
entropiasite
ojala pain of salvation se hubiese mantenido tan geniales como en entropia aun son una banda excepcional
Sater Unholy
3:56 - 4:00 definitely my favorite change of a song, it just perfect
666pmt
totally agree. their road salt stuff has a special place in my heart also, but IMO the perfect element is one of the most beautiful, amazing albums ever composed. it really is a thing of beauty.
Tiziano Fratini
666pmt You're right, nothing like it
Josaphar
Just love this band