Review by Rexorcist for Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element I (2000)

After turning this album on, immediately after concluding One Hour by the Concrete Lake, I certainly wasn't expecting the verses to be orchestrated in NU METAL. But that didn't tell me this was gonna end up a nu metal album, just that this album was gonna end up wild and varied just like the previous efforts. Honestly, there's really no way to tell with these guys. But it's pretty obvious from the slow melodic structures and the nu metal influence that they were trying to appeal to the modern alternative crowd without being an alternative band. You can easily tell from the way our singer occasionally shouts in a very similar manner to Wayne Static. Despite this, post-metal also reigns pretty strong in the background, having a larger say than any other kind of influence in the album. This creates a strong sense of ballad-based serenity throughout a good chunk of it. These are good tracks with a strong sense of progession and some fine melodies, but in comparison to the wide range they went with on the debut and managed to balance out beautifully on the second, this seems a bit less inventive. For example, the first half of Her Voices is made up of this until it takes an immediate shift into speedy Arabic influence, as if they suddenly became The Tea Party. But there are songs that are practically entirely made up of the post-metal influence, like the titular closer. And unfortunately, the songs, while quite enjoyable, are a bit too similar too each other in moods, and the melodies are often a bit light. So in short, this was a GOOD album for me, but not brilliant.

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