Pain of Salvation appreciation / admonishment thread

[FallenTabris]

I'd interested what you people (prog fans, I'm guessing) thought of Pain of Salvation and their albums. Maybe it's not fair to say "thought", but my interest in the band has certainly waned with their last three releases.

Favorite album way back then? Favorite album now? Why?

Did BE succeed as an album, or was it just pretentious? (I know how much someone here hates that word but seriously..)

Does the band actually have something neat going with their newer retro groove in Road Salt, or Daniel just deprive the band's music of what made it interesting?

Is it just me, or was the rapping in some of Scarsick pretty annoying, even if the rhymes were clever?

 

[Iszfury]

Not really a fan, although some parts of Scarsick and Concrete Lake had some genuine bite. Mostly, though, too camp and overbearing.

 

[Schnittke]

BE is a mess but I like a few tracks on it. Gildenlow butchered the concept, though.


The Perfect Element is a very solid album. I really like the leitmotifs and the singing on it.

 

[FallenTabris]

Why doesn't Entropia get love? Entropia and Concrete Lake are the only two PoS albums I listen to all the way through anymore. The Perfect Element used to be my fave, but over time Ashes and the latter half of Idioglossia (everything up to "I've swallowed all these tears" is wonderful, then it dives off a cliff) really wore. TPE the song still strikes me, though.