Complexity, innovation, sincerity, intelligence... What's so wrong with PoS? I understand that not everyone would consider them to be the very best thing progressive music has to offer (at this time for me they may come at a close second after Opeth as far as my favorite bands go), but I don't really see why anyone wouldn't acknowledge their music as good. They have exciting song structures, they are thoughtful, and they never stagnate from album to album. They have a distinct personality and are more creative than just about anyone in the progressive metal genre or in metal in general. I do get burned out every now and then listening to them, and they do have a certain amount of melodrama that gets in the way of listening to their albums too frequently (probably because they take themselves a bit too seriously), and I don't think their last album, Be, is nearly as profound as most critics make it out to be (though the Be DVD is pretty spectacular). However, it confuses me when people claim that they are not among the most adventurous and talented bands around--to me this seems self-evident, even on the albums that are less than winning (and I do think The Pefect Element and Remedy Lane are damn close to being perfect). There aren't that many bands whose new albums I would always buy because I find their artistic development automatically interesting, but Pain of Salvation is definitely one of the foremost examples of such a band (along with Opeth, Dark Tranquillity, Madder Mortem, Strapping Young Lad/The Devin Townsend Band, Lacrimosa, Savatage and only a few others).