Scarsick (new Pain of Salvation album) artwork released

[BlindPanzer]

Here is a snippet from an interview from the latest issue of MACHINAH (the fanzine from the Pain of Salvation fanclub)

On the song "America":

"I know that there are always a lot of people that misunderstand and misinterpret the things we say and will feel personally about certain things even though that was never intended. Just like with humour, I think that dealing with certain things you sometimes just have to say what is on your mind and if people feel personally offended you hopefully can deal with that as you go along. With this album we don't try to be diplomatic. Let's take America because that is probably one of the issues we have to deal with. It is not an attack on the American people in any sort of way, but we are constantly aware of the fact that if you criticize the American government's way of dealing with the war on terror then people are going to connect that with disrespect for the victims of 9/11 even though there is no logical connection to be made. It doesn't matter how diplomatic you will be, the only way out of that is not to criticize the American government at all. To get to the point where you feel like this is enough, fuck it, if people want to misinterpret and want to feel personally offended because they knew someone that was killed in 9/11 then contact us and we deal with it. It's still a great leap of logic to make that ssumption, to make that connection. "

 

[aztattooedsean]

well, I will say that it sure has stirred up a lengthy thread. I have only heard one song so far though.

 

[chibitotoro]

It is not an attack on the American people in any sort of way, but we are constantly aware of the fact that if you criticize the American government's way of dealing with the war on terror then people are going to connect that with disrespect for the victims of 9/11 even though there is no logical connection to be made. It doesn't matter how diplomatic you will be, the only way out of that is not to criticize the American government at all. To get to the point where you feel like this is enough, fuck it, if people want to misinterpret and want to feel personally offended because they knew someone that was killed in 9/11 then contact us and we deal with it. It's still a great leap of logic to make that ssumption, to make that connection. "

Except that isn't the case at all. Maybe three years ago someone might have accused you of being unpatriotic if you criticized the war in Iraq, but 70% of the country now believes that conflict is just one giant clusterfuck that we never should have gotten involved in in the first place. I don't have the slightest problem with Pain of Salvation or anyone else criticizing the American government. It's their broad-stroked bashing of American culture that gets on my nerves. To me, this soundbite just reinforces my feeling that all PoS is doing with this album is trying to hop on the America-bashing bandwagon two years too late for anything they say to be edgy, insightful, or the slightest bit important.

 

[BlindPanzer]

I think the "broad-stroked bashing" is not necessarily aimed at America but at what we can infer to be 'western values'. In that sense Scarsick is no different than the other Pain of Salvation albums; it is just looking at the theme from a different perspective. All their albums have dealt with notions of hyper individualism, a few hints of consumerism, and the overall socioeconomic spectrum of society and its effects on and from the individual.

Above all, the album itself is a concept album so it carries within it the 'voice' of the character of the story. With Scarsick they aren't trying to be diplomatic or tactful. The album is about frustration and therefore it is overt in its points without much room for subtlety. So I don't think it's that he is attackiing the US, but more on the thematic elements of the 'modern society'.