Pain Of Salvation - One Hour By The Concrete Lake Review

With Entropia Pain of Salvation had broken major ground in the Progressive Metal industry. They had created a concept album that changed the way stories could be told and it carried a very heavy message about war and family. What could possibly come next you ask? Well another concept album. They released One Hour By The Concrete Lake in 1998 and this time they crafted what is probably Pain of Salvations heaviest album. The guitar parts are extremely complex and heavy with some amazing bass guitar work as well. They keyboards are more featured on this album and they sound like they've finally found their place in this band. This album is also less scattered and more focused. There are still the suprising twists and turns but the songs feel slightly more complete. The writing on this album is superb (which ill get to later) and vocally you can expect the same from David Gildenlow. He still has the soaring highs and belowing lows. The vocals are extremely powerfull and moving and some of the best vocals ive ever heard. All this said this album is only marginally better than Entropia. It improves slightly on almost everything plus it moves the band in a more cohesive and heavy direction. If you only listen to one song off this album, then listen to the closer "Inside Out". It is one of the most amazing songs Ive ever heard. Now on to the story of this album. Spoiler alert. I will be spoil some of the stories of these albums because some of them are so good but this one ill try to keep under wraps. Its another story about war like the last one except this time it takes a more factual approach. The story is about a man who works in the arms industry and starts to question wheather what he is doing is right. He decides to travel the world and see what real damage his weapons are causing. The album gets its name because at the end he arrives at this "Concrete Lake" in russia where so much nuclear waste has been dumped that if he stood there for one hour he would die in two weeks. Overall this is a very powerful album about war but this time takes a more factual and agressive approach and ends up crafting a better more refined album than Entropia. This is another must have POS album and it continues their progressive Metal/Rock legacy. 9.5/10.