Pain Of Salvation: Questioning Normality

A muffled and slightly distorted Daniel Gildenlöw opens our zoom call to explain that he is currently in his car, on his way to collect a Super Nintendo Entertainment System to “teach my kids about real gaming”. It’s certainly not the most traditional of introductions but if the mastermind of PAIN OF SALVATION has taught us anything – whether through his artistry as a lyricist or an instrumentalist – it’s that ideas of ‘normality’ should often be interrogated; the band’s latest album, Panther, encompassing that very idea.

Gildenlöw speaks to us just over two weeks since Panther, the band’s eleventh outing of challenging progressive metal, emerged from studio undergrowth and into the hands of the masses and remains as characteristically restless as ever – the thwarting of world tours spawning new horizons. Pinning down its origins and staring off into its future, Gildenlöw took us through the tale of this Panther.

Creative processes having been interrupted by the blight of the pandemic is an unfortunately recurrent story among recent times, with PAIN OF SAVATION‘s pack leader bearing the brunt of what is arguably some of the band’s most emotionally visceral material to date as national lockdown throttle’s the potential for co-operative studio work. “Really, it almost pains me to say this,” Gildenlöw pauses briefly and sighs, “this is one of those albums where I have been working extremely on my own.” It’s a tender moment and the reasoning is justifiably pragmatic as Gildenlöw explains. “All of us in the band are in situations in our lives where it’s increasingly difficult to meet up and spend hours in a rehearsing room. We don’t live in the same cities anymore, everyone has begun to have kids and the different job situations of night shifts and weekend hours means you could take two people in the band and between just them alone it would be impossible to find an hour in a single week to meet up.” To this day, Gildenlöw looks back wistful upon the memories of studio comradery. “I really enjoy having someone to bounce ideas off of so I really like being in a rehearsal room and just spending hour after hour ‘playing’ because your band can be your own toolbox so you can just go like try this, try that, what about this? I miss that in many ways.”

A driven well of creativity, Gildenlöw surged forward – the knowledge of time’s relentless passing an ever-present motivation to keep moving. Gildenlöw explains, “I just came to terms with the situation, I said ‘I’m not going to wait, I’m going to write music at home when inspiration arrives and take that time as it comes otherwise the year is just going to pass’. Once I came to that conclusion, things started to go fairly smoothly because I knew I couldn’t really rely on others’ opinions I would just sit and work, I could hyperfocus for 17 hours on a tiny segue which obviously no-one around me could tolerate!” He laughs. 

Was it worth it? Absolutely. The payoff has raised Panther amongst the band’s coveted jewels such as The Perfect Element Part 1, Remedy Lane, Be and In The Passing Light Of Day with a similar sense of lyrical heft and instrumental complexity despite the record’s more compact tracklist. Gildenlöw , an audible smile forming, explains. “I have to say I think, by far, it’s been the most unanimously positive response that we’ve ever received on an album. To see fans come out and say ‘this has dethroned Remedy Lane’ is pretty big for me! We made all the pre-sales in our own small shop and I ordered the same amount [of physical copies] as I did last time from the record label with some extras as we weren’t touring but it just went through the roof compared to anything I’ve experienced! We had to sort of rebuild the entire shipping system and invest in online ordering connection systems; the last couple of weeks have been insane.”

But what is this meat that the world seems so desperate to sample? PAIN OF SALVATION records are often very individual entities with vast and bizarre assortments of instrumentation that provide the crushing backdrop for Gildenlöw’s meticulous pen-work that can rarely be described as ‘surface-level’. Panther, in both inception and narrative, is expectedly as elaborate as its predecessors. The root that the album would subsequently stem from appeared three years previous within In The Passing Light Of Day’s Full Throttle Tribe, a personal social odyssey that tackles Gildenlöw’s long-held feelings of ‘not fitting in’ – a feeling very much attached to his ADHD – whilst confronting what society deems ‘normal’. This personal battle, along with a resonant encounter with a black panther at Gildenlöw’s local zoo, formed the record’s foundations – a narrative of panthers living amongst a world of dogs, constantly stricken with the feeling of being dysfunctional as they struggle to adapt to societies’ sense of normality. Harnessed by fits of rage and moments of beauty – alongside his desire to write words “that address me somehow” –  Panther lands on all four feet as an encouraging realm of solace for those that feel like they, too, don’t ‘function’ or simply are not ‘normal’. 

With no tour dates in sight, something Gildenlöw carefully thanks through his restless desire to maintain creative headway, the future remains bright for PAIN OF SALVATION. “I had too much material for the album,” Gildenlöw explains, “And I was like, ‘I would like to record Panther and just keep going on the follow-up!’ But obviously, no record label is going to think that’s a good idea and they said ‘Just be practical about this.’ but then Coronavirus hits, all touring is cancelled and all of a sudden they’re like ‘Is there any way you could start on the next album?’ and I’m halfway done already; that’s how efficient I am!”. 

Staying on this thread of new material, it seems that fans have a lot to look forward to. Gildenlöw says, “I would see it [the new album] as an extension of this album and actually two of my absolute favourite songs ended up not being on Panther and my kid’s favourite song didn’t either so we have three home favourites being pushed to the next record. It’s in the same vein as Panther but I learn from every album so there will be things that I’m going to think differently about when it comes to the follow-up. I really see the music and the band as something that I have almost no control over. I try to follow where the passion leads me.” 

It’s clear that despite PAIN OF SALVATION’s huge undertaking to get Panther on its feet – including Gildenlöw’s tireless quarantined efforts – PAIN OF SALVATION‘s steam is far from running thin with album number 12 well on its way and Gildenlöw claiming that the band is itching to return to the road; he’s expecting a crowd of dog masks, just as a heads up. But to live in the present, an idea he admittedly struggles to comply with, Panther is a grand affirmation of the band’s status among some of modern prog metal’s finest acts. Whether you look at its past, an inception plagued by adversity, its present, one of the most well-received records of the band’s career, or its future, with a successor sat comfortably in the pipeline – Panther was, is and will be a worthy testament to one of modern music’s most intriguing names. 

Panther is out now via InsideOut Music.

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