Niels' Top 10 Albums of 2017 - Number 3

3. Pain of Salvation – In The Passing Light Of Day

Most of my top ten wrote itself, but my top three was difficult. Any of them could be in any order. Three albums were ahead of the pack this year, and this one is of particular interest as I've pretty much done a full 180 on it. On first listen, I didn't like it at all.

Pain of Salvation, kings of melodrama, are back after Daniel Gildenlöw made a somewhat miraculous recovery. Like Christina of Magenta and Andy of The Tangent, Daniel has had to directly confront his own mortality, in his case owing to a particularly nasty bacterial infection that came this close to killing him. Unlike Christina and Andy, Daniel very much puts his ordeal front and center on his comeback album, which, after a string of experimental albums, is once again an unmistakable slice of agressive progressive metal from PoS that puts melody and raw emotion over complexity.

Daniel's typically over-the-top delivery and shamelessly direct lyrics initally put me off the album, but I couldn't stay away from it. After all, how many people get to make a concept album about their own demise? Even David Bowie could only partially manage it. As he lies dying gruesomely, Daniel does not go quietly into the night. Here, there is no trace of serene dignity or understated acceptance in the face of death. He unapologetically wallows in rage, doubt, self-pity and the sheer fear of death. He basically mourns himself.

And why not? He has every right to feel these emotions, to frantically wish for eternal life. It's the perfect antidote to the "cult of positivity" that surrounds cancer and other deadly illnesses. No kumbayas and "finding your inner strength" here. This stuff really sucks, guys, and it's incredibly refreshing to hear someone lay it all out there. Only at the very end does he find some solace in love.

Of course, Daniel thankfully ended up pulling though, but that in no way undermines the emotional impact of this album. Once it's opened up, every song feels like a gut punch. It's heavy shit, in every sense.