Pain Of Salvation are surely one of the more original and inventive rockbands of recent years, who rarely let the beauty of their music suffer dueto their innovation and technical skill (as far too many bands so oftendo). This live recording reflects and reinforces both their accomplishedinstrumental cleverness and their sense of musical landscape (for want ofa better word).
These songs will sound amazing live (thoughoccasionally strange) to just about anybody, but to fans of PoS the albumis particularly impressive. Most of the songs are unrecognisable until thevocals kick in, they have been wonderfully adapted for acousticperformance. The four-way harmonies are pretty much perfect throughout,which I found quite amazing, especially when you consider the complexityof the parts which they have to perform simultaneously. 'Ashes' stands outin particular for me because the live version sounds so tender, whereasthe original is harsh and bitter. Of course not all of the songs areequally gorgeous to listen to, and some of the instrumental may grate onsome ears. Such people will be those who do not have prior knowledge ofPoS, and if you are one of these you might do well to check out theirstudio albums first. 'Entropia' and 'Remedy Lane' are probably the mostrewarding to get into.
Five stars for doing what barely any bands would(or could) do with a live performance.