Pain Of Salvation - "BE"

After the end of the Remedy lane tour, the band spent most of 2003 and 2004 working on their most ambitious project so far: a concept album which treats about the nature of existence of God and humankind and how one influences the other. That project would later become the band's 2004 album BE. The idea itself dates back to 1996 and Daniel Gildenlöw worked on the subject from time to time, but nothing serious or final was done until the period the band started to work on the concept, in the early 2000's. Before being recorded, the material that would be in the album was performed in Eskilstuna a number of times in its entirety with costumes, stage props, screen projections and orchestra (the nine-part orchestra called The Orchestra of Eternity). After those performances, the concept and the music was further adjusted and refined and in February 2004 the band begun recording what would be known as the album BE. BE was released in September 2004 and was the first album to divide the band's audience. That happened for a number of reasons: some fans felt the album was way too ambitious and was borderline incomprehensible, wile others felt the album lacked the progressive metal the band was so known for and entered too deep in the progressive rock field; others, mostly new fans that came from a progressive rock background that was attracted by the album's "revolutionary sound, considered it the Pain of Salvation's best album yet. Indeed, BE is very different from every other album in the band's catalogue, musically speaking. In that album, Pain of Salvation drops, for the most part, their progressive metal elements and deliver a very refined and complex progressive rock piece, which included the nine-part orchestra (The Orchestra of Eternity), along with an incredibly complex and intertwined concept which was presented and developed in a very small and limited amount of time, making both the music and the concept appear too dense for some as well as they appeared to be too lightly developed for others. BE also featured the so-called "God's Answering Machine in the song Vocari Dei, which consisted in a place where band fans would leave a message for God. People from around the world sent their messages for the Machine and the band used the material as part of the song, together with an instrumental piece. The joint instrumental music and the pleads to God created one of the most emotional songs the band has ever come up with so far. Prog Archives