Prog – either rock or metal – is my arch enemy. My nemesis. Hear me out please, I promise not to be too lengthy. (Not very prog like). This does not mean I hate Prog, rather I have always had an issue with it and have warmed to the idea of disliking it and revelled in my disdain, whilst being drawn to it every few years.  Prog has been the Joker to my Batman. The Dracula to my Van Helsing. The fake bacon bits to my vegan cheese sarnie. Umm.   OK, what I mean is every few years I dig out a Porcupine Tree or Pink Floyd album listen to it obsessively for a few days, feel dirty then go back to listening to my usual fare.

This album hit my inbox while I was spending a few days listening to Marillion intentionally for the first time so I thought I would give it a gander.

Pain Of Salvation are no strangers to those of a more Progressive bent having been around for over 3 decades and recording since 1997.  Panther is their 11th album and the Swedes still have multi- instrumentalist Daniel Gildenlow at the helm.

The music styles are very muddled on Panther. The title track is rap rock. Yeah you heard that right. The kind of sub Nu Metal that used to ruin the ears of teens in the late 90’s. Sure there are a few Prog attempts at breakbeats but ostensibly it’s a Korn Klone without the originality. Quite a shock!

The album itself feels like an experiment in styles which are all glancing backwards at the 90’s and early noughties. Restless Boy has a Trip Hop – like Moloko with synthesised rapid-fire guitar stabs whilst Unfuture is a Numan/Reznor cowboy shootout in a Dixons warehouse.

Don’t get me wrong – the album is not terrible. It’s just that it is not original, being a jigsaw of influences and styles which means that the expansive and immersive soundscapes usually associated with anything Prog are harder to find. Opener Accelerator is a retro, sci fi, cyber punk laser bolt of jerky prog synth which got my juices going. This just meant that when Unfuture started firing off cliches like “Last cup of sorrow in the age of Aquarius” I was sorely disappointed.

It is the end of the album that things get a little more interesting and Gildenlow decides not to play with all his toys at once.

Species is a Tool like prog metal ditty that will please fans of Maynard with its stabby riffs and staccato rhythms. The electronica is kept to a minimum giving a warmer more earthy feel that replaces synthetic material with solid rock.

Icon which closes things is a 13 minute Prog rock epic featuring an intro stuffed with pianos and John Carpenteresque synth lines before settling into a track that has elements of a John Legend style ballad (!!!!), latter era Marillion and Pain of Salvations own heavy riffs .

Panther will not win new fans for Pain of Salvation and I am unsure if those that have journeyed with the Swedes for the last 20 odd years are on the same page. Possibly they are and this is the culmination of the band’s progression. For me it is a jumbled mess of half ideas that is too busy looking backwards to get me interested.

(5/10 Matt Mason)  

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