Difficile période pour Pain of Salvation et ses fans… Alors que Road Salt Two et la perspective de la tournée en compagnie d’Opeth (qui démarre tout juste) avaient soulevé un grand élan d’enthousiasme, ces trois dernières semaines s’avèrent plus noires que jamais pour le groupe d’Eskilstuna. Ebony devrait-on même dire… Déjà, on avait accueilli avec beaucoup de tristesse fin octobre l’annonce du départ de Johan Hallgren, après 13 années de bons et loyaux services. Il faudra faire à présent avec celle du départ d’un autre membre historique, présent depuis le tout premier album cette fois-ci (et donc le plus ancien avec Daniel Gildenlöw) : son claviériste Fredrik Hermansson. En effet, nous l’avons appris il y a quelques heures, l’antithèse capilaire des deux Johan (Hallgren et Langell donc) va suivre la même voie que ces derniers, tout comme avaient pu le faire auparavant Daniel Magdic, Kristoffer Gildenlöw et Simon Andersson…

Autrement dit, la tournée avec Opeth sera la dernière avant que Pain of Salvation ne soit réduit aux seuls Daniel Gildenlöw et Léo Margarit…

Le communiqué de Daniel Gildenlöw :

You’d think we’d had enough, right? RINGLESS TOILETS, OPEN WOUNDS, BROKEN TOES, SPRAINED ABDOMINAL MUSCLES, BRUISES, BEE STINGS… For those who long for tour life – we’d gladly give you a few weeks on tour. Just one advice – when they deprive you of all sanity and spirit, make sure to cling on to your legs, ’cause they’re the ones you will need when you will run the hell away from it all!

Nah, it’s never that bad (yes it is). No, really, don’t worry (worry!).

Take the last tour we did for example, it was a dream. Seriously, we were deeply honored to have VON HERTZEN BROTHERS open up for us. These guys tour massively in Finland, have won Grammies, and supported NEIL YOUNG, and the fucking FOO FIGHTERS for crying out loud. Now here they were, with Pain Of Salvation, rocking the stage silly every night. I hope people understood the quality of the music that was given them! Anyway, wonderful musicians, wonderful guys, wonderful people to have around when the bus breaks down for the third time and you’re stuck in Stara Zagora in Bulgaria for five days. And this is all hypothetical of course. No bus breaks down three times on a three week tour. Right? Right?

This mess made us have to cancel our second show ever. Damn, that hurt! We had such a good track record! The first ever show we cancelled was in 2005, where we didn’t have any gear on location 30 minutes before the show (file under « good reason »). Ankara was cancelled because we were simply in another country, expecting to leave every day – we were all Bill Murray living in Groundhog Day for a few days, saying goodbye to the waitresses at the restaurant after every meal, then ridiculously returning again for the next meal. And the next. And the next. The heartbrokenness (that’s a word!) was less and less severe with every farewell. Still, there should be a Pain of Salvation fan club in Stara Zagora by now.

All over Eastern Europe, despite very different size crowds from night to night, the devoted passion was the same every night. You gave so much back to us, really you did! And then there are always a number of fans who want to hear older material, but the funny thing is, they all commit to the fullest when we let them explode in ‘Linoleum’, ‘No Way’, ‘Conditioned’ and ‘To the Shoreline’. And they never sing along more tearfully than in 1979. The old Pain Of Salvation might have an eternal grip of their teenage cleverness, but the newer Pain Of Salvation has an even tighter grip on their souls and guts. I was gonna go for balls but then I changed my mind last second. Good.

Now we’ve been home for less then two weeks, barely regrouping and catching our breaths. Come Monday and we’re leaving for five more weeks with Opeth. That odd feeling in our stomachs will be even more prominent this time around, since this tour marks the farewell of both Johan and Fredrik. See, I went and dipped my toes into the serious now, but I can’t dwell on it too long then I won’t have any energy left for convincing ending! Anyway, Léo and I are already guessing who of us will get to be Christopher Lambert in Highlander. Léo does have the youth, energy and motivation on his side. But I have red-hot statistics holding my fort.

While we go out the next five weeks using this Pain Of Salvation to kick the dust off any stage you’ll put in front of us, another Pain Of Salvation is just now starting to rise from the ashes. We are walking multiple roads here ladies and gentlemen. For these coming five weeks you will witness the third death of Pain Of Salvation, and possibly get a glimpse of the beast waking up underneath its skin, soon to be unhinged. Anyway, the way I write this would be a sure sign that I am losing my sanity, but then again, I have always been writing like this.

But alright, just for the record I will finish this in a more expected way: We are looking forward to going out on tour with Opeth. They are truly nice people and we have a lot in common. I also think our fans have a lot in common, so who knows what can happen in the crowds around Europe this fall. I know I’m gonna be there to see it!

You really should be there too. You really should.

Crédit photo : Lars Ardarve / Source : bravewords.com