BE (Pain of Salvation album)

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For the album by Common, see Be (Common album)

"BE"
Studio album by Pain of Salvation
Released	September, 2004
Recorded	various places, Sweden, February-July 2004
Genre	Progressive metal
Length	75:53
Label	InsideOutMusic
Producer	Daniel Gildenlöw
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Pain of Salvation chronology
12:5 (2004) "BE" (2004) "BE" (Original Stage Production) (2005)

"BE" is Pain of Salvation's fifth studio album, released by InsideOutMusic in September 2004. It is a concept album focusing on the existence of God and humankind. Along with the band it features a nine part orchestra, The Orchestra of Eternity, which features prominently throughout the album. This is the last album to feature Kristoffer Gildenlöw on bass. It is unique in that it is the first Pain of Salvation album to be divided into more than three chapters.

[edit] Outline

"BE" attempts to explore the many facets of human existence. It begins with the narration of Animae, someone or something who/that has existed for as long as he/she/it can remember and contemplates the nature of his/her/its existence and then begins a journey of understanding with the words: "I will call myself GOD and I will spend the rest of forever trying to figure out who I am"^[1][2]. The story continues from there. The characters that appear and disappear throughout the story are as follows:

• Animae: Animae is the album's representation of God, or a Godhead.
• Nauticus: Nauticus is the name of a fictional space probe that is, according to the album, the most intelligent space probe ever to be created. In reference to the marine 'neighborhood', Nauticus 'drifts' throughout space, searching for answers to save Earth from itself.
• Imago: Imago is the image of humanity in its most natural form. Combined, Imago is the reflection of Animae.
• Dea Pecuniae: Dea Pecuniae can be seen as a feminine version of Mr. Money, and the Eve of humanity's dark side. In a way, she represents sin.
• Mr. Money: Mr. Money is the main character of the story; a man with the most wealth on Earth, who spends most of it on cryogenics in order to fulfill his wish - to be frozen, and not to be awakened until he is made immortal. He represents the darker side of humanity, being the Adam for Dea Pecuniae.

The sound and style are somewhat more varied than previous Pain of Salvation albums, but at the same time, calling upon those previous albums as influences. The album includes: narrative passages; a folk-like song; a gospel-prayer-like song; a church-hymn-like song; progressive metal songs; a classical piano/strings piece; a conversation with a radio in the background; news readings; and even a song that would not be out of place in a Broadway musical. Another song consists entirely of voice messages to be left on "God's answering machine"^[3]. To approach this song, the band asks the subscribers of their newsletter to call a certain phone number and say what ever they would want to say to God.

In writing "BE", Daniel Gildenlöw used many resources for information, insights and inspiration. These can be viewed at the "BE" home page, and are intended as "points of departure" for listeners to continue their "own journey through "BE" ".

[edit] Track Listing/Title Meanings

"[Chinassiah] is a word puzzle, as so many other titles and phrases on the album. It derives from a combination of China (for fragility and beauty, but also man made) and Messiah (for saviour but also the notion of something in which we, humanity, put our faith for salvation). Other puzzles on the same theme is Machinassiah (as above but with the adding of Machine symbolizing industry, artificial and a moving system), Machinageddon (as above but replacing Messiah with Armageddon for destruction and a negative spiral) and Machinauticus (as above but replacing Armageddon with Nauticus for searching, quest, lost and the creation of the probe). - Daniel Gildenlöw

The Latin errors are on purpose on behalf of Daniel. In a letter to a fan, which was posted on the Remedy Lane forum, he wrote:

"I'd say the trick is not to see the titles as pure Latin, but a connecting thread woven by words in Latin. Thus, Lilium Cruentus is formed by the words for lily and stained by blood and is preferably interpreted as a loss of innocence and virginity, see? There are no rules here, just triggers to the mind. Deus Nova - a god (male to its form but in a poetical value I simply wish to underline the paternal role in the act of creating the world) and the sense of novelty and beginning - the new. A new god on the rise. I was aware of the fact that the Latin was not correct (though sometimes it should be, like the very long chapter title, which is more of a sentence than the remaining puzzle) and for many of the titles I was left to choose between the erred one and the linguistically correct. In all cases I went for the poetically correct and/or most versatile in interpretation. The title with most errors in relation to its meaning would probably be Nihil Morari - for that one you have to make a two-step translation. Nihil meaning nothing is pretty simple, but then Morari is something like left-overs or corps as I recall it, but if you use the word remains for that same notion you have a words with two different meanings - and there's the magic, see?

I should probably make clear that I didn't do this to puzzle people or make them feel stupid, it's just a way of naming your children, sometimes they need a whole world - the naming being some sort of magical process like a baptism of some sort, affecting the song emotionally whether the receivers will understand the titles or not. I don't know if this makes sense at all, but... it's like doing the right thing even if no one's watching you know? Very non-meta-physics in a way I guess..."

With that said, here are the rough translations for the song titles.

Prologue

01. Animae Partus ("I am") - A God Is Born ("I Am") 1:48

I Animae Partus

All in the Image of

02. Deus Nova - New God. Note that 'Deus' is masculine and 'Nova' is feminine, so it should have been either 'Deus Novus' (masculine) or 'Dea Nova' (feminine) it if were to be gramatically correct. However, this is intentional. 3:18

03. Imago (Homines Partus) - Imago (Man Is Born) 5:11

04. Pluvius Aestivus - Summer Rain 5:00

Of Summer Rain (Homines Fabula Initium) - Of Summer Rain (The Story of Man Begins)

As is evident by the list to the left, the track listing and structure of the album are very detailed and confusing. This actual album image describing the album may help to understand it.

II Machinassiah - See above.

Of Gods & Slaves

05. Lilium Cruentus (Deus Nova) - Blood Stained Lily (New God) 5:28

On the Loss of Innocence

06. Nauticus (Drifting) - Nauticus (Drifting). Note that 'Nauticus' is Latin for Sailor, which directly applies to Nauticus' role in the concept. 4:58

07. Dea Pecuniae - Goddess of Money 10:09

I Mr. Money

II Permanere

III I Raise My Glass

III Machinageddon - See above.

Nemo Idoneus Aderat Qui Responderet

08. Vocari Dei - Messages to God 3:50

Sordes Aetas - Mess Age

09. Diffidentia (Breaching the Core) - Mistrust (Breaching The Core) 7:26

Exitus - Drifting II

10. Nihil Morari - Nothing Remains

(Homines Fabula Finis) - The Story of Man Comes To An End 6:21

IV Machinauticus - See above.

Of the Ones With no Hope

11. Latericius Valete - If You Are Strong, Be Strong 2:27

12. Omni - Everything 2:37

Permanere?

13. Iter Impius - Wicked Path 6:21

Martius, son of Mars

Obitus Diutinus

14. Martius/Nauticus II - Martius/Nauticus II 6:41

V Deus Nova Mobile

...and a God is Born

15. Animae Partus II 4:08

Concept, research, original stories, lyrics, narrations and texts by Daniel Gildenlöw. All music by Daniel Gildenlöw, except "Iter Impius" by Fredrik Hermansson. All orchestral arrangements by Daniel Gildenlöw, except "Imago" by Jan Levander and Daniel Gildenlöw. News casts, fake interview and other "snipplets" written by Kim Howatt, Jim Howatt and Daniel Gildenlöw.

[edit] Credits

Band:

• Daniel Gildenlöw - vocals, choirs, voices, harmony vocals; electric and acoustic guitar; mandola; Chinese archo; percussion on toms, roto-toms, mandola (body), eggs, floors, broken cymbals and what-have-you; samplers and programming.
• Fredrik Hermansson - grand piano, harpsichord and keyboards; percussion on large toms;
• Johan Hallgren - electric and acoustic guitars; harmony vocals; percussion on congas.
• Johan Langell - drums; backing vocals; percussion on djembe and cow bell.
• Kristoffer Gildenlöw - fretted and fretless basses; double bass; harmony vocals; percussion on congas.

The Orchestra of Eternity:

• Mihai Cucu - 1st violin
• Camilla Arvidsson - 2nd violin
• Kristina Ekman - viola
• Magnus Lanning - cello
• Åsa Karlberg - flute
• Anette Kumlin - oboe
• Nils-Åke Pettersson - clarinet
• Dries van den Poel - bass clarinet
• Sven-Oloe Juvas - tuba

Guest Musicians:

• Mats Stenlund - church organ
• Cecilia Ringkvist - vocals

Other:

• Donald Morgan - narration
• Donald K. Morgan - narration
• Alex R. Morgan - narration
• Kim Howatt - news reading, Cindy (Sandra!)
• Jim Howatt - news reading
• Jackie Crotinger - news reading
• Ross Crotinger - news reading
• Tom Kleich - Mr. Money on radio
• Blair Wilson - interviewer on radio, Miss Mediocrety
• Gaby Howatt - Miss Mediocrety
• Molly Fahey - "There's room for all God's creatures..."
• Various people from around the world - voice messages to God

Visual:

• Lars Ardarve - photography
• Per Hillblom
• Kim Howatt - photography
• Jim Howatt - photography
• Kristoffer Gildenlöw - photography
• Daniel Gildenlöw - photography, artwork, logotypes

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Full Animae Transcript (Partially included on album)
2. ^ Words spoken on the album on LyricWiki
3. ^ Transcription of voice messages to God on LyricWiki

[edit] External links

• The "BE" home page
• "BE" in-depth analysis from suxession.com