One Hour by the Concrete Lake
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| One Hour by the Concrete Lake | |||||
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| Studio album by Pain of Salvation | |||||
| Released | July 1998 | ||||
| Recorded | Roasting House Recording Studio; Malmö, Sweden, spring 1998 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive metal | ||||
| Length | 60:00 | ||||
| Label | Avalon (later InsideOutMusic) | ||||
| Producer | Pain of Salvation and Anders "Theo" Theander | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Pain of Salvation chronology | |||||
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One Hour by the Concrete Lake is Pain of Salvation's second studio album. It is a concept album focussing on the issues of nuclear power/waste, disposition of indigenous peoples, the firearm industry, and human discovery.
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[edit] Release History
One Hour by the Concrete Lake was first released by Avalon Records in Japan in July 1998. It was later released in Europe in January 1999 on InsideOut, in the USA in November 1999 on InsideOut America and in South America in November 1999 on Hellion.
[edit] Overview
"Concrete Lake" (which is the preferred abbreviation of the albums title, as "One Hour drains the title completely of its content") takes a more thorough and factual approach to its concept than its predecessor, Entropia. A number of facts are given in the album booklet, with a list of sources provided at the end. The chronological order of songs is the same as the track order (as opposed to Entropia) and a number of the events and places are real. For example, the Black Hills in North America and Lake Karachay in the former USSR. The sound is generally darker and more subdued than Entropia, with a harsh, industrial feel to the guitar tones.
[edit] Analysis
One Hour by the Concrete Lake follows the fictional tale of a man that works in the weapon industry who begins to have doubts about the morality of his occupation. He realises that he is just a part of a big "machine" and that it controls his life. He makes a New Year's resolution to discover what consequences his life and work has on other part of the world, and to break free of the "machine" that controls his life.
In the second chapter, he travels around the world and sees what his weapons are actually doing in many different places. He witnesses a war, and remembers that he was told that the weapons he helped to make would save human lives and preserve the peace. However, all he sees are human beings using weapons to shoot other human beings – which is their designed purpose. He also sees native people (specifically, native American Indians) struggling to reclaim their sacred land from the colonising white man, who also had taken uranium from the ground and put the waste back into the local rivers.
In the third chapter, he arrives at shores of Lake Karachay (in Kyshtym in the former USSR), where so much nuclear waste was dumped over the past fifty years that if one stood by the shore for one hour, the exposure to radiation would be such that death from physical injuries would occur within two weeks. The entire lake was eventually covered in concrete, however, for the radiation to be acceptable, it would need to stay there for tens of thousands of years. However, after ten years the concrete had begun to crack and split open. Also, the lake connects to many underground rivers and out to sea.
The man's quest to leave the "machine" ends as he realises that it is impossible for anyone to leave the "machine" because outside one machine there are just more machines. However, he also realises that the "machine" is only made of its "wheels", so the only thing he can do is choose which machine he wants to be part of and take some responsibility for its direction.
The meaning of the title is that for anyone to realise the immorality of the issues raised in the album, it would only require them to stand for one hour by the Concrete Lake.
The message of the album is for the listener to realise these same things.
[edit] Track listing
- 1. Spirit of the Land (Music: D. Gildenlöw) 0:43
Part of the Machine:
- 2. Inside (D.Gildenlöw/D.Magdic/K.Gildenlöw/F.Hermansson) 6:12
- 3. The Big Machine (D.Gildenlöw/D.Magdic) 4:21
- 4. New Year’s Eve (D.Gildenlöw) 5:37
Spirit of Man:
- 5. Handful of Nothing (D.Gildenlöw) 5:39
- 6. Water (D.Gildenlöw/D.Magdic) 5:05
- 7. Home (D.Gildenlöw) 5:44
Karachay:
- 8. Black Hills (D.Gildenlöw) 6:32
- 9. Pilgrim (D.Gildenlöw) 3:17
- 10. Shore Serenity (D.Gildenlöw) 3:13
- 11. Inside Out (D.Gildenlöw/D.Magdic/F.Hermansson) 6:37
Note: These are the reported track lengths on the CD casing, however, in reality the length vary a bit (most notably Inside Out, which goes for an extra 6 minutes). This increases the total album playing time to ~60:00, linking the album length to the album title.
The Japanese edition of this album contain bonus track after Inside Out, named "Timeweaver's Tale. The South American edition contain a bonus track called "Beyond the Mirror"
All of the album's lyrics were written by Daniel Gildenlöw.
[edit] Personnel
Band:
- Daniel Gildenlöw - lead vocals, guitar
- Fredrik Hermansson - keyboards and samplers
- Johan Hallgren - guitar, vocals
- Johan Langell - drums and percussion, vocals
- Kristoffer Gildenlöw - bass, vocals
Other:
- Pain of Salvation - producer, mastering
- Ander "Theo" Theander - producer, engineering
- Jonas Reingold - engineering
- Mats Olsson - mastering
- Frasse Franzen - photos
- Patrik Larsson/Peel Production - cover art
- Katarina Åhlén - cello
[edit] Notes
- ^ As commented by Daniel Gildenlöw in an interview in March 2001
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