Il y a quelques semaines, le guitariste Johan Hallgren décidait de quitter Pain of Salvation pour se consacrer un peu plus à sa vie de famille.
Coup dur pour le groupe, Daniel Gildenlöw songeant même à un moment si PoS pourrait continuer sans Johan. Au final, les doutes disparaissaient et Daniel sentait que s'arrêter là ne serait pas une bonne décision...
Sauf que, sauf que...
C'est désormais au tour du claviériste et choriste Frederik Hermansson de quitter le navire. Lui aussi évoque une envie de respirer, de s'occuper de ses proches, suivant ainsi son camarade et ami Johan vers la sortie...
Voici le communiqué officiel du leader Daniel :
"To that fan of POS or Opeth...
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 fucking 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.
Wet kisses,"
Daniel Gildenlöw / Pain of Salvation
On peut désormais craindre pour l'avenir du groupe. Daniel Gildenlöw se retrouve désormais comme seul membre fondateur à bord, et même si Pain of Salvation devenait de plus en plus son "projet solo", c'est quelque peu l'âme de cette formation qui commence à s'effriter... Heureusement que le dernier arrivé, notre batteur français Léo Margarit, reste encore à bord.
Il faudra bien profiter des dates françaises à venir car elles seront les dernières avec la formation actuelle, avant que les départs de Johan et Frederik ne soient entérinés.
