Panther. The new album. Pain of Salvation are known to take chances both with their style and production. I respect that but sadly this one loses a lot due to a poor mix and production. This is their St. Anger.

Production is messy. Just sounds overly distorted and muddy. “Panther” is a heavy album or should be but it’s killed by this terrible mix.

Accelerator sounds cluttered. There’s good melodies. There’s a good song in here somewhere.

Unfuture. Has a snare drum which has no power. It sounds like a box is being hit. The song itself is okay but nothing memorable.

Restless Boy. Just not a good song. Sound is weird and harsh. It’s harsh even when the music is quiet. Very odd. When the drums kick in, it’s really a St. Anger moment.

Wait. Well I have been. Piano is nice. Odd sound effects behind it are annoying. Daniel still has a great voice and I can hear it on this one. The song is very good. The chorus is great. Again, the drums sound terrible. It’s a shame too. The keys that come in around 4:40 are annoying.

Keen to a Fault. Well it’s yet another decent song with a poor arrangement and even worse production. The song has good parts are others which sound aimless.

Fur. Banjo. Because we all need some banjo? It’s a 1:30 instrumental. It’s fine but if it wasn’t on the album I wouldn’t care.

Title track. A hip hop-ish verse. It reminds me a LITTLE of Scarsick. Too much reliance on tech to prop the song up. The song has no oomph. It tries to but the guitars are distorted and buried under the tech shit.

Species. This is one of the better songs on the album. It has more punch than the rest but still sounds bad. Too much fuzz.The song itself is classic PoS. Dramatic, powerful and has a good hook.

Icon. The 13 plus minute epic track. Beautiful introduction. And then something that sounds like a guitar pretending to be a gnat starts in my left ear. The music that starts under that part sounds good though. That annoying gnat sound is so annoying. I actually sigh in relief when it’s not there. Once again, this is a good song that has tremendous beauty…but each amazing moment gets trashed by that motherfucking gnat sound. Dude, what the fuck? The song kicks some ass FINALLY around the 7:30 mark. Where the hell has this been? The guitar solo is really good even if it’s muffled and run thru more shitty treatments. Overall, this is the best song on the album. Well at least most of the song is…

This “Panther” has no claws and no bite. I doubt I will listen to this one very much. It’s not a good listen. Horrible sounding album that needs a massive remix.

Rating: 4/10

Label: InsideOut Music

Release Date: August 28, 2020