''One Hour by the Concrete Lake'' is

Pain of Salvation Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal band led by Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the band's main songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, and vocalist. Pain of Salvation's sound is characterised by riff-oriented guitar work, a broad vocal range, o ...

's second studio album. It is a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

focusing on the issues of nuclear power and waste, displacement of indigenous peoples, the firearm industry, and human discovery.

Release history

''One Hour by the Concrete Lake'' was first released by Avalon Records in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in July 1998. It was later released in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in January 1999 on InsideOut, in the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in November 1999 on InsideOut America and in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

in November 1999 on Hellion.

Overview

''One Hour by the Concrete Lake'' 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 The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

Lake Karachay Lake Karachay (russian: Карача́й), sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, was a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Maya ...

in the former

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The sound is generally darker and more subdued than '' Entropia'', with a harsh, industrial feel to the guitar tones.

Daniel Gildenlöw Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal band led by Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the band's main songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, and vocalist. Pain of Salvation's sound is characterised by riff-oriented guitar work, a broad vocal range, o ...

has personally, though reluctantly, stated that ''Concrete Lake'' is his least favorite

album.

Concept

''One Hour by the Concrete Lake'' follows the fictional tale of a man that works in the weapons industry. He begins to have doubts about the morality of his occupation, and realizes that he is just part of a big "machine" that controls his life. He makes a New Year's resolution to discover what consequences his life and his work have on other parts of the world, and decides to break free of the machine. In the second chapter, he travels around the world to many different places and sees what effects his weapons are actually having. He remembers being told that the weapons he helped to make would save human lives and preserve the peace, yet all he sees are weapons being used by people to kill other people—which is their designed purpose. Furthermore, he finds native people (specifically,

Native American Indians Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States (Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are ...

) struggling to reclaim their sacred land from the colonizing white man, who have also taken

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

from the ground and dumped radioactive waste into the local rivers. In the third chapter, he arrives at shores of

(in

Kyshtym Kyshtym (russian: Кышты́м) is a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains northwest of Chelyabinsk, near the town of Ozyorsk. Population: 36,000 (1970). History Kyshtym was establ ...

in the former USSR). There, so much nuclear waste had been 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 inevitably occur within ''two weeks''. Concrete blocks have been placed in the lake, falling to the bottom to help compress sediments down and prevent them from shifting. Still it would take tens of thousands of years for the deleterious effects of the radiation to subside. Unfortunately, after ten years, the concrete had already begun to crack and split open. The water in the lake has been decreasing steadily over the years and will eventually leave a dry lake bed. In addition, the lake connects to many underground rivers that go out to sea. The man's quest to leave the machine ends as he realizes that it is impossible for anyone to truly leave the machine. Outside one machine there are merely more machines. However, he also realizes 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 album ends with the idea that anyone could easily come to understand the significance and immorality of the issues raised in the album; it would only require them to stand for one hour by the concrete lake.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Daniel Gildenlöw. Music written by members listed below. Note: These are the reported track lengths on the CD casing, however, the length of ''Inside Out'' goes for over 6 more minutes (includes a hidden track, ''Pilgrim Reprise''). This increases the track length to 13:15, and the total album playing time to 60:00, linking the album length to the album title. In the South American edition, the hidden tracks are removed to make space for a bonus track, "Beyond the Mirror". The Japanese edition of this album also contains "Beyond the Mirror" as well as another bonus track, "Timeweaver's Tale".

Personnel

- lead vocals, guitar *

Kristoffer Gildenlöw Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal band led by Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the band's main songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, and vocalist. Pain of Salvation's sound is characterised by riff-oriented guitar work, a broad vocal range, o ...

- bass, vocals *

Johan Hallgren Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive metal band led by Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the band's main songwriter, lyricist, guitarist, and vocalist. Pain of Salvation's sound is characterised by riff-oriented guitar work, a broad vocal range, o ...

- guitar, vocals *

Fredrik Hermansson Fredrik Hermansson (born 18 July 1976) is a Swedish musician. He was a keyboardist and backing vocalist in the Swedish progressive rock band Pain of Salvation from 1996 to 2011. He also works as a freelance piano player and composer. Fredrik stu ...

- keyboards and samplers *

Johan Langell Johan Langell (born 16 May 1975) is a Swedish musician. He is best known as the former drummer of the Swedish progressive rock band Pain of Salvation. Discography Pain of Salvation *'' Hereafter'' (1996) (demo) *'' Entropia'' (1997) *'' One H ...

- drums and percussion, vocals ;Additional personnel *Anders "Theo" Theander - producer, engineering *

Jonas Reingold Jonas Reingold (born 22 April 1969) is a Swedish bass guitarist from Malmö. Biography Reingold started to play bass in 1986 when he subbed for a friend in the local famous act WIRE. The band was happy with his performance and offered him the ...

- engineering *Mats Olsson - mastering *Frasse Franzen - photos *Patrik Larsson/Peel Production - cover art *Katarina Åhlén - cello

Notes

* As commented by

in a
interview in March 2001

References

{{Authority control Pain of Salvation albums 1998 albums Concept albums