After the flights back to Sweden we had less than 24 hours at home before taking off for Australia. During those few hours I had to pack, take a bath and prepare the audio CDs and mixes for Melodifestivalen. For those who don’t know what Melodifestivalen is, it is the biggest thing in the Swedish music industry. A huge machinery built to single out the Swedish contender for the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of thousands and thousands of sent in songs, 30 are selected by a jury to participate in this national contest, viewed by half the population when it’s on TV. It’s a big thing, to say the least! Do you recall a week with two Thursdays, some two months back? It was that day when hell froze over, remember? That was the day they told us Pain of Salvation would be participating in Melodifestivalen. It just doesn’t happen.

For those of you who are not familiar with Eurovision or, the preliminaries that are Melodifestivalen, these things are about as metal as, say.. American Idol. That is to say, they are not fucking metal at all. They’re not metal even a little bit. There is not a shred of metal in this stuff. “Sure,” you say, “but Lordi got famous because of Eurovision!” To which I respond “Exactly!” Lordi, while funny, is certainly not a band that anyone over the age of 8 takes seriously at all. And that should give you the idea of what it means that Pain of Salvation, the progressive rock idols that are incredibly well loved in the prog scene (the word “overrated” almost comes to mind, though they are exceptionally talented), are going to be in Melodifestivalen.

The best part about this whole thing is the interview on the SVT site.

Even if you can’t understand Swedish you should check out the end where they slaughter this song (which I was informed of by Angry Metal Girlfriend, who totally knows this stuff.. haha)

Though, he points out thoughtfully that Lena Philipsson should have won with that song, and after listening to it I think he’s absolutely right. One wonders if Daniel Gildenlöw can dance like she can… If so, maybe they can pull off the big upset.

Related posts:

1. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt Two [Ebony] Review
2. Pain of Salvation – Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory – Review
3. Pain of Salvation – The Second Death of Pain of Salvation