<i>To be honest I don't know what I'm looking for</i>

Ég hef lengi talið mig mikinn og dyggann aðdaénda Pain of Salvation en ótrúlegt en satt, er til mikið af mun “verri” Pain of Salvation aðdáendum en ég þarna úti og einn þeirra tók sig til og settist niður með booklettið af Remedy Lane plötunni og skrifaði smá analysis af henni. Þetta er svona eins og maður gerði þegar maður var í íslensku í framhaldsskóla að kryfja ljóð um kindur eða álíka eftir Jónas Hallgrímsson eða einhvert annað löngu afdautt íslensk skáld…

Saga eða concept þessarar plötu er eins og ávallt með PoS nokkuð flókið fyrirbæri og til að rugla mann ennþá frekar, þá valdi Daniel að láta lögin ekki gerast í tímaröð, en auðveldaði þó leikinn með því að tímamerkja þau öll. Þar fyrir utan er að finna fullt af auka textum og ljóðum í booklettinu sem ekki tilheyra neinum sérstökum lögum, en hanga augljóslega saman með innihaldi sögunnar og gefa vísbendingar og meiri upplýsingar um hvað þau kunna að merkja.

Ég vil taka það fram að þetta er bara ein útgáfa af greiningu á innihaldinu og þarf ekki endilega að vera rétt eins og Daniel hafði það í huga.

Góða skemmtun!

<b>Remedy Lane Analysis & Timeline:
By Steven Lamphear (Shred7SCL@yahoo.com)</b>

Foreword: I think that this album has a deeper purpose than just telling a story. On that note, I would like to say that this is just a compilation of conclusions that I (with the help of many other Pain of Salvation - obsessed fans) have come to about the album, and has not been authorized by the band in any way.

<b>? First Love (extra text in booklet):</b>
<i>“We are eleven and she is the love of my life.
But one week from now she will turn her back on me
Four years from now she will give me hope, then sleep with my best friend
Five years from now it is the two of us but by then there is nothing left
Of this aching love and this soaring love.
But I don't know that now
Because we are eleven and she is the love of my life.”</i>

Pretty self-explanatory.

<b>1984 - 1990 (Ekilstuna) - Second Love</b>
Now here there are some different interpretations (I'm not sure which is correct). This seems to be the same person from “First Love” (the “Five years…there is nothing left…” lines match the 1984-1990 timeframe of Second Love). Some people, though, say that this is Johanna (Daniel's wife), which I don't agree with because I remember reading that Daniel met Johanna at a writing class somewhere, I believe after high school/college (thus pushing their meeting far beyond the 1984 mark of this relationship). The main argument showing that they would be the same person is from the lines in “Beyond the Pale” when he says “…And I remember when you said you've been under him,” since this could easily refer to the “sleep with my best friend” part of First Love. At this point in time, I'm not 100% sure which is correct.

<b>February 1993 (Molata) - Dryad of the Woods (text in booklet):</b>
<i>Then came a girl
A dryad of the woods
With a sign over her door saying
“If you enter
You must forgive me everything!”
With a heart too big and brave
To let me disappear
And still I hear
“May I sleep at your feet?”
And so she went over my fence
And reached out a hand
That I had to take
That I just had to take</i>

This obviously refers to when he met Johanna, his wife. This also brings another argument for Johanna being the girl in First & Second Love, with the line “If you enter, you must forgive me everything!” (asking for forgiveness for sleeping with his best friend).

<b>1993 - ? (Earth) - Fandango</b>
This song just represents the relationship between Daniel and his wife (Daniel also alluded to himself as a “Peter Pan” in the liner notes of The Perfect Element, Part I). The 1993 - ? (Earth) shows that it started in 1993 (see “Dryad of the Woods”) and there is no specified end, and their relationship takes place anywhere on Earth.

<b>March 1997 (Falun/Malmo) - A Trace of Blood</b>
Obviously about a miscarriage that took place in March of 1997.

<b>February 1998 (Falun) - Rope Ends</b>
I think the Japanese liner notes sum this one up best:
<i>“One night my wife dreamed that someone she knew tried to kill herself. The dream was so vivid she couldn't shake it off and finally she called her friend. It turned out that she had tried to hang herself three times that same night. A few years later I experienced someone trying to hang him/herself and I got there just in time. For a minute I couldn't get him/her down and I started to panic completely before I finally got the sudden insight that I should add my weight to the rope, and it broke. At one point earlier I thought of rushing to the kitchen for a knife to cut it with, but I found that it is impossible to leave the room when someone is hanging from the ceiling.”</i>

I would like to say (to dispel all the rumors) that I am positive that this song is not about Daniel's wife (read the above excerpt from the liner notes), and that the girl DID NOT DIE (the lyrics show this). I will only change my mind about this if Daniel himself says so.

<b>June 1999 (Ekilstuna) - This Heart of Mine (I Pledge)</b>
Engagement or marriage between Daniel and his wife.

<b>June 25, 2001 - Undertow</b>
Apparently Daniel had some questions that needed to be answered, so he went to Budapest for a vacation of sorts. (“Let me go…let me seek the answers that I need to know.”) It also shows that he is seeking freedom (“Let me run…Let me lose my way”) and that he wants to make his own decisions and find out who he really is deep inside.

<b>Midsummer, 2001 (Budapest part I) - Waking Every God</b>
It seems to me that Daniel met a woman in Budapest (also mentioned in “Ending Theme” (Hungarian Princess…)). The chorus, it seems, along with other parts, explains his attraction towards her.

<i>“Standing here in Buda trying to explain
To myself and to the girl beside
Why I feel so weightless and free from all my pain
Telling myself that you're here inside
For the wind is in my hair as we are on this sun hot roof
And far below the Danube passes as we talk
And I'd like to think that this is what you wanted me to find
This happiness could help us rebuild what we've lost”</i>

<b>July 31, 2001 (Budapest part II) - Ending Theme</b>
<i>“To be honest, I don't know what I'm looking for…”</i>

This repeated line says a lot. I think it means that when he went to Budapest, he was “seeking freedom” (see Beyond The Pale) but he wasn't sure exactly what freedom meant (“finding out at last that freedom is a state of mind”…). So he knew that he wanted things to be different, but he wasn't sure how.

<i>“Worn with rope ends on my mind
Torn with blood scarred in my eyes
But now I'm back to shake that from my life”</i>

Notice the references to the events in “Rope Ends” and “A Trace of Blood”. It seems that he wants to leave the pain of these recent events behind.

<i>“Back again at Deak Ter - I know I could have left her there
It was the feeling of leaving myself that I could not bear
The same old hotel room in Pest one night before the Sziget fest
Hungarian Princess will you share my rest?”</i>

This seems to be saying that he still feels connected to the girl, and even invites her to stay at his hotel room. Once again, I could be wrong. On another note, at www.stonehenge.hu you can check out a video of Daniel making a guest appearance with Stonehenge at the previously mentioned Sziget fest. Also, notice the title, “Ending Theme”. I believe that this is talking about ending all of the ties to the pain of his past, to start a new life.

<b>Budapest part III - Of Two Beginnings</b>
Here's what Daniel said in the Japanese liner notes:
<i>“This is the opening track of the album and is a kind of introduction, the track is somewhere between an intro and a real song and contains several different styles and elements. The set is a hotel room in Hungary, present time. It is the beginning of this album, and contains the beginning of a chain of thought, the end of a mindless journey, the conclusion to a question that is yet not clear to the listener and the beginning of a child's relation to love and sex.”</i>

Here are 3 quotes from the song to think about
<i>“She is twelve, I'm only ten”

“Now in this hotel room I lie wondering who I am”

“Finding out at last that freedom is a state of mind”</i>

<b>August 2-7, 2001 (Budapest) - Remedy Lane</b>
From the booklet:
<i>“Yes, I am in love
That was what I wanted to find out, right?
…but…
In love with whom or with what?
The love to a city
to the flesh
to the past
to the laugh uncontrolled
to myself again
and suddenly I know
that this is dangerous”</i>

I think this is where he realizes that this is not where he should be…that he should be at home with his wife. I think this is also where he accepts his past and decides to go home.

<b>Last night in Budapest - Beyond the Pale</b>
Where to begin? There's so much going on here.

<i>“And I remember when you said you'd been under him
I was surprised to feel such pain”</i>

I think that this goes back to the text in “First Love” where he mentions his love sleeping with his best friend (which initially led me to believe that the girl from “First Love” was the “Hungarian Princess,” but that seems impossible due to the age difference (the “Hungarian Princess” is 19 during the story), as there would have been a huge age gap in “First Love”.

<i>“And then after all it lead me here to wake up again
Seeking a love that might make me feel free in myself
But then it proves to be something that hurts inside when we touch
So I move on…”</i>

I think these lyrics are some of the most important of the album. This explains a bit about why he went to Budapest in the first place (seeking a love that might make me feel free in myself) and why it didn't work out (it proves to be something that hurts inside when we touch).

<b>August 12, 2001 (Eskilstuna) - Chain Sling</b>
<i>“Please let me be yours please never leave
Please stay here close to me
All love we shared where is it now?
Please let me be better than I was
Please don't give up on us
The thought of leaving you, I do not know how”</i>

Apparently, Daniel has returned home to the city of Eskilstuna and his wife Johanna. It seems he's asking for forgiveness, and trying to rebuild their relationship, realizing that this truly is where he wants and needs to be.

In conclusion:
Much of this album is not explained in detail, and thus leaves plenty of room for speculation. The main questions still left are:

1) Are the females in “First Love,” “Second Love,” and his wife all the same character? If not, then what does the “…And I remember when you said you've been under him” line in “Beyond the Pale” refer to? Were these not the same characters in real life, but made into the same character to help with the story for the album?

2) What is the meaning behind the “Sisters of Solitude” poem?

3) Is “Rope Ends” supposed to appear to be based on one of the main characters in the story, or was it just included to show more of the pain he was trying to escape?

4) Which elements of this album (if any) are fictitious?