Kristoffer Gildenlöw is quite the prolific artist of late, producing album after album of consistently great music. If you haven’t been paying attention, this is your sign to start. His new album Humanised released on May 29th.
Kristoffer has a storied history in the prog world. Most would know him as the former bassist of Pain of Salvation, playing with them through the BE album. Some would know him from Kayak. But his solo works stand tall with his past work. This new album includes Kristoffer on vocals and various instruments, Leo Margarit on drums, and guest guitar solos from Daniel Magdic and Thijmen van der Meer.
The music here is progressive rock that leans into the melancholy and alternative. Simply put, the sound is dark, emotional, and full of storytelling motifs. I feel like this album leans closer to progressive metal than his others, with more riffs and instrumental portions. In fact, this album is sassier, groovier, and heavier than any of his solo works.
You can hear that right out the gate with “Rendering”, a four-minute instrumental opener with cinema and riffs. Every single time I hear this track, I have to stop and bob my head along with the keyboard-heavy groove. The rest of the 45-minute album is just as good, too. “Nothing Lasts Forever” comes next with its expressive vocals and slowly building rock atmosphere—strangely, it sounds like something from Pain of Salvation’s Road Salt albums, even though Kristoffer had left the band by that time.
The album is structured with four tracks in each half with an intermezzo in the middle, nine tracks total. The rest of the first half hits hard with songs like the heavy “Landfill” with its electric energy, or the single “The Almosts”, full of harmony and a strangely catchy chorus that gets you on the low end, not with immediacy. The “Intermezzo” provides us with acoustic guitar musings that are rather memorable, I must admit, as I love those two minutes.
The second half is probably my favorite of the two. It begins with “Nothings Stays the Same”, one that matches the expressive nature of “Nothing Lasts Forever” but adds a spiraling and addictive final few minutes that always gets my blood flowing. I think “The Fields” is my favorite track; there’s just something about the lyrics, the dark groove, and the emotional landscape that I really like.
The last couple tracks are terrific, too. “Before I Fail Asleep” has a spunky groove that’s almost bluesy, and I love how that foundational bass groove grows branches of melody and riff, growing into something layered and beautiful. The closer “Binary” has one of my favorite choruses on the album, a full-chested melody that you can really sing. I love the “end of the story” vibes of the song and how warm it feels.
Kristoffer has yet another fantastic album to add with some of my other favorites, like 2016’s The Rain and 2021’s Let Me Be A Ghost. All his solo works are worth your time, though, and Humanised is a great place to begin. He’s offered an album here that is pretty accessible to fans of his older works with Pain of Salvation, and it will pull you in, no doubt.
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Find Kristoffer Gildenlöw online:
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The PROG Mind 