BE (Pain of Salvation album)

Outline

BE attempts to explore the many facets of human existence. It begins with the narration of Animae, someone or something who/that has existed for as long as he/she/it can remember and contemplates the nature of his/her/its existence and then begins a journey of understanding with the words: "I will call myself GOD and I will spend the rest of forever trying to figure out who I am". The story continues from there. The characters that appear and disappear throughout the story are as follows:

Animae: Animae is the album's representation of God, or a Godhead.

Nauticus: Nauticus is the name of a fictional space probe that is, according to the album, the most intelligent space probe ever to be created. In reference to the marine 'neighborhood', Nauticus 'drifts' throughout space, searching for answers to save Earth from itself.

Imago: Imago is the image of humanity in its most natural form. Combined, Imago is the reflection of Animae.

Dea Pecuniae: Dea Pecuniae can be seen as a feminine version of Mr. Money, and the Eve of humanity's dark side. In a way, she represents sin.

Mr. Money: Mr. Money is the main character of the story; a man with the most wealth on Earth, who spends most of it on cryogenics in order to fulfill his wish - to be frozen, and not to be awakened until he is made immortal. He represents the darker side of humanity, being the Adam for Dea Pecuniae.

The sound and style are somewhat more varied than previous Pain of Salvation albums, but at the same time, calling upon those previous albums as influences. The album includes: narrative passages; a folk-like song; a gospel-prayer-like song; a church-hymn-like song; progressive metal songs; a classical piano/strings piece; a conversation with a radio in the background; news readings; and even a song that would not be out of place in a Broadway musical. Another song consists entirely of voice messages to be left on "God's answering machine". To approach this song, the band asks the subscribers of their newsletter to call a certain phone number and say what ever they would want to say to God.

In writing "BE", Daniel Gildenlöw used many resources for information, insights and inspiration. These can be viewed at the "BE" home page, and are intended as "points of departure" for listeners to continue their "own journey through "BE" ".

Track listing and song title meanings

[Chinassiah] is a word puzzle, as so many other titles and phrases on the album. It derives from a combination of China (for fragility and beauty, but also man made) and Messiah (for saviour but also the notion of something in which we, humanity, put our faith for salvation). Other puzzles on the same theme is Machinassiah (as above but with the adding of Machine symbolizing industry, artificial and a moving system), Machinageddon (as above but replacing Messiah with Armageddon for destruction and a negative spiral) and Machinauticus (as above but replacing Armageddon with Nauticus for searching, quest, lost and the creation of the probe).

The Latin errors are on purpose on behalf of Daniel. In a letter to a fan, which was posted on the Remedy Lane forum, he wrote:

I'd say the trick is not to see the titles as pure Latin, but a connecting thread woven by words in Latin. Thus, Lilium Cruentus is formed by the words for lily and stained by blood and is preferably interpreted as a loss of innocence and virginity, see? There are no rules here, just triggers to the mind. Deus Nova - a god (male to its form but in a poetical value I simply wish to underline the paternal role in the act of creating the world) and the sense of novelty and beginning - the new. A new god on the rise. I was aware of the fact that the Latin was not correct (though sometimes it should be, like the very long chapter title, which is more of a sentence than the remaining puzzle) and for many of the titles I was left to choose between the erred one and the linguistically correct. In all cases I went for the poetically correct and/or most versatile in interpretation. The title with most errors in relation to its meaning would probably be Nihil Morari - for that one you have to make a two-step translation. Nihil meaning nothing is pretty simple, but then Morari is something like left-overs or corps as I recall it, but if you use the word remains for that same notion you have a words with two different meanings - and there's the magic, see?

I should probably make clear that I didn't do this to puzzle people or make them feel stupid, it's just a way of naming your children, sometimes they need a whole world - the naming being some sort of magical process like a baptism of some sort, affecting the song emotionally whether the receivers will understand the titles or not. I don't know if this makes sense at all, but... it's like doing the right thing even if no one's watching you know? Very non-meta-physics in a way I guess...

The rough translations for the song titles are:

Prologue

01. Animae Partus ("I Am") - A God Is Born ("I Am") 1:48

"BE" (CHINASSIAH)

I Animae Partus

All in the Image of02. Deus Nova - New God. Note that 'Deus' is masculine and 'Nova' is feminine, so it should have been either 'Deus Novus' (masculine) or 'Dea Nova' (feminine) if it were to be grammatically correct. However, this is intentional. 3:1803. Imago (Homines Partus) - Imago (Man Is Born) 5:1104. Pluvius Aestivus - Summer Rain 5:00Of Summer Rain (Homines Fabula Initium) - Of Summer Rain (The Story of Man Begins)

II Machinassiah - See above.

Of Gods & Slaves05. Lilium Cruentus (Deus Nova) - Blood Stained Lily (New God). Note that it should have been 'Lilium Cruentum' if it were to be grammatically correct. 5:28On the Loss of Innocence06. Nauticus (Drifting) - Nauticus (Drifting). Note that 'Nauticus' is Latin for Sailor, which directly applies to Nauticus' role in the concept. 4:5807. Dea Pecuniae - Goddess of Money 10:09I Mr. MoneyII PermanereIII I Raise My Glass

III Machinageddon - See above.

Nemo Idoneus Aderat Qui Responderet08. Vocari Dei - Messages to God 3:50Sordes Aetas - Mess Age09. Diffidentia (Breaching the Core) - Mistrust (Breaching The Core) 7:26Exitus - Drifting II10. Nihil Morari - Nothing Remains(Homines Fabula Finis) - The Story of Man Comes To An End 6:21

IV Machinauticus - See above.

Of the Ones With no Hope11. Latericius Valete - If You Are Strong, Be Strong 2:2712. Omni - Everything 2:37Permanere?13. Iter Impius - Wicked Path 6:21Martius, son of MarsObitus Diutinus14. Martius/Nauticus II - Martius/Nauticus II 6:41

V Deus Nova Mobile

...and a God is Born15. Animae Partus II 4:08

Concept, research, original stories, lyrics, narrations and texts by Daniel Gildenlöw. All music by Daniel Gildenlöw, except "Iter Impius" by Fredrik Hermansson. All orchestral arrangements by Daniel Gildenlöw, except "Imago" by Jan Levander and Daniel Gildenlöw and "Iter Impius" by Fredrik Hermansson. News casts, fake interview and other "snipplets" written by Kim Howatt, Jim Howatt and Daniel Gildenlöw.