PAIN OF SALVATION are back with a stripped down acoustic album. 3 years since their last album "Road Salt Two" this album is seen as a follow up to the 2004 album "12:5". The whole album was a reimagined version of 8 of their original tracks from different albums/EPs that the band has produced since forming in 1991. The album also includes a new song "Falling Home" (coincidently the name of the album) and two special covers of DIO's "Holy Diver" and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day"

Starting off with the redo of 1997 track "Stress" you really see that the band have stripped down everything that they had on the song to begin with, there are less drums, less guitars, less of everything really. As for the song even if it was titles "Stress" it's like a get up and go kind of song, personally I think it would relive any "Stress" and just make you feel so much better about your day, throughout the song you just get random bursts of instruments, a bug part that to me represent little bursts of energy that are an instant mood changer, I think that's a really big thing in the song to pick up.

Going through the album you see in tracks like "Linoleum", "Chain Sling" , "Mrs Modern Mother Mary", "Flame To The Moth" and "Spitfall" have really been stripped down of the heaviness of  Progressive Rock that PAIN OF SALAVATION are known for. Then there are songs that fit right in to the acoustic vibe, like "1979" and "To the Shoreline" the way that they were rearranged fir perfectly into the way that the album has been structured.  But you really do see what the band are capable of and as you've seen it before in previous albums, it shows that they know what they are doing and what direction they want the band to move forward in. They are not a band that wants to be stuck in the same musical pattern. You can see that as a band they have made sure that the transition between track to track has flowed smoothly, and because they're songs from different albums it was important that the transition was easy, and these guys have executed it so well, you wouldn't even think that the tracks have come from different albums.

As for the covers of "Holy Diver" and "Perfect Day" I think were the best songs to go with the type of band that they are and they fit in well with the album. The covers of the two tracks were done brilliantly, and had a bit of PAIN OF SALVATION into the songs, which is what every cover should be about really. Finally the album title and last song of 9^th album to be released from the band is "Falling Home" now this is definitely a way to end an album, it's just a full on acoustic song from the start, all the way through you just have guitars and vocals which is how any acoustic song should be, and I think it just ties the whole album together. All in all what another great album from PAIN OF SALVATION.