Masculinity and the illness narrative in Pain of Salvation’s In the Passing Light of Day

With their concept album, In the Passing Light of Day, progressive metal artists Pain of Salvation develop a narrative based on frontman Daniel Gildenlöw’s personal battle with necrotising fasciitis. In order to understand how this emotional and embodied experience is shaped in the audiovisual realm, I examine the expression of vulnerable masculinity within the multimodal narrative of lyrics, music, and images. Presenting this analysis in the context of recent research on masculinity in popular music genres, my theoretical framework also engages with critical scholarly writings on illness narratives, from the fields of masculinity studies and ability studies. These perspectives resonate strongly with Gildenlöw’s illness narrative, especially how it is bound up with a presentation of masculinity within a heavy metal performance context. I analyse the words, music, and images in order to reflect critically on Gildenlöw’s representations of masculinity, and the male body more generally, as simultaneously vulnerable and powerful.