On the back of promoting their highly acclaimed Linoleum EP MCD released via InsideOutMusic on November 16th, 2009, Swedish PAIN OF SALVATION have been confirmed to join the national Swedish competition for the Eurovision song contest, Melodifestivalen. The contest’s first round will be taking place in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden on February 6th, 2010 and will be broadcasted live by National TV-Station SVT. Pain of Salvation will be appearing in the contest with their song 'Road Salt'.

Pain of Salvation’s frontman Daniel Gildenlöw comments the event as follows: “For those who don't know what Melodifestivalen is, it is the biggest thing in the Swedish music industry. A huge machinery built to single out the Swedish contender for the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of thousands and thousands of sent in songs, 30 are selected by a jury to participate in this national contest, viewed by half the population when it's on TV. It's a big thing, to say the least!”

Pain of Salvation have just completed a video clip for the title track of their current release, 'Linoleum', directed by Owe Lingwall of Village Road Film (AMORPHIS). A teaser for the powerful clip can be viewed below:

The full clip for 'Linoleum' will be launched on January 20th.

After promoting the release of the Linoleum EP MCD with shows in Russia and their first ever visit to Australia supporting DREAM THEATER, Pain of Salvation also played a string of selected headline shows in Central Europe at the end of 2009 and will next be traveling to Greece to perform two shows at the end of January with LAKE OF TEARS, AGUA DE ANNIQUE, DISILLUSION and SCAR OF THE SUN. Dates include:

January

23 - Athens, Greece – Gagarin 205
24 - Thessaloniki, Greece – Principal Club

More live activity for Pain of Salvation in Europe is being worked on right now and should be revealed soon.