Pain is one of those bands I had never heard of, but Filip Vanhoof got me in to them and I didn’t regret it! They release their 8th album Coming Home on September 9th. Pain started as a side-project for the front man of Hypocrisy (Peter Tâgtgren). Filip described it for me as a mix of different kind of styles like electro, pop, rock, metal and even some country. Next to that I would describe it as stadium rock with balls and filled with fun and little jokes ...
The new album is a rich album filled with lots of different styles and approaches, sometimes catchy, sometimes funny and sometimes ready to rock you! I recognize a great producer: he knows how to raft diamonds and keeps you hooked from the first note until the very last one!
Worst title for an opening track is for sure Designed To Piss You Off. It’s a totally wrong title, not at all describing the right feeling nor the right vibe. But it’s about a youngster who becomes a rebel and starts a fight against his parents. The song is catchy, strong with great vocals. I hear a bit of a bluesy feeling, mixed with melancholia and heavy metal. Could it be autobiographic? Call Me starts pretty heavy, with symphonic influences and some break beats. It’s sharp, fast and heavy and I love it! The vocals soften the sound a bit. It’s pretty catchy, kicking a bit Britney Spears’s butt (but that might be my fantasy). A Wannabe starts pretty acoustic, until the symphonic sound wakes up, disturbed by some electronics. Might be spitting on the Spice Girls. You have to see the bigger story, but it ain’t always a joke and is sometimes even pretty sad. Another fast and hard hitting track with a fat bass is Pain In The Ass. It could be the new Rammstein or simply great Industrial metal for big stages all over the world! Black Knight Satellite sounds like how pretty cool symphonic metal should sound like: loud and heavy with now and then some time to catch some breath! Coming Home is a soft and melancholic pearl. I even hear a violin and a tuba in it. It’s pretty sticky, despite the pretty depressing lyrics: looking back and realizing you didn’t make from your life what you'd hoped for. On this one you can hear how great the vocals are! The song has something poppy too (like Das Pop). Absinthe Phoenix Rising sounds like a nice live track with the perfect guitars and great backings (might become a sing-a-long moment). It’s sharp and I’m pretty sure it will make the audience raise their arms in the air and jump! It’s a very tasty track! Final Crusade goes back to the heavy metal sound, with some industrial influences! Loud and heavy with a nice live feeling in my imagination! The left-right moment might make it on stage, just as the break beats and the fat guitar sound! It feels like a Teenage Mutant fight on stage! Natural Born Idiot might refer to the movie Natural Born Killers, sounds a bit like Soundgarden with the perfect stadium rock feel and some industrial touch. Starseed is already the last track. It feels like the end came too early, but it’s clearly time to take off and leave our planet with a melancholic explosion!
I’m pretty happy I ran into Pain and hope to see this one on stage! Loved the variation and look already forward to hear more from this one!
Track list
1. Designed To Piss You Off
2. Call Me
3. A Wannabe
4. Pain In The Ass
5. Black Knight Satellite
6. Coming Home
7. Absinth Phoenix Rising
8. Final Crusade
9. Natural Born Idiot
10. Starseed
