PRO-PAIN - review added 5th May 2010
Album Review: Absolute Power (2010)
For fans of: Hardcore Metal... and using a guitar as a weapon
Hardcore metal act Pro-Pain, born in the early 1990s, consists these days of founder Gary Meskil on vocals and bass, Tom Klimchuck and Marshall Stephens on guitar, and Ricky Halverson on drums. Absolute Power is the band's 12th studio album and follows 2008's No End In Sight.
The album was recorded at Little Creek Studio in Gelterkinden, Switzerland with V.O. Pulver at the helm. Pro-Pain have self-produced the majority of their other albums, certainly since the mid 1990s, so this marks a real change of approach.
It's reasonably successful too. The sound is the mutant offspring of boisterous heavy metal and speedy punk-laced hardcore. There's everything from Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front through to Venom, Pantera and the doom-heavy misery of Crowbar. 'Stand My Ground' even features Schmier from Destruction. It's not complex, deep or technical music, but its simplistic charms come across well.
Best moments include the speedy opener 'Unrestrained', that Schmier track 'Stand My Ground', the strangely catchy sing along 'Road To Nowhere', the equally catchy 'AWOL', the potently awesome de-tuned 'Hell On Earth', the sub-2-minute drum-licious 'Divided We Stand', the (yet again) sing along 'Gone Rogue (I Apologize)', and the insanely heavy 'Hate Coalition'. In fact, even the tracks I haven't mentioned have their moments. This is one of the most consistent and convincing metal albums I've heard in a long time.
If you want something bombastic and primeval to blast out your windows on a car journey, Absolute Power is spot on. If you want some unbelievably heavy and loud to sing along to, it does that to. On this evidence, there isn't much Pro-Pain aren't good at. I suspect this'll be fighting for honours as best metal album of the year. It's rather good!
Check out... All of it.
Track List:
01. Unrestrained
02. Destroy The Enemy
03. Stand My Ground
04. Road To Nowhere
05. AWOL
06. Hell On Earth
07. Divided We Stand
08. Gone Rogue (I Apologize)
09. Rise Of The Antichrist
10. Hate Coalition
Label: AFM Records
Artist's website(s): Pro-Pain , MySpace
