So what we have here is a double disc set, containing 32 songs and well over two hours of music. Pain was originally formed by Hypocrisy frontman Peter Tägtgren who wanted to fuse electronic music with metal and the result in industrial metal beast that sounds much more German than it does Swedish. Imagine Rammstein mixed with Rage, then throw in some Judas Priest, Devin Townsend and a dash of Marilyn Manson and you are fairly close to the overall sound. Some of the keyboard sounds utilized are somewhat strange for a metal act, as they are sometimes quite weak and twee which certainly gives the music an interesting aspect.
The most important instrument in many ways is not the keyboard or guitars, but the drums which keep everything pounding along with a rigid 4-4 sound. I hate to think how many snare drum heads they must get through in a gig. This is definitely a metal album that improves the louder it is played, and I guess the concert must have been ear-shattering as the crowd are definitely into what is going on onstage. This has also been released as a double DVD and I think that would possibly be more interesting than this as after a while it does get rather monotonous. But, there are some good tunes in here and the cover of “Eleanor Rigby” definitely works, much to my surprise.
While not indispensible, these guys are worth checking out.
www.nuclearblast.de
