Band: Born From Pain
Title: Survival
Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Rough Trade
Release date: 03/11/2008
Review: CD

Survival is the fifth album (and their third for Metal Blade) by the Dutch formation Born From Pain, a band that was formed more than ten years ago. In the vein of the former material, Born From Pain bring a melodic yet intense and powerful mid-tempo version of Hardcore with elements from Thrash Metal, Death Metal and Metalcore and the addition of samples and sound fragments. The evolution the band made is enormous. The compositions are more overwhelming than before, the crossover of Hardcore and Metal is more balanced, and the performance is much more organic. The tempo still isn’t fast at all -sometimes a few riffs are even doomy- -yet a few punkier parts are pretty energetic and up-tempo-, but that does not mean that there is no power - on the contrary. Survival, dealing with, indeed, survival (and the struggle to survive), certainly stands as a concrete wall. Riffs, rhythm section and vocals, the whole is ‘complete’, and this makes Survival the best Born From Pain-album to date. Total running time: 34:17 minutes.

81/100

Ivan Tibos.