| CD REVIEW Pro-Pain |
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Band : Pro-Pain New York Hardcore act Pro-Pain, founded in 1991 by singer/ bassist Gary Meskill (formerly of the groundbreaking Crumbsuckers) is one of the great exceptional bands in the genre, bringing us album upon album (Absolute Power is their 12st studio album, if I ain’t mistaken) of music with the same recognizable musical concept and direction. In contrast of what the lone reader whom didn’t know the band yet might think, the recognition factor is a thing which the fans of this band (and the hordes of ‘em have only grówn over the years) actually yearn for. Of course, in the case of Pro-Pain, it would only be just to mention that the band’s music ain’t just your straight-forward Hardcore, but contains elements from other genres as well, making the term “Crossover” more than justified. And don’t you think Meskill would take it badly if you were to mention something like that to him. Nah, in fact, he’d tell you…with a degree of proudness…that you’re absolutely right! Of course, there àre some small differences between albums. Absolute Power’s predecessor, 2008’s No End In Sight (a review of which by yours truly was posted 01/10/2008), showed an overall preference for melody and harmony backings rather than for the band’s usual aggressive approach. Well, fans of the old Pro-Pain can rejoice in the fact that the new album sees the band return to their “normal” operating mode of intensity and rawness! Indeed, this is the Pro-Pain as we all came to know and love ‘em. I mean, I gave No End In Sight a 92/100 rating, didn’t I? Well, I feel justified in giving the new album a perfect rating and nomination into my “Best Hardcore Albums Of 2010”-list! The return to the more brutal approach is partially attributed to the joining of drummer Ricky Halverson (ex-Narcotic, Self, Cellador, Stephen Pearcy’s Ratt) to the core of Meskill, long-time guitarist Tom Klimchuck and newer (rhythm) guitarist Marshall Stephens. Another factor may well have been the fact that this is the first album in a long time which the band didn’t produce themselves. You see, the album was recorded at Gelterkinden, Switzerland’s Little Creek Studio and engineered, produced, and mixed by Gurd’s V.O. Pulver. As per usual, there were some guests in the studio, and therefore you’ll find Destruction’s Schmier singing along in the track “Stand My Ground”, while on “Gone Rogue (I Apologize)”, which the band considers to be the obvious sigle on the album, you’ll find Pure Inc.’s Gianni Pontillo and Pulver’s Inga Pulver contributing to the most melodic song (the increased melody partly due to the backing vocals, you know) on the album. Regrettably, when I checked myspace.com/propainspace, I found no presence of songs off the new album, so you may have to make due with the (somewhat short) samples the band has of àll their albums in the “music downloads” section of their own website (www.) pro-pain.com. Still, for those among you not familiar to the band yet, I warmly suggest you check out some of the full-length songs on the band’s MySpace page. Others, whom belong to the lot who already know the band, should simply go out to the record store and buy the album blindly! All I’m left to do is to apologise to the fans of the band for delivering this review so late, but I only gót the download promo copy last week myself, you know (with some 20 other download promos which all needed to be done at the same time). Apologies, because in following with the release Pro-Pain started off on an early live promotion tour in Europe, the first leg of which (going through the UK, Germany, and Holland) was ended May 15. Dates starting July will see the band play at various European festivals, but nothing in Belgium as far as I can tell. Check the band’s websites in time for possible change(s) in that schedule. 98/100 Tony.
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