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Pro-Pain - The Final Revolution
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Pro-Pain - The Final Revolution
Pro-Pain - The Final Revolution
Released by: Steamhammer Records
Released on: December 3rd, 2014.
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Gary Meskil, who was in the legendary New York based punk/hardcore/thrash act Crumbsuckers years back, has kept Pro-Pain alive and well for a long time now. Meskil (who wrote everything this time around) has been handling bass and vocals for the band for fourteen albums solid and while they've seen some ups and downs since releasing Foul Taste Of Freedom way back in 1992, this latest album holds its own. Here the band seems to be more or less staying true to their heavy sound but at the same time moving full speed ahead with some killer lead guitar courtesy of Adam Phillips and some great rhythm work form Marshall Stephens. Meskil's bass playing is as intense as ever and the drums, from Jonas Sanders, a fairly recent addition to the band, definitely keep time and drive the songs.
You don't go into a Pro-Pain album expecting sweet melodies or noodling guitar solos, you go in expecting some crunch. Their music has always been powerful and heavy, a sonic force for lack of a cornier term, and this new album, their first for Steamhammer/SPV, is as dark and uncompromising as anything they've done in quite a while. You get the impression that they're not happy with the way that things are in the world right now, and they're getting it off their collective back the only way they know how.
The complete track listing for The Final Revolution is:
Deathwish / One Shot One Kill / Southbound / Problem Reaction Solution / The Final Revolution / Can't Stop The Pain / All Systems Fail / Want Some? / Fall From Grace / Emerge / Mass Extinction / Under The Gun
The opening track, Deathwish, sets the stage for what's to come with an opening guitar lick that just blisters while a growl that can only be described as ferocious rises up in the mix. The vocals kick in and pretty much instantly there's no doubt left that the band are pulling out all the stops. This is crazy fast like vintage Slayer but also crazy angry like, well, like vintage Pro-Pain. One Shot One Kill is up next, it starts off with a slower, sludgier sound, almost like something you'd expect from a stoner band but twenty-seconds in that changes and Meskil's belting out staccato vocals over a pounding guitar. They break it down half way in, maybe sounding a bit like Biohazard circa State Of The World Address, working in some interesting beats that actually get pretty catchy without losing pace and it all builds to a solid finale. Southbound is maybe a little less pissed off at the universe than what came before it, but only slightly. Here we notice the band keeping the tempo somewhere in the middle and with the vocals up higher in the mix, breaking for some quick drum patterns before getting Meskil back in the front of the barrage. The lyrics have more personality and depth to them here, less flat out anger, as the track deals with staying true to yourself and sticking to your guns.
That brings us to Problem Reaction Solution, which is more in keeping with some of the more anthemic hardcore stuff that the band has sort of circled around throughout their career. It's by far the catchiest track on the album and the one most likely to have you singing along, particularly during the chorus. This'll have to go over well live, as even on the album it kills. The title track, The Final Revolution, is another solid entry, a big ol' slab of anger and crush condensed into just over three minutes worth of fast, surprisingly groove intensive playing and more of Meskil's effective growling. The next two tracks - Can't Stop The Pain and All Systems Fail are more or less more of the same, just Pro-Pain delivering the kind of music they're known for and doing it well. Once we get to Want Some? things change up a bit, we hear more of that punk influence that has never been too far from a lot of their music, particularly in the early days when the shadow of Crumbsuckers still loomed large over the band. Not that it isn't still a massive slab of metal at the same time, because it is, but there's something a little different to this track that makes it stand out.
As we move into the final four tracks, we get the somewhat reflective sounding Fall From Grace that really lets Sanders pound his kit into submission with a killer twin guitar attack propelling things. The longest track on the album, Emerge, starts off a little slow but quickly builds as we get more hyperactive drumming and chunky riff-centric guitars. It's got more guitar soloing in it than anything else on the album does, it's maybe a bit more of a free-form/experimental track, but at the same time, still instantly recognizable as a Pro-Pain track. We close out the album with the grim and once again extremely pissed off Mass Extinction before finishing with Under The Gun, which once again shows a bit of a punk influence working its way into the mix.
Mixed by V.O. Pulver at Little Creek Studio in Gelterkinden, Switzerland in August of 2013 the production values are good but never too polished. There's still a raw sound here, but it's mixed well so that you can hear everything properly. It never turns to mud, the levels are always right and we get the right balance between heavy and audible. Stylistically, Pro-Pain remain accessible, a working class band that deals in the sometimes less than cheery side of life. They're not reinventing the wheel here, they're not changing their sound up all that much, instead they're doing what they've done and done well for two decades plus. This is solid stuff, from start to finish.
The Digipak release of the album is also set to include three bonus tracks, none of which were available with the digital version sent for review:
Life's Hard (Live In 2010) / Get Real (Live 2010) / Party In Paris (a UK Subs cover)
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