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NYC hardcore veterans Pro-Pain have always been one of music’s best kept secrets. Having risen up like a phoenix from the ashes of punk band The Crumbsuckers in 1991, they have been living in the shadows of other hardcore legends like Hatebreed and Biohazard for far too long. The time has come for them to take their proper place in the pantheon of the metal gods.
Their newest album for SPV Records,
The Final Revolution, dropped on November 25and is their 14
th release overall. It is an unrepentant paragon of intense, take no prisoners, pit loving nightmare that bears down on you like a runaway freight train hauling scrap metal. It is causing a stir the size of an F5 tornado that will leave all naysayers, doubters and haters, decimated in the wake of their aftermath.
The album marks the first time since the 90’s that frontman, only remaining original member and musical mastermind behind the band, Gary Meskil, wrote all the music and lyrics himself. The music is dark and a throwback to the classic 90’s sound, as opposed to the more thrash sound of its predecessor,
Straight To The Dome.
The album is short, brutal and straight to the point, with most songs clocking in at 3 minutes or three. The songs are more pissed off, contain more tempo changes and get better and better with each subsequent listen. The album also benefits greatly from a ballsy, punchy, old school production that gives the recording plenty of backbone.
The Final Revolution is loaded with lyrics about the plight of the common man that give a giant middle finger to authority and is brimming with whiplash inducing solos reminiscent of Slayer, Testament, All That Remains and In Flames. The fact that guitarists Marshall Stephens and Adam Phillips aren’t household names and in much higher demand is a crime against humanity.
Drummer Jonas Sanders spends the length of the album pounding his drum kit into submission, laying down a dizzying aray of blasbeats and mountains of brutal melodic breakdowns. All the while, bassist/vocalist Gary Meskil is pounding out a visceral display of low end and a shit ton of brooding, guttural screams, death metal grows and imposing, abrasive, in your face vocals.
To further drive home the point, that there is nothing this criminally overlooked band cannot do, they dive head first into the creative genre pool that spawned bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Lamb Of God, Machine Head, Trivium, DevilDriver, Static X, All That Remains and even Demon Hunter, on tracks like “Southbound,” “All Systems Fail,” “Emerge” and monolithic closer “Under The Gun.”
Here’s the bottom line- Don’t let the title,
The Final Revolution fool you. This band is far from done and the revolution has just begun. If this release doesn’t propel them to the level of their contemporaries, there is no justice.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10.
-Eric Hunker
![\"The](\"http://thefrontrowreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/The-Final-Revolution.jpg\")
NYC hardcore veterans Pro-Pain have always been one of music’s best kept secrets. Having risen up like a phoenix from the ashes of punk band The Crumbsuckers in 1991, they have been living in the shadows of other hardcore legends like Hatebreed and Biohazard for far too long. The time has come for them to take their proper place in the pantheon of the metal gods.
Their newest album for SPV Records, The Final Revolution, dropped on November 25and is their 14th release overall. It is an unrepentant paragon of intense, take no prisoners, pit loving nightmare that bears down on you like a runaway freight train hauling scrap metal. It is causing a stir the size of an F5 tornado that will leave all naysayers, doubters and haters, decimated in the wake of their aftermath.
The album marks the first time since the 90’s that frontman, only remaining original member and musical mastermind behind the band, Gary Meskil, wrote all the music and lyrics himself. The music is dark and a throwback to the classic 90’s sound, as opposed to the more thrash sound of its predecessor, Straight To The Dome.
The album is short, brutal and straight to the point, with most songs clocking in at 3 minutes or three. The songs are more pissed off, contain more tempo changes and get better and better with each subsequent listen. The album also benefits greatly from a ballsy, punchy, old school production that gives the recording plenty of backbone.
The Final Revolution is loaded with lyrics about the plight of the common man that give a giant middle finger to authority and is brimming with whiplash inducing solos reminiscent of Slayer, Testament, All That Remains and In Flames. The fact that guitarists Marshall Stephens and Adam Phillips aren’t household names and in much higher demand is a crime against humanity.
Drummer Jonas Sanders spends the length of the album pounding his drum kit into submission, laying down a dizzying aray of blasbeats and mountains of brutal melodic breakdowns. All the while, bassist/vocalist Gary Meskil is pounding out a visceral display of low end and a shit ton of brooding, guttural screams, death metal grows and imposing, abrasive, in your face vocals.
To further drive home the point, that there is nothing this criminally overlooked band cannot do, they dive head first into the creative genre pool that spawned bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Lamb Of God, Machine Head, Trivium, DevilDriver, Static X, All That Remains and even Demon Hunter, on tracks like “Southbound,” “All Systems Fail,” “Emerge” and monolithic closer “Under The Gun.”
Here’s the bottom line- Don’t let the title, The Final Revolution fool you. This band is far from done and the revolution has just begun. If this release doesn’t propel them to the level of their contemporaries, there is no justice.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10.
-Eric Hunker
