Pain - Rebirth

*=Staff's pick	Supersonic Bitch End Of The Line* Breathing In, Breathing Out Delusions* Suicide Machine Parallel To Ecstasy* On And On* 12:42 Crashed* Dark Fields Of Pain She Whipped End Of The Line (Video)

Genre	Industrial/Techno Metal	Peter Tägtgren	Vocals
Tracks	11	Peter Tägtgren	Guitar
Runningtime	44 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Stockholm Records	Peter Tägtgren	Bass
Release	24 Dec. 1999	Peter Tägtgren	Drums
Country	Sweden	Peter Tägtgren	Keyboards
Similar artists	Rammstein, Theatre Of Tragedy

Anyone with the slightest insight in the nordic metal scene of the early 90's up to present date should at some point have come across the name Peter Tägtgren. Nowadays a well renowned producer with over 100 albums with some of the metal world's finests bands on his merit list, and founder and still highyly active mainman of death metal act Hypocrisy, that after a succesful start of the career followed by a few years in the shadows are back with full force again. What might be less known to the public is that he are also running a techno/industrial/metal project on fulltime, with great and catchy, yet heavy songs that has great hit potential and he has, much deserved, reached great success with it. So therefor I take the opportunity to break the news to you once and for all: Tägtgren is also running a Techno/industrial/metal project on fulltime, with great and catchy, yet heavy songs that has great hit potential and he has, much deserved, reached great success with it.

So how does this hybrid of metal and electronic tunes sound, you might ask? Well, imagine a kind of metal with very fat, heavy and distorted guitars in the veins of Rammstein, mixed with some euro disco elements and refrains that lean towards the commercial and mainstream area, and calling it very radio friendly is not far from the truth, I think, so it is remarkable that this is not more spread and known that it is. The tempo is overall fast - without being an expert in the area, I would say usually somewhere around 160-180 bpm, to talk DJ language. Brilliant, monotone metal riffs go hand in hand with loops and samples that usually belong on the dancefloor but here blend in to a perfect mix. References from the metal side of it would be some of Theatre Of Tragedy's faster and more driven songs from their 2 latest albums and of course Rammstein, and than mainly their repeating, industrial riffs.

Even though all the songs have been created from the same formula, there are variations enough to create an interesting album. Some songs are very uptempo(Supersonic Bitch, Parallel To Ecstasy, Crashed), sharp and heavy with a lot of pop/disco influences, others are more midtempo and straight with an emphasis on a "poppish" and/or industrial chorus (End Of The Line, On And On, Dark Fields Of Pain) and some are just more or less metal but still with the electronic foundation (Suicide Machine, 12:42). The only track that can be considered the odd one out is Breathing In, Breathing Out, that is a bit too monotone and does not have any real hook or melody to hang on to, but for the rest they keep a very high level, and are all stand out tracks in their own way.

Every part of the production has of course taken place in Tägtgrens own studio Abyss Studio, (where during the years bands like Dimmu Borgir, Children Of Bodom, Marduk, Immortal, Dark Funeral, Wolf among many others have recorded their albums), and that is a garantuee for crystal clear, fat and simply put impeccable sound. The words that first of all come to mind is "pondus" and "power". The vocals as well as the guitar riffs are awesome and razorsharp.

2 of the songs on this album - End Of The Line and On And On - became monster hits at the time in Sweden and made it into the charts and got plenty of air time both in radio and tv. Tägtgren received prizes and nominations for this effort, and it was highly amusing to see the man responsible for the death metal monsters Penetralia and Osculum Obscenum mingle - in his own metal manners - with schlager singers at various gala events in a tuxedo, all of a sudden praised by all and everyone while previously noone would like to be connected with what he did before that. As much else in the mainstream world, the talk about Pain soon died out and fell back into the underground where it had started. Too bad, because this deserves more attention than this.

The album that followed, Nothing Remains The Same, continued where this one left and is according to me equal to its predecessor. It is safe to pick that one up also if you like this one. It has been quiet for a while about Pain, but the news recently broke that a new album is under production and a release arond fall is excpected. In Tägtgren's own word, the new material "is definitely worth waiting for...", and I have no reason whatsoever to have doubt on that. Keep an eye open for the new album, and in the meanwhile I strongly recommend to check this one up.

See also review of: Psalms Of Extinction

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy