PAIN – I Am

RELEASE YEAR: 2024
BAND URL: https://painband.bandcamp.com/

My head is empty and I need a break. I have to be hungry again to breathe and create – Pain “Coming Home”

When Hypocrisy’s Swedish mainman, Peter Tägtgren sang the above words in the title track of Pain’s painfully mediocre Coming Home²⁰¹⁶, an album I panned in my review, he was both summing it up and prophetically speaking of his next two works, Hypocrisy’s fantastic Worship²⁰²¹ and this here, Pain’s 9th full length, I Am²⁰²⁴, released on May 17th via the mighty Nuclear Blast Records. I don’t know if Peter read or even cared to read my review, which I stand by, but I know he is an intelligent, astute and observant man and, as much as he loves making music, he also loves his fans and respects them which is why we are all invited to the party in his head and we’re all his friends (Party In My Head). He could have ignored the critics (I wasn’t the only one) and could have made even a more lyrically asinine album but he chose restraint and focus, well, the former to a degree that is actually expected from him. As a result, we may have been given one of, if not the best Pain album to date, especially considering that, this time, it contains no fillers to speak of, which he accomplished by remembering that he is both a Pain and Hypocrisy member.

In 1996, after the excellent and successful Abducted¹⁹⁹⁵ album and before Hypocrisy’s The Final Chapter¹⁹⁹⁷ (which, thankfully, turned out to apply only to the first incarnation of that phenomenal melodeath act), the band’s vocalist and sole guitarist, Alf (Alien Life Form?) Peter Tägtgren decided that he didn’t want to quit making music just because Hypocrisy was done (as it was thought at the time) but he wanted a different direction for the new project, a project he wanted to be the sole official member of (though he’d invite numerous guests and session musicians to participate from Psalms of Extinction²⁰⁰⁷ forward), a project he simply named Pain – an industrial techno metal, which he proved by releasing the Pain¹⁹⁹⁷ via Nuclear Blast Records. As it became evident to Peter that Hypocrisy cannot die since it remains undying in human hearts, he reactivated it with the phenomenal Hypocrisy¹⁹⁹⁹ (one of my personal all time favorites) while deciding to keep both projects running hence also releasing Pain’s 2nd album, Rebirth¹⁹⁹⁹ (on Stockholm Records) which was not available in the U.S. until the 2001 Renegade release. As Hypocrisy continued with the excellent Into The Abyss²⁰⁰⁰ and then had their definite ups and downs, Pain continued , then, with Nothing Remains The Same²⁰⁰² (on Stockholm Records), Dancing With The Dead²⁰⁰⁵ (still on Stockholm Records), inspired by Peter’s near death experience when his heart stopped for several seconds during recording, which caused him to panic, but that may have also given him a new lease on life (whereby Hypocrisy’s new surge beginning with the excellent Virus²⁰⁰⁵). Pain’s “Psalms Of Extinction” was released on Roadrunner Records, a bigger and more influent label, followed by Cynic Paradise²⁰⁰⁸, which marked the permanent return to Nuclear Blast Records. Then came Pain’s first “what the hell, Peter” album, You Only Live Twice²⁰¹¹, followed by the aforementioned “Coming Home” which was a trainwreck that may have anticipated to rectify the damage done by its immediate predecessor but failed miserably, and which I panned not because I didn’t consider Peter Tägtgren to be an extraordinary musician but precisely because I did and he simply didn’t deliver. Twice. How good to see, then that both projects are now in top form, whatever the reason or the impetus for the upgrade. First, “Worship” brought Hypocrisy to new levels of creativity and now “I Am” may be Pain’s most consistent and most memorable album since time immemorial, if not to date.

You may scoff at Peter’s air of self-importance in “Not For Sale”, although command him on his disdain for the ultra rich and moneygrabbers where he cordially bids them and his detractors to suck his testicles while winking back to similar appeal in Hypocrisy’s “Uncontrolled” (from Pain-like Catch 22²⁰⁰²) but you can’t deny the power and mastery of the favorite “Push The Pusher” where we learn that “life is a bitch” (not that we didn’t know that) and “the wind always blows cold” but “you can’t kill the kid in” him, “you can’t kill the thrill in” him, “so what’s the point of growing up?” and that he knows he’s doing ok ‘cause” his “therapist told” him so, a track which gives the likes of Ministry and Rammstein a run for their money. Other highlights like the excellent “The New Norm” – where Peter describes how, nowadays, everyone is in it for themselves whereby we “trust no one, love no one…help no one, save no one” – as well as “Revolution” – where he warns that “they sell our future, they sell our past, they sell our history, world will collapse” and “you better wake up” as “they’re just trying to numb us down” as we’re “heading for dark days” where “survival is at stake” – , as well as the very good closer “Fair Game” reminiscent of Hypocrisy’s Abducted¹⁹⁹⁵, with the call to “let the true blood rise through with light, fair game in the darkest night, let the true blood rise through the black”, seemingly alluding to the fact that the wolves (darkness) always come in sheep’s clothing (the light) and sway the weak and undiscerning (like they’re currently doing in the U.S. with the nominal Christian church who’d swear she has found her “messiah” way up in D.C.), so Peter calls to appeal to true light within, or, he could also be talking about shining brighter in the dark – these have a very high Hypocrisy quatient in them, “The New Norm” replete with death metal riffs and low gutturals and “Revolution” (complete with “New World” riff revisited, to a discerning ear) with a mindscrew of a rhythm and an infectious chorus to lead the masses to the barricades because “world revolution calls, “the retribution starts, world revolution march” and
“victorious we stand tall”, but the stylistically Painful songs are also very good.

In the Sister Of Merciful “Go With The Flow” (with the sexy beat) Peter admonishes that “you can sit and wait for the storm to pass or learn how to dance in the wind with class” and “hate all you want but you won’t get far” and in the very catchy “Don’t Wake The Dead” I hear 2000s Paradise Lost, especially Symbol Of Life²⁰⁰², and the title track, where the balladic verse recalls Dark Tranquillity’s “Therein” sounds like it was recorded by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) but there is an intelligent twist in “My Angel” where half the lyrics are sung by a French actress, singer and TV presenter, Cécile Siméone, in French who poses as someone who slept with the Devil and was weakened by to the eternal detriment as she sings, “I want you…to awaken all my demons…I can’t do without you, you’re my only pleasure, I need you to arouse my desires…Do I need you? Do I need you to punish me for all my vices…” but seems to be warning against rather than encouraging the experience when singing, “I met the devil, he broke my wings, lost forever” especially with “My desire will be my undoing”, all of which highly evocative of “All Hallows Eve” by Type O’Negative where Peter ‘O Steele sings, “Saint Lucifer hear me praying to thee on this eve of all saints, high be the price but then nothing is free, my soul I’ll gladly trade”. In the end, what makes Tägtgren, no friend of the Christian faith, or, possibly an agnostic, compelling, is how he sings I’m out of faith” and “I’ve never been much of a believer” in one place (The New Norm) only to confidently end the album asserting that “this world may spin its web of deceit so profound” yet “there’s still a glimmer left here on this solid ground”, “so let it rain despair”, he “will not fall when the storm comes” and that “we’re all standing tall” as he calls for you to “conquer all that holds you back” (Fair Game). And I don’t think he accidentally named his new album after the true name of God.

While, as I asserted, “I Am” is devoid of fillers, three songs, the opening “I Just Dropped By (To Say Goodbye)” – with its heartbreaking “where’s our hope? When future is unkind” and its poignant indictment of “narcissistic leaders with narcissistic minds” – Not For Sale” and “Party In My Head” (which may reference the COVID-19 lockdowns and how many people were losing their minds), which I already referenced, are just Pain being Painful, no frills but enjoyable good stuff. Of note, though, is the fact that Peter had his son, Sebastian (whose first name, too, is Alf) play all instruments in “Don’t Wake The Dead” and “Revolution”, plus drums throughout the whole album  just as he had on “Coming Home” and that the album was   excellently and powerfully produced by his father as usual.

It’s good to hear an immensely talented and skilled artist and a valuable sociopolitical commentator like Peter Tägtgren who, make no mistake, I respect a lot, wake up from the rest on his laurels (just like he said he would) and give us fantastic albums like Hypocrisy’s “Worship” or Pain’s very good “I Am”. All there’s left to do is to patiently await the new Hypocrisy album the work for which I’m sure is already underway.