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World's collide to mix great Pain track with bland Hypocrisy material.-
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| Pain: You Only Live Twice |
Electronic, Industrial, Melodic Death Metal, Techno
Nuclear Blast Records
June 21st, 2011
- Let Me Out - 4:35
- Feed the Demons - 3:55
- The Great Pretender - 4:05
- You Only Live Twice - 4:05
- Dirty Woman - 4:18
- We Want More - 4:46
- Leave Me Alone (Sonic Syndicate cover) - 4:10
- Monster - 4:06
- Season of the Reaper - 6:38
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| Links |
| Review Information |
Release length: 40:38
Review posted on June 23RD, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 5.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Pain (1997) Rebirth (1999) Nothing Remains the Same (2002) Dancing With the Dead (2005) Psalms of Extinction (2007)
Cynic Paradise (2008) You Only Live Twice (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Just Hate Me (2002)
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| Single(s): |
End of the line (1999) On and On (1999) Suicide Machine (2000) Shut Your Mouth (2001) Eleanor Rigby (2002)
Just Hate Me 2 (2002) Just Hate Me 3 (2002) Eleanor Rigby 2 (2002) Just Hate Me 1 (2002) Same Old Song (2004)
Bye/Die (2005) Nothing (2005) I'm Going In (2008) Follow Me (2009) Dirty Woman (2011)
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| DVD(s): |
Live is Overrated (2006)
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| Review |
Pain is basically a solo studio-project from Hypocrisy and general Metal mastermind Peter Tδgtgren. Through the years, this effort has explored combining Melodic Death Metal like with alter Hypocrisy albums with heavy Industrial and even Techno input. Unfortunately, Pain has also been an act that never really saw many releases in North America. With You Only Live Twice, we are greeted with this act's seventh full-length recording, which has a lot of ground to make up for considering the rather negative feeback the album Cynic Paradise had received. So, does it do just that?
You Only Live Twice is a noticably darker album then some of Pain's more recent output, and in many ways has effectively left behind much of the Techno input that Peter had played around with in the past in favor of trying to recreate the atmospheres one could associate with Hypocrisy albums like The Arrival and even Virus. While this isn't necessarily the worst thing, in many ways it does leave the album vulnerable in the sense that it's nothing too unique for this group that once had a very special sound. It isn't until the track "The Great Pretender" that Pain actually starts to sound like themselves and shed the aforementioned template. However, the darker tones of "Let Me Out" and "Feed the Demons", the latter featuing vocals from Udo of the band U.D.O., really work for the album before they essentially just stop for the more Techno-influenced upbeat vibe of "The Great Pretender", leaving to an awkward shift in the music, but it's one that comes with welcome arms thanks to how infectious this track is compared to the entertaining, but nowhere near as engaging first two tracks of this release.
And that winds up being one of the allures to You Only Live Twice. Thw album tackles incorporating many different styles, as well as atmospheres. While it starts off rather dark, it can shift in the matter of one song to an upbeat track like "The Great Pretender", a more emotional track like "You Only Live Twice", and even a strong Hard Rock Accept/U.D.O. influenced song with "Dirty Woman", which also happens to feature Udo on vocals once again. And that's not even the end of the various styles to the recording, but the atmosphere definitely seems to stick to a more upbeat feeling as soon as "The Great Pretender" kicks in. This does manage to help the release keep from sounding repetitive or even patterned, and offers up pretty much something that any fan of Rock or Metal is going to enjoy. The problem with that is not all the material is really what Pain fans want to hear, and sometimes may not be the strongest material on the release.
Sure "Dirty Woman" is a great track and winds up being an addicting track of old-school Hard Rock attitude meets modern Melodic Death and Industrial force, and having Udo handle the main vocals of the track is an excellent addition to cap off a superb song. However, it's the more upbeat Techno-driven songs "The Great Pretender" and "We Want More" that really showcase what Pain is all about and best at. This isn't to say the other tracks are bad, but "Feed the Demons" simply doesn't compare and aside the guest vocals really comes off more like a forgettable track. The same can be said with "Let Me Out", though it's a somewhat stronger track due to the more aggressive feeling to the music. "Monster" also stands out a bit, though holding more of a Hypocrisy vibe to the music, just with cleaner vocals and Udo once again contributing and really sounding ferocious with his energetic contribution. But, that slight unique vibe really only goes so far with this song. Other then that, the slower ballad pieces like "You Only Live Twice" also serve as songs that shine through, though "Season of the Reaper" and "Leave me Alone" don't necessarily stand too tall in this release, lacking the passion that "You Only Live Twice" had, and just feel generic and bland.
You Only Live Twice is an interesting release due to all the varying sounds and atmospheres incorporated into it, as well as all the guest spots from Udo himself, but at the same time the album sounds a lot like a Hypocrisy album, and not strong Hypocrisy at that. A set atmosphere would have been nice, but it feels impossible given the varying style influences that appear on this recording, and many of them sound good with the signature Pain sound, and there are plenty of catchy tracks that will have the listener coming back now and again. But, there's also a good number of songs that just aren't that great, being entertaining but the kind of track you're good only hearing once, maybe twice. Overall, the album shows a good deal of experimentation from Pain, but You Only Live Twice simply is not one of the strongest releases from this act.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Nuclear Blast Records.
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