Born From Pain

War

Written by: PP on 06/12/2006 12:59:22

Hailing from Holland, Born From Pain have been active during their short-spanned career. After releasing their debut album in 2002, the band has released a new album ever year and the trend doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon as November saw the release of their fourth album "War". Classified as hardcore, metalcore and metal across the internet, it's hard to place the band in a specific genre other than just labeling them as generic metal, which sounds just about right after listening to the 12-similar sounding tracks on the album.

Don't be fooled by the 12 tracks on the album. In reality, there are only two tracks here, with the first one being the opening track "War". At adequatly paced, stone cold, heavily distorted riffing is supported grunts and chants of "this war.. is relentless" for the majority of the song. The second real track on "War", is "Behind Enemy Lines", which is a faster, more thrash influenced track, again seeing their vocalist grunt and chant over generic down-tuned riffage that simply offers nothing new or innovative, and bores you in the long run after the initial excitement over its speedy assault on the guitars. 'What about the remaining 10 songs', I hear you ask. In one form or another, the rest of the tracks are so similar to these two that it sounds like the band cut and pasted the riffs from those and just rewrote the lyrics. They're either thrashy, or they're slow, but they follow the exact same formula as the first two tracks, and this formula has grown old already on track three as the band ignores any use of melody. Solos are rarely used, and when they are, they sound lackluster and as if the guitarists weren't talented enough to pull them off properly, with the exception of course being Hatesphere guitarist Pepe's guest solo on "Scorched Earth". In fact, the only reason some tracks stand out more than others ("Doomsday Clock" for instance) is because of the guest appearances of legends like Lou Keller of Sick Of It All or members of Napalm Death and Hatesphere). Without these guys adding character to the few songs they guest on, "War" would be so average, so generic that it hurts me trying to describe it, as there's simply nothing, and I mean nothing you can say about them that doesn't either refer to the down-tuned repetetive riffing or the grunts of the vocalist. The worst part about the band is that they're not even a direct rip off of an old band, but rather a collage of a number of legendary bands ranging from Hatesphere and Unearth to Hatebreed and Sick Of It All.

There's little here that could warrant a grade higher than a 5 give its repetitiveness and macho-style delivery, but at the same time nothing has gone so terribly wrong that I could award it a grade below that. Why other zines rate it as high as 8.5 is ridiculous. It might just be the most generic metal album I've heard all this year, and a 5 is me being overly generous.

5

Download: War, Behind Enemy Lines
For the fans of: Bury Your Dead, Hatesphere, Hatebreed, Sick Of It All
Listen: Myspace

Release date 20.11.2006
Metal Blade
Provided by Target ApS

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