Pain – “Coming Home” [Album Review]

Returning after a seven year hiatus from what started as a side project back in the late ’90s, Pain reconvenes with Coming Home, another collection of electronic-infused industrial metal anthems. As a fan of Peter Tägtgren’s work and at the same time, being new to this particular project, it was a real treat to hear yet another of the gifted vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer’s musical incarnations.

I have always been partial to the abrasive nature of industrial music, but not of industrial bands per se. For the most part, Pain successfully blends the full, aggressive and crushing elements of metal with the noisy harshness of Industrial—liberally peppered with the atmospheric grandeur of an orchestra. And this bold meld is at least mildly satisfying.

There is the characteristic melodic thread running through each track, to varying degrees, which weaves around elements of southern rock (“Designed to Piss You Off”), downtuned progressive rhythms that give way to a steady rock beat below an orchestral anthemic chorus (“Call me” [a personal favorite]), acoustic poignancy (“Coming Home”) and a pounding, swing-like flow (“Final Crusade”) with—to my ears—a riff similarity to Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” mixed in (a good thing).

Guesting on this slickly produced release are Tägtgren’s son, Sebastian on drums (“Coming Home”), a vocal contribution from Sabaton’s Joakim Brodén (“Call me”) and Clemens “Ardek” Wijers for the orchestral touches.

Coming Home Track Listing:

01. Designed To Piss You Off
02. Call Me
03. A Wannabe
04. Pain in the Ass
05. Black Knight Satellite
06. Coming Home
07. Absinthe Phoenix Rising
08. Final Crusade
09. Natural Born Idiot
10. Starseed

Run Time: 42.50
Release Date: September 9, 2016

Check out the song “A Wannabe”