Review of Pro-Pain - Shreds of Dignity

After 10+ hard years of battling the metal business with their unrelenting work ethic, Pro-Pain find themselves proudly boasting their 7th release in Shreds Of Dignity. I've listened to this album about 6 or 7 times all the way through so far, and although in most cases that's nowhere near enough dissective listening time, I've heard enough to know that this is a good album with some stomp-worthy headbangers on it. This album certainly has a get up and move your ass type feel as these Floridians (formerly New Yorkians) go from riff to riff with undeniable ferocity. For 10 years I've been told by several people that I need to hear this band's music as well as check them out live. Well, those years have gone by and I almost feel ashamed that this is my first dabble. Having said that, I have now dabbled and I am glad I received the opportunity. I'll tell you this right now, I'll be the first one in line for tickets the next time they come around, and if their live performance measures up to the hype I've been hearing all these years then I won't miss another one. Even though I consider the songwriting here above average, it is by no means mind blowing. It's just merely a case where simple riffs equal convincing results. What I mean by this is that if you were to take a look at the guitars, bass or the drum patterns separately, there's not a whole lot of technical difficulty in their individual structure, but when all three are combined the ultimate outcome is one of simple flowing music not to mention a plethora of breakdown grooves. Each song has catchy verses that deliver an onslaught of aggression thanks to the angrily-throated-vocal department. It is because of the fortifying vocals that I find myself drawn to this release. The sound on this album is of high quality and what's even more impressive is that it's self-produced. As a matter of fact, after recording their second album and not being completely happy with the production, the band chose to make sure all of their albums were going to be done their way to insure they'd be done the right way. I'm behind any musician, or group of musicians, that follow this same path as long as the final product doesn't sound like crud. Like I previously stated, the overall production on this disc comes across powerful and heavy. It portrays the perfect mix for the style of music going on here. Some songs contain old-school speed metal influences at times, and other songs will take a turn and flourish more of a power-groove oriented style of riffage. And at other times you'll get a mixture of both and the result is refreshingly simple...yet effective. In conclusion, this is a hard hitting metal-core album and any fans of Pro-Pain should know this already; any and all hard/metal-core fans out there should definitely give this band a taste. This is a pure, extreme metal release that has a little bit of something for everyone.

Release Details

Pro-Pain

Shreds of Dignity

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