Pro-Pain
Age of Tyranny - The Tenth Crusade
4.5
Damn. Has Pro-Pain really been around for 15 years? Age of Tyranny: The Tenth Crusade is their (you guessed it) tenth full-length release and has a loose concept linking the current war on terror to the Crusades. Concept or not, this is a modern era Pro-Pain release; not exactly thinking man’s music.
“The New Reality” opens up Age of Tyranny with a rather ordinary metallic hardcore track complete with light thrashy feel and quasi-metal riffing towards the end. “All For King George” is fueled by driving rock riffs (i.e. boring) and even has a chorus with melodic backing vocals heavily obscured by reverb and chorus. “Pigs in Clover” utilizes some non-standard time signatures and tempo shifts that sound a bit odd coming from this typically straightforward act. A little bit of a modern metalcore influence finds its way into “Beyond the Pale,” sounding like a dumbed-down, less metal Unearth track with its chunky rhythms and moronically simple melodic lead work. When the clean female singing and acoustic guitars come in, it can best be described as odd. Listen for yourself.
Simply put, existing Pro-Pain fans are probably going to love Age of Tyranny; it’s full of basic groovy riffing, tough guy attitude, and their signature quasi-metal soloing. The few times they try to branch away from that basic formula on this disc they fall flat on their face, so I don’t really blame them for essentially writing the same album they’ve been writing the last 7 or so years.
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