ADDICTED TO PAIN

Addicted to Pain

Megaforce

4.5 / 10

Track listing:

01. Hear N Now
02. Trust Me
03. Abigail
04. Going Going Gone

Well, it certainly seems like the debut EP from Albany's ADDICTED TO PAIN should leave more of a permanent brain imprint on the listener. Then again, aside from a BIOHAZARD alum in Leo Curley (vocalist/guitar) and a indirect link to Jason Bittner's (SHADOWS FALL) old band EYESORE (Curley and bassist Bob Horvath were members),I'm questioning why I even thought that in the first place. It sure as hell isn't because the album combines "the sound of '80s-era first-wave thrash and '90s-era power metal," as stated in the press release. I mean no mention of hardcore at all? I'm still scratching my head over that one. OK, a pinch of thrash is involved; I'll give you that. So I guess it comes down to a vague street toughness in the sound, the enlistment of an engineer in Alex Perialas who worked with some metal heavyweights back in the day (S.O.D., TESTAMENT, PRO-PAIN, ANTHRAX) and a back cover band shot of three no-frills, beer-and-a-shot looking kinda guys. That's not much to go on, now is it?

Or maybe it's because the first minute or so of opener "Hear N Now" boasts a metal-edged hardcore punch and halfway catchy chorus that reminds of TRUTH CELL's "Hurajan", but even then the songwriting has a rather hollow ring to it that gets louder across subsequent tracks. Curley boasts a decent PRO-PAIN-esque semi-bark, which when combined with the groovy chug of "Trust Me" approaches something along the lines of a cleaner BEATEN BACK TO PURE, but even that's pushing the comparison envelope further than anyone should.

A medium-sized sizzle during "Abigail" is about the only part of the remaining two tracks that is even noteworthy, except for the fact that the chorus of closer "Going Going Gone" doesn't resonate at all. I've approached this one from several directions in several locations during several different points in time and I'm still not sure why I went the extra mile with it, except that I keep coming back to feeling like it could be so much more. As it stands, it's not terrible; it's just plain, ho-hum, and forgetfully vanilla. Time to move on to something else I guess.

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