Album Details

• Artist: Pain Principle
• Album: Waiting For The Flies
• Label: Blind Prophecy Records
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2008-03-22

In today's global metal scene, room is running thin for imitators, copycats, and bringers-not of true ingenuity and creative decisiveness. There are just too many acts out there trying to sound like everyone else, or doing as much without even realizing it. When a group like Pain Principle pops up on my radar, I always think I've found the next band to carry that torch. But then, once the music starts and the idea of the band not releasing an album between their conception in 1993 and just last year goes from "that's alot of time to make it great" to "that's alot of time to fit into a trend", that's all she wrote. It's just not getting through to me.

Pain Principle have recorded a slightly long album chock full of every thrill and frill metalcore has churned from it's mechanical bowels since it's rise to major popularity, and leans more towards the death-metal inspired blend of it. So you're taking a bit of Slayer's aggressiveness, a bit of punk attitude, a whole lot of blastbeats and breakdowns, and the songs...the songs...just aren't there. This stuff works on the most primal level, sure, as it's well-done for what it is and would definitely appeal to the 13-18 age group of rebeliious shitstains far and wide, it comes way short of doing anything for me. The lyrics are typical, the riffs run on to nowhere and are generally solid enough if not for the constant need to breakdown and stick to the same chords. Technical this is not, but well-done nonetheless. 

You get the feeling I'm not the one to be reviewing this? I feel almost like the resident metal mind, so I like to get into these records more than a little. But Waiting For The Flies left me wanting more and expecting it too; these guys aren't just picking up instruments for the first time and winging it. Their history seems to be quite rocky, lots of personal conflicts and the like, and this may contribute to what I hear as glaring weaknesses. Whatever the case may be, no doubt Pain Principle have and will continue to have a strong following. Their live shows are most likely intense outings, and in the metal realm that can mean just as much as how provoking and inspiring your music is. I will keep an eye out for their future efforts, but wouldn't recommend this debut to anyone other than strict metalcore fans, metal novices and those looking for some mindless aggression. To this reviewer, that's the foundation all great metal is built on, but in no way should it ever be all the metal offers. 

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