Peter Tägtgren’s Pain is a side-project of a death metal mastermind, the lead person behind Hypocrisy, one of the pioneers of melodeath, and an avid producer mixing albums for metal giants such as Immortal, Marduk, Celtic Frost, Amon Amarth, Sabaton, and Dimmu Borgir.
While his main band, Hypocrisy, always maintained a certain level of quality, Pain recordings flew all over the place. Some records were pretty solid (like Rebirth), most were just above average (Psalms Of Extinction, You Only Live Twice) but fun to listen to. And a couple were plain crap, like the first, self-titled record, Pain.
Where can we put Pain’s latest release, titled Coming Home? Well, to be honest, the album is a waste of listener’s free time, offering uninspiring music, chewed up riffs, bland atmosphere, and horrendous lyrics.
The album opener, dubbed Designed To Piss You Off, is a prime example of the mediocre ideas swarming the whole record. The song's a joke, starting with a southern rock guitar line, which transforms into a poor man’s industrial riff, followed by downright dumb lyrics. It’s like Peter knew the general quality of the song, giving it a perfect name. It’s like the tune is designed to piss you off from the start, cursing your decision the give the album a chance (mostly because the last effort, You Only Live Twice, was a fun listen).
The joke continues with Call Me and A Wannabe, weak songs that won’t make anyone to like them. The lyrical approach on the whole album is ridiculously senseless. It’s like Peter decided to gather his worst lyrics ever and combine them into the abomination Coming Home is. A mix of glam rock and weak alt metal lyrical subjects not having any value combined with run-of-the-mill songwriting will impress only mentally challenged persons.
At least production is excellent, but that was expected. There are a couple of listenable tunes; Black Knight Satellite has some hooks, interesting riffs, cool keyboards, and a solid atmosphere, while Starseed is one solid semi-ballad, left for the end of the album.
Coming Home is a disaster, a bunch of mediocre compositions that shouldn’t see the light of day, ever. You can listen to it, but do that at your own risk; I can’t be held responsible for any damage this album eventually ends up causing. You have been warned.
