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By JEFF MAKI
First off, I feel it necessary to give recognition to the
high quality of heavy music thats being released as of late.
I have the opportunity to listen to dozens of new releases
by a wide variety of metal bands and it's been some time since
I have had a true disappointment. Metal Blade's Born From
Pain keeps this trend going with their new effort, War.
Founded in the summer of 1997 in Limburg, Netherlands, they
were one of the first European bands to play a crossover style
of hardcore and metal. The term “metalcore,” which
has become all too common, does not accurately describe the
sound.
There is not one clean vocal on this disc. Born From Pain
lays down heavy, downtuned grooves, fast riffing and stomping
breakdowns. The growling vocals of Che Snelting are at times
reminiscent of either Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed ) or Max Cavelara
(Sepultura, Soulfly). The band's closest counterpart is Hatebreed.
By the time that the opener, “Relentless,” pounds
your head for three and a half minutes, you'll have the lyrics
“This war is relentless, this war is relentless”
driven into your skull. Songs range from hardcore bursts with
gang vocals to more groove-laden metal songs, such as the
standout, “Crusader.” This song falls somewhere
between Black Sabbath and Sepultura with it's low-end groove
boogie. The chorus begs for crowd participation with the lyrics
“Fight fire with fire with fire/The whole world burns.”
There are no points here for originality, but it doesn't
matter. War is heavy as fuck and a can't miss for
fans of hardcore/crossover metal. As an added bonus, War
features guest vocals by Napalm Death's Barney Greenway, Sick
of It All's Lou Koller and Gorefest's Jan Chris de Koeijer!
®2006 Live-Metal.net
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