P.A.I.N. Management Lobotomy
by Trevor Portz
Staff Writer
Christian metal — well, Christian music in general — is an interesting thing. Like other types of music with a message, be it religious or political, oftentimes the message becomes more powerful than the music, and when this happens, the message gets lost. In order to properly convey whatever it is a band is trying to say, the music has to be as strong as the lyrics it carries. Steve Rowe, of Christian death metal pioneers Mortification, said something to this affect, stating that too many Christian bands focus solely on message and not on the music. Fortunately, German band P.A.I.N. Management seem as focused on their music as they do lyrical content, as illustrated on their debut LP, Lobotomy.
Though they tout themselves as “unique metal,” P.A.I.N. Management are little more than a standard, modern metal band with occasional hints of prog, black metal, and with a heavy dose of keyboards. Clearly inspired by the likes of Dream Theater, Mastodon, and like-minded prog-metal bands, P.A.I.N. Management do little to establish themselves as truly unique. Luckily, however, they are competent musicians that, if nothing else, execute their brand of heaviness admirably.
Following an almost Alan Parsons-sounding intro, opening track “I Disagree” showcases the band’s style with heavy, melodic riffing laid over wistful keys, and aggressive, metal-core-tinged vocals. This is followed by “Weak,” which, were it not for the vocals that clearly inspired the title, would almost have been at home on Alice Cooper’s Dragontown album. “Serious” features a black metal-sounding main riff (or perhaps “unblack” for the Christian metal scene), and is a musical high point of the album. Unfortunately, at this point it becomes clear that the vocals are severely lacking and are the bane of the rest of the album.
Vocalist Markus attempts to blend harsh, almost death metal vocals with more melodic singing — essentially, growling on key. The problem lies in the fact that “on key” isn’t actually a fitting descriptor. The vocals are very pitchy, especially during the more clean segments, but the harsh vocals suffer as well, as Markus seems to push far too hard, resulting in consistent cracking, wavering, and general unevenness. Coupled with the constant pitch problems, this distracts from the underlying music and brings the overall quality down significantly.
Perhaps because of the vocal shortcomings, the obviously titled “Instrumental” stands as the album’s high point. Of course, it also features the most musical variety of any song on the record in its brief two minutes, which gives it a much more progressive and interesting sound than some of the more unoriginal bits. If any song were to illustrate the style the band consider itself to play, this would be it.
So as not to single out front man Markus as the only negative aspect on the band, it would be fair to also point out that while drummer Christian is generally decent, he often throws the tempo during any sort of fill or necessarily staccato section. This is illuminated most painfully on closing track “God,” which is chock-full of syncopated heavy riffing that requires a high level of tightness and precision, both of which are thrown by the very imprecise drumming. In the age of Pro-Tools, it’s nice to know that some bands are “keeping it real,” but in this instance, a bit of fixing would have been greatly beneficial. Fortunately, most songs don’t require such exactness, and thus don’t all suffer from this complication.
To be fair, nowhere on their Web site nor Myspace site do the band state that they are Christian — this is derived from the names and lyrics of the songs as well as their logo featuring what is clearly Jesus wearing a crown of thorns. So, if this is all a misinterpretation, apologies to the band. That said, if the band are in fact what they appear to be, they would do well to advertise it more obviously, as their self-described “unique metal” is actually a tad generic in the metal world as a whole, but is perhaps more uncommon in the niche Christian metal market.
Label: STF Records
Web: www.pain-management.de; www.myspace.com/painmanagementmetal
Band Lineup:
Markus (vocals)
Andreas (synths and sampling)
Patrick (guitar)
Andre (bass)
Christian (drums)
Tracks:
1. I Disagree
2. Weak
3. Serious
4. Bleed Forgiveness
5. Arpeggio
6. Dark Star
7. Open Knife
8. Instrumental
9. Holy Vengeance
10. Massparade
11. God
Hardrock Haven rating: 6.2/10