YOUR PAIN IS ENDEARING - Fall of An Empire EP [Review]
Genre: Death MetalLabel: Self-released
Released: 2011
Reviewer: Karim Tarek
Formed in 2008, Your Pain Is Endearing is a newcomer Death Metal quintet hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The quintet comprises Jason Eick – Guitar, Matt Phillippo Vocals, Chris Ramusiewicz – Guitar, Cihan Aydin – Bass, and Justin Brink - Drums. They chiefly deliver face-pummeling tunes with a slick touch of groove. We got our hands on their 6-track debut EP, “Fall Of An Empire,” which was independently released in 2009. They’re now working with Darren Cesca (Goratory, Burn In Silence, Arsis) on their upcoming full-length, to be entitled “The Human Condition.”
“Fall Of An Empire” came unexpectedly intense, violent, and well-done. It basically exemplifies how a Death Metal EP should sound like; it came pretty much concentrated and compact, thus its remarkable brutality and vigor energy is what most distinguishes it, and that’s why it really grew on me after a couple of listens to eventually realize how awesome of a record it is.
Vocals on “Fall Of An Empire” came almost flawless, with Matt Phillippo retaining his strong tones all the way and perfectly keeping with all the rampage ensued from the instrumentations. Riffs came pretty tight but never managed to overshadow the vintage drumming and blast beats that aided them; it’s the one thing that fascinated me the most about the record; drums!
Drummer Justin Brink managed to carefully pick his lines and follow up with the time signatures to eventually end up creating a drumming masterpiece out of the EP. He managed to sustain the brutality on the EP, adorn it, and actually perfect it with his skull-squashing blasts and aggressive percussion that pretty much defined the EP!
Most of the tracks on “Fall Of An Empire” came amazingly aggressive, but never lost the touch of groove, thus delivering you a couple of catchy riffs on almost each track to keep the part of your brain that savors good music awake while you’re hysterically headbanging due to the EP’s exuberance and fullness of all that a Death Metaller would crave.
I can’t actually complain about a single point regarding “Fall Of An Empire” especially with it being self-released. I would just recommend you to give it its time and a plenty of listens, as it’s one of those records that wouldn’t catch all your senses from the first listen, but instead grows on you after several listens. It’s brutal, aggressive, insane, and out of control, yet it’s groovy, well played, tight, and surprisingly ends up with a piano line!
Highlights: An Infectious Breed, The Final Battle.
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