Pain — Nothing Remains The Same

Besides Hypocrisy and his work with the famous Abyss studios, Peter Tägtgren has another successful output with the name Pain. Starting as a melodic experiment, the project ended up as the most accessible work of the well-known Swede.

Taking elements of electro, techno and pop but still concentrating on the metal part is basically the hit formula which produced the album "Rebirth", released in 1999. Having a gold-selling single ("Suicide Machine") is something hard to imagine for a metal artist, but hopes are even higher with this third album "Nothing Remains The Same", again on Stockholm Records. The first single "Just Hate Me" was released already in November last year and has been in the Swedish top 20 single charts for two months now. When this album was released it entered the album charts as highest new release at #6, just to give you an idea how popular Pain is in its home country.

On "Nothing Remains The Same" Peter Tägtgren continues in the same style as on the previous album. Danceable beats and crushing groovy guitars are the main ingredients, plus Peter's melodic vocals. The new album shows a slightly increased direction towards pop music, with even more catchy choruses and orchestral arrangements than before. Good examples are "It's Only Them", "Fade Away" and the obvious singles "Shut Your Mouth" and "Just Hate Me". The latter is partly written by Max Martin who also worked with huge pop artists such as Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, etc., so it comes not as a surprise that this is the most radio-friendly Pain track ever recorded.Another nice addition to the album is the track "Eleanor Rigby", originally performed by The Beatles. The cover is quite close to the original, and it turns out really cool.

I think the album has the same problem as the preceding one. Some tracks aren't as impressive as the previous mentioned songs, which causes that the album will not be played very often anymore when the novelty is gone. It has however better arrangements, production and song-writing but is not entirely superior to "Rebirth". If you liked that album than "Nothing Remains The Same" is worthwhile investment. Also check out the "Shut Your Mouth" video clip (also present on the disc as CD-ROM track), which can be found on the Pain homepage. This hilarious video shows once again Peter's love for aliens as previously seen on Hypocrisy albums.