Hi everyone, Bigthony Paintano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new self-titled Pain of Truth album.

New York hardcore outfit Pain of Truth. They are back with their long-awaited sophomore album, still bringing the heavy, classic, to-the-point beatdown style they made a splash with in 2023 with their first album.

The band does not mess with the original beatdown formula too much, though they still assembled that debut album in a pretty interesting way, as Not Through Blood was just packed with wall-to-wall features from many different names, a lot of them being hardcore heavyweights, whether it's Terror, 200 Stab Wounds, Madball, Vein.fm, Incendiary, too.

Obviously, all these names only helped draw attention to the record and also diversified the sound of the album too, mostly on the vocal front, but still. However, this new self-titled LP is going with more of a feature-free strategy, slightly beefier song lengths too, because I think this record's basically Pain of Truth, seeing how far they can push their sound and also stand on their own.

And there were some encouraging teasers to this record showing the band doing exactly that. Whether it's "Unforgiven," which has a notably kind of soaring, slightly melodic chorus, with some sinister ascending riffs that, in a way, feels almost Alice in Chains-coded. Almost like the band is kind of bringing a slightly alternative twist to that metalcore equation. There was also "Stranded," which is a multi-phase track that shows the band not just kind of getting more into extended soloing, but there's also a build-up bridge, a hilariously over-the-top refrain of a "WE'RE ALL FUCKED!"

But the breakdown bravado of this track, and many others on here, actually have some thoughtful lyricism behind it. As this track is very much about, socially being divided and conquered and fighting among ourselves, rather than acting in opposition to the powers that be that set this system up. And believe it or not, this is far from the only song on this album that is coming from a pretty conscious place.

This record isn't just, simply made of, tough guy hardcore screeds. For example, frontman Michael Brian Smith recently posted of the song, "This Hatred," saying it was inspired by reading more about Aileen Wuornos and thinking about her experience with respect to other victims of sexual violence.

There's also the song, "Fed by Fear," which is very much about chaos being sown by purposeful disinformation, and the horrors of our current reality desensitizing us in a way which is painted by the final lyrics: "I want to look away, but I can't / I hear the screams in the gears as the innocent beg / I want to look away, but I can't."

And in fact, I would say a great deal of this album is in reaction to this general feeling of the world falling apart.

But of course, Pain of Truth on this self-titled record leave room for some of those old standby classic hardcore topics. "Filth In Your Head" is all about having the resilience to kind of fight off these demons of toxicity and jealousy. Or the lack of that fight in one's self, which leads to this track being basically a character portrait of the most awful and terrible person you can imagine. There's also "Chinatown, NY," which is kind of like a semi-theatrical reenactment of what sounds like a bar altercation, which involves running for a bit, but then also having to act and defend yourself. Your friends are threatened, and the parting message of this track is to swing first and ask questions last, which is an interesting way to leave things off.

But yeah, there's a lot of well-meaning and relatable writing on this Pain of Truth record that I can get behind for sure. But I wish just as much thought was going into the riffs and the production on this one, too. As this record here has the volume pumped up way louder than it was on the Pain of Truth debut, which is kind of a blessing and a curse.

Because there's just a lot of tracks on this thing that lack any sort of headroom in the mix, to the point where these songs sound so maxed out and blown out that the details in these riffs, the grooves, and the tone of the guitars as well, aren't fully coming through, especially on the opener and "This Hatred." And even on the songs that are more readable and are more enjoyable, especially on their own, they really do get tiresome as a full album, as the guitars, drums, and vocals, for the most part, come across like they are all fighting for supremacy in the mix versus reinforcing each other.

Which makes these performances, and I think the writing, too, sound more forgettable than they are, especially in the final moments of the album. Because yeah, while this album is noticeably louder than Not Through Blood, it's at the sacrifice of just sounding better, because Not Through Blood was a lot more balanced by comparison. For the most part, though, I do think Pain of Truth proved on this album they could make a solid record simply just on their own.

And even if I think the sound of this record is dwarfed by its predecessor by just a little bit, these tracks are sure to still kick-ass live. And the thrill and the energy and the excitement of those in-person metalcore and hardcore performances are part of the reason the genre is having a low-key renaissance right now. This is by no means a perfect record, but only simply enjoying Pain of Truth or a band similar to them, just through the album, isn't really the point anyway. You gotta see this shit in person to really feel it.

Finally, I'll add, this is a structurally sound album, too. The breakdowns groove really well; the gang choruses are heavy, guttural, thick as hell. Michael Brian Smith's vocals that kind of range between general hardcore punk delivery and shouted or spoken word that veers a little closer toward rapping. It's enough variation to kind of make the different parts of each song engaging, even if the sound of the record overall is a little overbearing.

But yeah, I think Pain of Truth have definitely set themselves up here, with a handful of standout tracks on it that are gonna sound great in person, and hopefully allows them to continue growing from here, which is why I'm feeling about a strong six on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Pain of Truth, forever.