They’re a decade into their career and while the city around them has cleaned up beyond recognition, New York’s Pro-Pain are showing no sign of mellowing out and making things pretty for musical tourists.
Straight To The Dome is a slab of uncompromising hardcore that only runs at full pelt, with no thought for the bloody noses, split lips and black eyes it’ll leave in its wake. Any remaining trace of the rap metal of the past is gone, the band concentrating on thrash fury and dizzy solos that act as a statement of intent after the departure of guitarist Tom Klimchuck last year.
Frontman Gary Meskil, meanwhile, is psychotically pissed off, particularly on Payback, with its turbo take on the modern art of unfriending. Straight To The Dome is by no means a classic album. There’s little variety here, and it’s more continuing a tradition than innovating and improving the genre. But if it’s anger you want, there’s plenty to be found here.
