Pain as a band name sounds incredibly familiar, yet I have absolutely no fuckin’ clue what I would know these chaps from. However, now that I check out references for it I am finding some major leads. For example, Pain started out as a hobby project of Swedish front man Peter Tägtgren, whom you might know as being the guitarist / vocalist in Hypocrisy, as well as a world renowned Extreme Metal producer.

The band still is a bit of a solo project, though Tägtgren does work with session members a lot. There has been a fixed line-up in time as well, but I have no fuckin’ clue if that’s stillt he case or not. Last reports are that the guy is driving Pain solo again, but then again, no fuckin’ clue from when those last reports are.

Even though the first issue of this series didn’t seem to grab particularly much of attention, we’ve still got another little something for friends of keyboard and synth heavy Metal. Of the bands in today’s post, Black Comedy is a band that we’ve already seen once before. Synthetic Breed and Mechina, on the other hand, are two new additions to our huge collection of Metal bands.

Sometimes MySpace rules, despite that it’s actually a cunt. It’s Slooow – with fuckin’ capital S and three O’s – as constipated shit, needlessly complicated, buggy and just plain fuckin’ annoying. But, on occasion I find class A Metal bands on it. Finland’s Shade Empire is today’s example of that fact. They needed just one note to convince me to immediately write about them. Again, as I just found I had already featured them in a post of the short fuckin’ type we used to do.

Formed in the city of Kuopio in 1999, the formation plays a sort of symphonics-infused Melo-Industrial-Blackened Death Metal. That genre description sounds complicated, but it really is all of that, at least its later work. The band itself claims it “has developed its totally own genre”. Bold statement, but not completely untrue. Just wouldn’t know what to call it.

Anyway, after its formation they came up with three demos and then struck a deal with an Italian label called Avantgarde Records, with which it released its first proper record, Sinthetic (2004). The short feature we already did of them was of a track off that album, Extreme Form of Hate, and it’s still best described as Symphonic Black Metal. Two more albums followed, and in today’s post we’ll serve up a track off each of them.

Annoyingly in the good way! Today we’ll focus our attention to a band that I’ve heard of numerous times before, but which I could never be arsed to look into. Never thought I’d like them. The reason is their name: Raunchy. It just sounds cheesy and raunchy, and fit for a shitty alternative Rock band intending to score cheaply, instead of aiming to make good music. In fact, judging from the few songs that I’ve heard of their previous releases, that may just be what they’ve been.

So I guess part of that name association I made is true: Raunchy doesn’t make the most complex sort of music, but in all fairness – and I hate to admit it – their latest album doesn’t seem to be bad. From what I’ve heard, it’s like a mixture of Mnemic’s mechanical Industrial Metal tunes with some heavy Rock spiced up with a synth job. Features harsh vocals, but also a lot of cleanly sung parts. Wearing my moderate Industrial hat today, I can actually quite enjoy it, despite that I know it’s actually a bit wrong and I’m not supposed to like clean vocals. The Gods of Metal forbid it. Well, I guess I don’t take shit from no one, even if I know for once I should!

Tristwood hails from Austria and has been active since 2001. Encyclopaedia Metallum labels them Industrial Death/Black Metal which I suppose is pretty acurate. Think Deicide smothered in Industrial Metal. Got your attention? How about if I told you their latest album Dystopia et Disturbia is available for free and legal download?

On Tuesday the 23^rd of November – sorry for the delay – I made a four hour trip to Darmstadt – near Frankfurt – to be a live witness of the concerts of Threat Signal, Raunchy, Sybreed, M.A.N. and In Cold Blood. With a load of luck I managed to get there in time, because the trains had some extreme delays once again.

Before you wonder: I would have happily added some proof pictures to the post, but for some fuckin’ reason my mobile’s camera decided not to function that night. I have added some videos though, including some of the actual concert – with abominable sound quality, but giving a great indication of the intensity of the shows – uploaded by other concertgoers!

A couple of weeks ago I reported I went on a trip to Denmark’s capital of Copenhagen. While I was away I put up a short post featuring my favorite Danish Metal band, Mnemic. As you most likely know, their game is Industrial Death Metal with lots of groovy rhythms, mixed clean and growled vocals and an catchy melodies where appropriate. I also took advantage of being in the band’s home country and bought their new album – released quite a lot earlier in 2010, but I was just slow to get my hands on it – Sons of the System.

That album has been playing in my car’s stereo for a week and a half now. That’s longer than average for an album to be reviewed and the reason for that is simple: I like it!