In Pain has been a notable band for me as they, like Entrails, were kicking around back in the 90s, but never really did much until they finally got their shit together and release an album in 2019,The Sound of Death,  and even more notable for me is that they use the originator of the ‘The Swedish Sound’, Tomas Skogsberg, as their producer (though he does not appear on the cover as he did with the The Sound of Death). And listen, before symphonic deathcore become my new kink,  literally anything with ‘that’ sound got me harder than a California redwood.

So here is the follow-up album, with a shorter wait than we had for the debut, and it meets my expectations like I knew it would. Like The Sound of Death, this is perfectly executed Swedish death metal that culls from the expected peers like Entombed, Dismember, and Grave, though it leans a little heavier into the chunkier, groovier Grave sound. And of course it sounds amazing with a thick, buzzing, organic Skogberg tone.

Simply listen to the standout opener “Predators of Death” and take in the thick opening riff as well as the utterly killer late song trundle, oh my- utter perfection (insert Michael Fassbender/Magneto “perfection meme here). The second track “Mistress of the Dark” delivers a slower, doomier take with a Bolt Thrower -ish gait and pace before “Witchcraft” delivers a more intense pace with a simply killer classic, genre canter – you’ll know the one I’m talking about when you hear it. “Midnight Rituals” does a little of everything, with a little moodiness thrown in, and “Kill” delivers a superb mid-paced romp. “Decapitated By Lightning” is another standout with a huge lumbering double bass-filled riff to die for. “Cannibal Feast” picks up the pace again as does “The Beast Within” which has a little Clandestine aura to it.

There’s not much else to say really. If you are a fan of the genre, you need this. It’s supplanted Katakomba’s self-titled album as my second favorite album of the year in the genre after Necrom’s All Paths Are Left Here…

Like country mates Entrails and Evocation, In Pain were knocking around in the genre’s formative years, but never really got around to releasing anything significant other than some underground demos or splits. So now all these years later, the band is finally releasing material, and much like the above mentioned bands, when they finally got around to recording and releasing albums, it’s a truly awesome, authentic sounding Stockholm sound that’s years in the making.

Opener “Atrocity” gets things rolling, and if you hadn’t heard the prior EP, it’s immediately apparent that these guys are more in line with the more beefy Grave sound of yore as opposed to the more obvious Entombed and Dismember worship (though there are still strains of both). The song’s killer, classic, pummeling canter and more down-tuned, thicker tones and gruffer vocals clearly imbue Grave’s debut Into the Grave. Follow up song, “Shallow Grave” has another early killer groove and 2 and a half minutes in, but this one imbues a little of Dismember’s “Casket Garden”,  so even when dipping away from the burlier Grave hues, it’s still rooted in a thicker more groovy, hefty sound.

“Battle” delivers a rare, more urgent wall of down-tuned Stockholm buzzing, mixed with a little Bolt Thrower warmongering (As does “The Warmachine” later, along with another killer gallop similar to the opener)) , before “B.T.K” delivers a super hefty mid paced bruiser. “It Was Meant to Die”, mixes a little speed with a little heft with good results, but man those slow, rumbling trundling riffs are where the band really shines, especially when they deliver one of those slow, one guitar riff starters that rattles your teeth (i.e. the 48 second mark of “The Shadow From the Ancient Tomb” or 50 second mark of thunderous moody closer “Rise From the Deep”).

SouthCoast has only released a hand full of albums in their young existence (Neptunian Sun, Poison Whiskey, In Pain), but In Pain is clearly their early flagship band as Entrails was for Dark Descent a decade ago. Let’s hope the band and the label can continue to grow into the same kind of power houses.

Like fellow Swedes Entrails, these guys were active in the early 90s, but didn’t release but a couple of demos, but also like Entrails did a decade years ago, have resurfaced to show everyone how it’s done. And boy is it good, even just with 4 songs and 16 minute runtime, it’s an absolute beast of an EP and a teaser for for band’s full length debut, The Shadow From the Ancient Tomb, later this month.

First off, this is one of those releases that goes to the source for its killer sound with a sick, authentic Tomas Skogsberg, Sunlight Studios sound ( the forthcoming album has a cover of a zombified hand holding a Boss HM 2 pedal), and it’s FUCKING MASSIVE, just listen to that single guitar riff at the 15 second mark of opening track “Die”, and tell me your fillings aren’t shaking around in your head. The influence is clearly heavily leaning towards Grave  and their debut, Into The Grave, with a thicker, denser delivery than their peers, and a focus trundling massive riffs or huge, down tuned grooves, with some wall of noise blasts thrown in for good measure. All 4 tracks deliver all in spades; there’s that tooth rattling opening tone gain to open the title track, classic Swedish canter of “Superior Virus” and Bolt Thrower-y- trundle of “Bleeding Through”. All rendered with Skogsberg’s sick, classic tone and the deeper than heck vocals of Matthias Flintberg.

Every few years there seems to be that ‘it’ band, with the next ‘it’ sound that brings Swedish death metal back with a bang, (Entrails, Demonical, Horrendous, Gravestone, Fatalist) and even this year has seen a solid group of releases in the style (Gods Forsaken, Demonbreed, Wretched Fate,) and even releases from Wombbath (also produced by Skogsberg) and Entombed AD on the horizon, don’t sleep on In Pain, as they actually could be the best of them all…