When I saw Long Island’s Pain Of Truth open for Malevolence a couple of years ago, I said their music wasn’t just from the heart: it was tattooed on the aorta. Their second album hasn’t made me reconsider that.
“Generation after generation, we face obliteration,” screams vocalist Michael Brian Smith on the opener, “Obliteration”. And let’s face it, if you aren’t up for confrontation right now, when will you be?
“Done For” is heavier than most hardcore. It’s like being battered with a concrete block, although there’s a touch of Prong in there too, and the guitar work from Nik Hansen and Ridge Rhine slashes through it. “Stranded” follows with a breakdown that’s less a breakdown than a beatdown. “We’re all fucked” is a neat summation of the mood, but there’s more going on here than sheer force.
Smith spits the lines of “This Hatred” like he’s making a rap album. On “Unforgiven”, he delivers “I’ll take it if it means I never see you again” with such conviction that, if this song is about you, may I respectfully suggest you were afraid.
“Chinatown, NY” is as violent as it is urban. “It was him or me, I did what I can” gives way to “swing first, ask questions last”, and the whole thing sounds like trouble you’d be wise to avoid. On “Fed By Fear”, they rage against the forces keeping people down. “It’s all by design,” they insist, and you can hear exactly how angry that makes them.
“Beyond The Damage” will engineer a terrifying mosh pit. “Filth In Your Head”, meanwhile, isn’t about what you might think. “You took a bad situation and made it worse,” Smith spits. Make your own guess about who deserves that one.
“Web Of Lies” is ferocious, and yes, there’s a recognisable formula to these 11 songs. What did you expect? More to the point, what did you want from Pain Of Truth? They know exactly what this music needs to do. The closing “Destroy” is a perfect slice of nihilism: if we have no control, this is one way of taking it back. Some of the slower, heavier passages could almost be thrash metal.
I’ve always said that making your second album self-titled means making a statement. Pain Of Truth have done precisely that. There’s a line running through New York hardcore from Agnostic Front and Cro-Mags to Pro-Pain, and this band are carrying it into the 2020s with purpose. It still feels tattooed on the aorta.
Rating: 9/10
