Taste the Pain

Early Church of Misery is, for my money, some of the best stuff they ever put out. While the band's first demo (later released as an LP without the band's consent) isn't totally up to par, the litany of splits and EPs they produced just after represent some of my absolute favourite stoner doom. No cheap references to bongs and weed leaves here, just fat, groovy riffs and eerie lyrics about serial killers.

A denizen of the Metal Archives' forum recently mentioned how much better they felt stoner metal as a genre would be if its bands stopped taking influence almost exclusively from from Black Sabbath and a handful of other classic acts like Sleep and Electric Wizard. I have to agree and thankfully, Church of Misery clearly pulled their sound not just from early doom or hard rock acts but from proto-metal, psychedelic and acid rock; as evidenced by this album's standout track: a cover of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Church of Misery have a clear swing and flow few others from the genre can match. The band also have a playfulness about them I really dig. There's some well-selected samples, good use of feedback and guitar techniques, as well as a loving appreciation of various effects from fuzz to flange. Church of Misery never sound stagnant, they feel vintage or lovingly retro - something a lot of stoner bands just can't quite replicate.

One thing I both love and hate about this EP is how it's clearly a product of a band still finding their feet. This EP comes right after the band's first demo, a release that was hijacked by Doom Records, so it's easy to hear how Church of Misery were still carefully exploring not only a new lyrical theme but trying to break away from their previous effort, sometimes sadly not as successfully as one might hope and as such, there's a few spots I think the band would probably have done way better today then they did in 1998. The awkward pause on "Room 213" always hits me as being stilted and kills the song's momentum, granted the rest of the tracks fair far better.

While overall I love the mix, I do have one major gripe. Taste the Pain is deathly quiet for some unknown reason, resulting in a lot of the louder sections just not hitting as hard as they might. This was fixed for the EP's rerelease on the Early Works compilation but as I'm reviewing the original CD, I thought I should make note of it for anyone thinking of tracking down an original copy. Other than that though, the mix works perfectly. I never found myself struggling to hear any of the instrumentation, samples or vocals but there's still enough of that "done in a few afternoons" feel Church's influences had, which is very welcome.

While the song writing clearly isn't as developed as later releases (some songs seem to lack a defined "through-line" for instance) the individual riffs are too juicy to pass up. The chorus on Plainfield is forever etched into my noggin and there's plenty of other memorable moments spread throughout the tracks. There's a passion in the playing that easily makes up for any gaps in the band's (still developing) song writing abilities. Tatsu's fuzzy bass tone pounds through the album, often only being sliced through by Tomohiro Nishimura's overdriven and unusual lead guitar work. There's a nice contrast between the two that really shines through on this EP. Of course, I'd also be amiss if I didn't mention Nobukazu Chow's phenomenal vocal work and Hideki Shimizu's steady hand at the drum kit. I think the two go harder on future releases by the band but they still absolutely hold their own here. While Church of Misery have had no end of talented musicians and line-ups that gelled perfectly together, I often wonder what could have been had these three stuck together.

I feel I've criticized Taste the Pain a lot over the course of this review but in truth, this CD's been in heavy rotation for me since the day I bought it. Something about the band's gloomy outlook, skilful riff-craft and scrappy passion for their work really sell me on this EP. I highly recommend Taste the Pain to anyone either looking for an entry into stoner metal or Church of Misery, or anyone who just wants something solid and doomy on while they go about their day.