Perfection in Pain

I've seen a lot of negative reviews of this album, but I never really knew why people would rank this album so low. The five Swedes lacked originality in one way or another but it doesn't mean it was inheretly bad. It's fast, it has some cool breaks and melodeath elements, and it is akin to At The Gates. Also to add, the great Peter Tagtgren produced this album, and to me, it's pretty sonically pleasing for the era. It's polished, but raw enough to kick you in the jaw.

However, the one thing that made me laugh a bit was checking the lyrics. Many songs talk about 'life being pain' and other gibberish that's a bit silly, but there are some parts of the album where the lyrics are almost comical. If you didn't tell me these guys were completely serious about what they were writing about, I would genuinely believe that they were a humor band. A middle schooler could probably write better lyrics than these boys. However, the instrumentals do make up for it greatly.

As previously mentioned, the album has some cool breaks and melodeath elements. It's punchy, intense, and a good album to headbang to. My personal favorite track is the album's eponymous song, 'Perfection in Pain'. The vocals are distantly similar to Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates, which brings me again to the statement that the band sounds a whole lot like At The Gates. I also found 'Strange Is Strong' a pretty enjoyable track. The drumming on the entire album is impressive and I really enjoy the guitar tone on this album as it was a huge step up from their debut two years earlier. However, I think the band is generic, and that's probably the reason why they never fully took off in the way they should. There's not really much else to say; the album is pretty solid for what it is, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for deep cuts in this genre.