Liste der Bands Black Metal Life Is Pain Bloody Melancholy

Life is pain is a collaboration between the two god-fathers of the modern DSBM scene: Trist and Hypothermia. As you'd expect from these two, this is a bleak and depressing black metal album with, simplistic riffs and tortured vocals.
The guitar work on this album is perfect. The guitars are distorted but not to the point that it becomes an ear-splitting blur. It's quite raw but not too raw, you can hear the other instruments quite clearly. The distortion is perfect for the style Life Is Pain play. Don't expect fast upbeat passages, there are none. The guitar playing is slow and repetitive. It creates a dark depressing atmosphere that sucks you in as you listen to it.

As you'd expect from Kim, the vocals are astonishingly painful and tortured. Kim doesn't use the normal black metal rasp. In fact it's more of a cry that reflects the feelings of hopelessness and isolation Life Is Pain want to convey. The best vocal work is on the track Oppressive Nights in a Mental Asylum. Kim's screams are simply marvellous especially the intro one. The only bands I can think of who have vocals this tortured are Austere and Silencer.

The drum work is rather simplistic so nothing much to talk about there.
Bloody Melancholy is simply an incredible piece of work that all fans of DSBM should own, it is painful, tortured and just flat out depressing. The only album I can think of that comes close to this in feelings of depression is Hanging Garden's, How Will You Live Your Life today? Also an astonishing piece of art. This is easily the best DSBM album I've listened to, if your into black metal you owe it to yourself to get this, you won't regret it.
Favourite track: Bloody Melancholy

Sometimes a bands name can give you a fairly accurate picture of what their music will sound like. For example take the band Hypothermia, Hypothermia is a condition where the core body temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions. Basically being really really cold unsurprisingly Hypothermia's music cold, bleak and lifeless. Other bands however have misleading names, e.g. Bethlehem. With a name like that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were a Christian rock band when in actual fact they play some of the sickest, most deranged extreme metal imaginable. Other bands for instance have names that give you no indication to their sound what so ever, for example the bands Lyrinx, Silencer and Thy Light. I bring this up because Life Is Pain couldn't have chosen a more accurate name for themselves. Life Is Pain is a perfectly fitting name for this subterranean trek into the realm of the utterly lost and dejected.

Bloody Melancholy is a journey into a despondent and tormented mind. The music is forged out of complete raw and unadulterated depression. It really is hard to listen to this album without any feelings of negativity creeping into your mind. This album completely bludgeons at the mind until the listener is made to feel as despondent as the musicians that made it. Every note, every howl, everything about this just breathes depression. It's hard to find an album that will completely wreck the listener every time they listen to it.

Life Is Pain don't bring anything new to the table, they tread the same path as others belonging to the Depressive Black Metal genre. This album can easily be considered standard fare, conventional if you will but if you look deeper you'll see a profound sense of depression that is much more real than other acts. The music here isn't meant to be melodic, uplifting or accessible, it's meant to create the perfect audio representation of depression in it's purest state, that of complete lifelessness and emptiness. Most people will no doubt be appalled by this album, the production is poor, the riffs are highly minimalistic and the vocals are a set of deranged shrieks and howls. Every aspect of the album has inaccessible written in bold over it. Don't worry about this getting popular, because it won't. This album isn't meant to be listened to on a regular basis. It requires a specific mood to be in, the mood of being sad, despondent, dejected whatever you want to call it. Basically you have to be feeling fairly down to connect with the music fully.

The music on this album is incredible, the riffs are slow, lifeless, dirge like even (considering the music has been written by Trist you wouldn't expect anything different.) There is no melody to be found on this album, everything is bleak and dismal. The riffs constantly repeat themselves into oblivion constantly assaulting the unfortunate listeners mind, inflicting the pain that the musicians are going through. I've always admired Trist for his ability to create captivating songs that hook the listener from the start. He has this ability to completely capture the listeners emotions, it really is hard not to be affected by the work of Trist be it with his solo project of the same name or Life Is Pain. His ability to create the most lifeless and sombre tunes imaginable is astonishing and I applaud him for that. The vocals are a set of demented howls and shrieks performed by Kim Carlsson who has become renowned in the scene for his works with acts such as Hypothermia and Lifelover. Kim doesn't use the normal Black Metal rasp but more of a cry. It sounds like someone has given up on life and is howling in frustration, they have to be heard to be believed because words can't describe the anguish his vocals show. The drums appear to be programmed, but they do their job fine, they add to the lifeless feel on the album. Bass for the most part takes a back seat throughout the album so really it isn't worth mentioning.

Overall this is a very good album, although at first glance it appears to be a standard Depressive Black Metal release, if you dig deeper you'll find it is anything but. This is depression forged into music, there is no desire to be happy or accessible. There's nothing but the coldness and isolation that depression brings. Honestly I wouldn't recommend this because it is an effective depressant for even seasoned listeners of the genre. But if you seek something depressing to the very limit of possibility then I strongly urge you to pick this up. It's a shame Life Is Pain only released this demo because I feel that they have made a permanent mark in Depressive Black Metal history.
Overall rating- 19/20
Stand out tracks- Bloody Melancholy is easily the best.