ALBUM REVIEW: Life Is Pain – Death Blooms

DEATH BLOOMS are angry. If that wasn’t immediately obvious from the title of their debut album, Life Is Pain, the Liverpudlian nu-metallers waste absolutely no time in expressing that rage in a white-hot salvo of furious screams and breakdowns occasionally interspersed with soaring choruses. They’ve been on an upswing since the triumphant return of live music at the Download Pilot earlier this year, at which they gave lead single Shut Up its live debut before releasing it to an ever-growing fanbase. 

Opening with the aforementioned lead single, the band waste no time at all in showing they mean business. Tense electronics lead into a stomping groove with vocalist Paul Barrow bellowing “Shut the fuck up! Don’t look at me! I’ll put you in your place so tread carefully!” in the chorus. It’s blunt, but they’ve never pretended to be anything but their own raw catharsis set to raucous riffs. In Your Head opens with a yell of “get up!” which, while a tired trope of the genre, is yelled with enough vigour to make it compelling. Swapping out the aggro chorus for a melodic sung one ensures there’ll be plenty of singalongs at their shows given its simple earworm quality. 

What DEATH BLOOMS do is neither big, nor is it clever. Life Is Pain is ten tracks of mosh calls and breakdowns seemingly with the sole purpose of inciting as many pits as possible. One Release is even more on the nose about it – the lyrics are a very literal cry for people to mosh (“Pit! Pit! Get in the pit! One release from this life of shit!”), while both Caught In A Web and Choke wear their early SLIPKNOT influence with pride. Similarly, Anger and closer Inside channel LINKIN PARK, not just with choruses but in how the songs feel; like they could come straight from Hybrid Theory or Meteora B-sides. 

To be clear, none of this is to overly criticise them. The sense that permeates Life Is Pain is of the duo wanting to exorcise their own demons, and help others with theirs, through music that they love. The resurgence of nu-metal has, by and large, been one of bands seeking to emulate what came before in their own way and bring something newer to the table. While – to be honest – DEATH BLOOMS don’t do anything that hasn’t been done before, Life Is Pain is fundamentally an entertaining, cathartic listen. As long as people are connecting with it and can find some release or catharsis through the album or their live shows, that’s all it needs to be. 

Rating: 7/10

Life Is Pain is set for release on October 22nd via Adventure Cat Records.

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