ALBUM REVIEW: Not Through Blood – Pain Of Truth
TERROR; TRAPPED UNDER ICE; PAIN OF TRUTH; some bands just arrive perfect, and that was definitely the case when the latter of those released their debut EP No Blame… Just Facts back in 2020. The Long Island heavy hardcore outfit made no attempts to reinvent the wheel on that first release of theirs, nor have they on the other bits which have followed since, and yet through sheer swaggering power they’ve become one of the biggest and most respected bands in the scene today. All this before they’ve even got to their debut full-length Not Through Blood, which finally lands this Friday and comfortably lives up to the expectations the band have stacked for themselves over the past three years or so.
Much like No Blame… Just Facts, Not Through Blood comes with a frankly ridiculous list of guest features. There’s at least one on every track apart from the instrumental Same Old Story, and they include the legendary likes of Scott Vogel, Freddy Cricien and Justice Tripp, to name just three of the most resounding endorsements a band like this could ask for. Some are more immediately recognisable in name and delivery than others – the harsher screams of two members of VEIN.FM on opener Lifeless On The Ground, for example, or the brutal gutturals of 200 STAB WOUNDS’ Steve Buhl on lead single Actin’ Up – but most impressive is just how naturally they all slot into the overall experience. Not Through Blood may speak with many voices, but the statement is one of focused violence.
Yes, obviously it’s nothing bands like MADBALL and TUI haven’t done before, but no-one is more aware of that than PAIN OF TRUTH themselves. This is heavy, no-nonsense metallic hardcore done exactly the way it should be and to be honest it would be absolutely fine if it never changed at all. There’s not a single track that doesn’t hit with some kind of massive groove or riff or breakdown, with even the aforementioned instrumental going for a big BOLT THROWER-esque headbanger rather than your standard moment of respite. The fact is Not Through Blood just doesn’t need that sort of thing; it’s only 27 minutes long, and with exactly the kind of chunky mix you’d expect from producer Andy Nelson plus the occasional higher tempos of tracks like In Your Heart or Out Of Our Hands, it never fails to land a punch.
Lyrically it’s got the swagger and bravado to match too, the band generally either going for something big and boastful in the style of many of their forebears from down the road in New York City, or taking aim at a long list of all the usual suspects such as the backstabbers, the shit-talkers, the liars, fakes, haters, and basically anyone else that dares deny the power and the proficiency of PAIN OF TRUTH. You could say it’s hardly the most original subject matter for a band like this – and you’d be right – but it’s certainly hard to argue against a combo that works as effectively and has done for as long as this. Or, as Jay Peta of MINDFORCE puts it a little less subtly in Pickin’ At Scraps, “Get your fucking facts straight, bitch!”.
And ultimately PAIN OF TRUTH have every reason to have a bit of an ego on them. These guys have got as big as they have as quickly as they have because they are just so bloody good at what they do. Not Through Blood may have always been guaranteed to deliver, but it is still so immensely satisfying to see just how emphatically it does.
Rating: 8/10
Not Through Blood is set for release on September 8th via DAZE.
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