EP REVIEW: Immortal Pain – Worst Doubt

WORST DOUBT are from the city that birthed the legendary KICKBACK and are clearly pretty fond of their Parisian forebears as well as a load of great New York bands like MERAUDER and IRATE and apparently even SUFFOCATION; they’re signed to DAZE in the US and BDHW in Europe and if all that hasn’t yet made it abundantly clear that they’re a proper vicious metallic hardcore outfit then their new EP Immortal Pain will do so in no time.

Of course, heritage and labels and even such excellent influences wouldn’t be worth much without the chops to back them up, but WORST DOUBT have those too. Their 2021 debut full-length Extinction was already killer and aside from intentionally going for a bit of rawer sound this time around they haven’t particularly messed with the game plan here. Immortal Pain is literally all mosh fuel – no drawn out intros or interludes or even much dynamic variation within the tracks themselves – just riff after riff after riff with vocalist Hugo’s gruff bark pushed right into the listener’s face out front.

It’s not short on memorable moments either, like the inevitable first breakdown of opener Ruination, or Hugo’s gigantic bellow of “You fucking CLONE” in third track Machine, or even just the super ganged-up feel of closer City Of Blight, although ultimately at just 13-and-a-half minutes in length and with such a single-minded vision Immortal Pain doesn’t require much of a track-by-track breakdown. It’s a high-aggro, riff-heavy metallic hardcore record through and through and it is more likely to be worth your time if you’re the kind of person who just wants to hear every single example of this known to man than if you prefer to limit yourself to the groundbreaking or the genuinely sublime.

None of this is meant to disparage the band though; WORST DOUBT are going for a specific classic sound and they’re good at it. They might not surpass their influences and they probably don’t have a PAIN OF TRUTH level breakthrough in them anytime soon, but as a set of five new tracks to throw some spinkicks to Immortal Pain is everything it needs to be.

Rating: 7/10

Immortal Pain is set for release on March 1st via DAZE and BDHW (Europe).

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