Audiopain - The Switch To Turn Off Mankind

The Norwegian band Audiopain is a no-nonsense, music-only, thrash band and they have released a CD on Vendluss Records. The effort has only six tracks but these songs are aggressive and head-banging. I never thought I would ever use that term (since MTV of course), but I am using it now and I find it a compliment here. I just want to point my horns to the clouds and head bang away into the air. It’s beautiful. I think Audiopain thinks something very similar because they technically have two band pages on the Web but have almost no information on either. I did not even list one because all the page has on it is a link for US or European buyers or promoters to get in touch. Black, text, hyperlinked blue e-mail address, and white background is all that is there. See what I mean about Audiopain playing music only and spending less time on its image. The music is the image and it is a good one (more on the music in a second). The other page is their myspace page. That page has only a link to their record label, Vendlus Records, and their e-mail address listed again. The page also says in black and white what their e-mail is and that they do not want to spend their time collecting “friends.” Awesome. They are working on their music instead.

First of all, it’s super to see a Norwegian band that does not adopt the black metal style. It seems so many do even though metal can use black metal to accomplish so many other things musically. Audiopain is something of a thrash band with non super-growl vocals and the CD’s first track, Hellbound, opens with heavy drumming and riffs that strike over and over again. Mostly these riffs are repetitious and sometimes this is a negative for me. In Audiopain’s case it is not and I think this is because it varies so distinctly from other bands that repeat their riffs through the filling of those repetitious spaces with punchy vocals and fast moving hardcore drums. I can’t exactly explain it, but for some reason when Naglfar plays some its repetitious sections on albums such as Sheol those segments put me to sleep because their loudness plus their repetition becomes something like white noise. Audiopain does not do this. They just play fast and mix their vocals consistently over that fast playing. The result is something that makes we want to mosh (yes, and head bang like I said before) instead of sleep. I want to do almost anything but sleep while listening to Audiopain’s The switch to Turn Off Mankind actually and I think this is a positive comment indeed.

1. Hellbound
2. The Switch To Turn Off Mankind
3. Holy Toxic
4. Termination Fields
5. Alliance
6. Cobra Dance
Vendlus Records
Reviewer: twansibon
Feb 26, 2009

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