Pro-Pain – 20 Years of Hardcore

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Largely an outcast within the hardcore genre and finding much more acceptance with metal fans, New York hardcore group Pro-Pain have managed to forge a respectable career over the last twenty years, producing no fewer than twelve studio albums, a covers album, a live album, and two best-of compilations. With that in mind, a third best-of seems a bit over-indulgent – thankfully, 20 Years of Hardcore is a somewhat different beast. The album can be split into three segments: a handful of new songs, some re-recordings of old classics, followed by an album’s worth of live recordings. With a total 23 tracks, 20 Years… is most certainly good value for money from a band that are far too frequently forgotten about. The new material is largely decent, albeit perhaps more melodic than expected. Despite this, they show the band are far from down and still producing great material, with second track Hands In The Jar being of particular note. Re-recording old songs is often controversial, and honestly there’s nothing particularly exciting about the recordings offered here, being very similar to the originals. Good material it might be, but other than a more polished production, the originals more than suffice. So that leaves the live material to pick up any remaining slack, and rather interestingly the live tracks on the album, bar a couple of songs, are largely different from the band’s first live album. The quality is largely rather good, conveying the sound of the band well. 20 Years… makes for a good introduction for new fans, and might just have enough material within its lengthy track listing to keep old fans happy, especially with an extra DVD on top. A modest success then, as far as compilations go.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Compilation Albums, Hardcore/Metalcore, Quick.Play Reviews, Pro-Pain