Is this some sort of all-star band ? If you take a close look at the band members' names, you might have the same feeling as I had. Altti Veteläinen, Petri Sankala and Olli-Pekka Törö were members of Eternal Tears Of Sorrow (RIP). Lauri Tuohimaa is from Embraze and Juha Kylmänen is from Reflexion.... and... Tuomas Holopainen. Tuomas who ? C'mon guys, I know you know him. He's the guy who formed a band in Finland some years ago who released an album called Angels Fall First... You got it, the Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish who just does his job here to help his friends.

Alright now that the background is set, let's get to the music. For My Pain is just another Finnish gothic depressive band among many others (Charon, Entwine, Him, Lullacry, Silentium, To Die For among others) and they play typical Finnish depressive gothic metal. They recorded this album at Tico-Tico Studios and mixed the album at Finnvox Studios. They dredged the metal sauce with nice keyboards touches, backing vocals by Lauri Tuohimaa and Jarmo Kylmänen and of course some female vocals done by Miriam Renvåg (I don't know who she's is, but she has a nice voice and a º in her name which I have always found pretty cool... lol). OK, it's the same formula as ever with all those Finnish bands, but guys, they play it well !

It's hard to come up with killer songs because all the songs are more or less of the same type. Beautiful atmospheres, entertaining melodies but still depressive, above average male vocals, great musicianship and guitar work, etc. As for myself, I really enjoy this kind of music and my wife doesn't threaten me when I play it in the car. Unfortunately, although their music is everything I have said before, there's a little feeling of déjà-vu (or déjà-entendu... lol) and I doubt the band will become very successful with that kind of stuff. First of all, there's no Ville Valo in the band and secondly, as I have said before (I don't remember the review), the masses don't really care about this kind of music since they are sheep (my wife hates me when I call her a sheep who blindly follow the stupid masses). As for myself (again), I couldn't care less about it because I really enjoy listening to their music.

Whatever people say, I like this stuff very much and I bet many of you will too. They might not wear the crown of gothic metal, but I think nobody really does as this genre satisfies itself with the many great bands that populate it. So if you like all the clichés I have described in my review, you can go ahead and get this album. It will definitely satisfy your thirst for gothic music.