Pain Is The Game

If the back cover of the record displays four hairy guys, two of which are sporting Entombed T-shirts while the tattooed singer is flipping a hearty bird, I should be able to expect quite masculine music, right? Such I the case, as that is what Italy’s Allhelluja seems to be all about. The band’s website namedrops bands like Motörhead and Kyuss as big influnces. Pieces of the kind of rowdy rolling of Lemmy and the boys are quite evident and even some of the stonerish fogginess of the latter mentioned.

Although even more so this band makes me think of a bit lighter, less catchy version of Black Label Society. The riffs groove brilliantly from time to time and there is certainly enough pounding bass to satisfy my low end-cravings. Jacob Bredahls gruffy voice suits the material very well and there is definite power behind the spewing. The speedy rocking of Superhero Motherfucker Superman lives up to the demanding song title. The preceding Are You Ready also works well with fist-raising energy, but after the opening duo the churning becomes much too repetitive.
There is not much variation at all and not enough hooks and catchy elements to make the steady chugging interesting on a longer period. When even riffs begin to sound like they repeat themselves in different songs, we are walking on thin ropes. The final song, Amen, made me really wonder what was going on. It is a minutes worth of drums and bass playing along and then suddenly stopping into a wall. Am I being duped here now with an unfinished version or what the hell?

The production is excellent throughout, giving a strong feel for the music. Still, this album leaves me at a loss of words, in a stale way. Pain Is The Game is by no means a bad record, there is just nothing remarkable about it. Even in it’s mediocrity, it doesn’t grab my attention even close in the magnitude that the aforementioned Motörhead could. If you just want some adept heavy rock with a whole lotta machismo, go for this album by all means. For me, it just didn’t pack a wallop huge enough to end up in my permanent CD-rack.