Spår
1. 5
2. Dead Man Walking
3. 14 Devils
4. Reign Down
5. Down Witcha Pain
6. M
7. Babe
8. Do My Work
9. Pungle
10.I See Heaven
11. Cycle of Pain
12. Egypt

Band:
Gregg Locascio - vocals
John JD Deservio - bass
Joe Taylor - guitar
Rich Monica- drums

Discography:
Debut

Guests:
Zakk Wylde - guitar
Russ T. Cobb - guitar
Ray Luzier - drums
Brian Tichy - guitar, drums
Sen Dog - vocals
Hugo Fereria - vocals
Clip Payne - vocals
Marcus Ratzenbach - strings
Burton - vocals
Russel Allen - vocals

Info:
Scott Barber - executive producer
JD & A.T. Fortuna - Producers
Chris Hower - mixing
Mike Ferretti - Engineering
Dave Kutch - Mastering

Released: 18/2-2011
Reviewed: 2/2-2011

Links:
myspace
metalville

American band Cycle of Pain is not really the most productive bands out there. It all started some 25 years ago when JD now bassist in Black Label Society and his friends where playing together, a bottle of whiskey was also involved if we are to believe the promotional information. The members of this band has always been doing other music for quite the big musicians as well but they has also nurtured the dream of playing together in this band that is now Cycle of Pain and is releasing their first album as far as I can tell.

The question is however wether or not this album should have remained undone as it is not really that interesting. It is a mix of completely different things from hip hop to death metal more or less, all encompassed in a metal surrounding, and so far so good you think and then I begin to state that this makes this album completely incoherent as it feels more like they have taken from these genres things that they feel is cool and then just thrown them into whatever they were doing at the time, this resulting in an album that feel very fragmented and hard to really take in.

This fragmented feel is more annoying than good and sure I want a varied album but I still want the parts of the album to feel like they belong together in some way and that is something this band fails to accomplish. They also fail to accomplish most of the songs, it all feels fragmented and the songs feel put together from small fragments that seems to be thrown in here and there. It can be described a little bit like solving a jigsaw puzzle put together of 1000 pieces from about 300 different puzzles.

Sure, track ten I See Heaven is quite good but it is only that and that is probably more because it feels quite coherent and well put together unlike most of the record. Besides that I really struggle to find anything positive, maybe it is that they have several prominent guests on the album like Zakk Wylde or Russell Allen but they are not really noticeable anyway, Russell is only doing background vocals on one track for instance. But no, there is really not much positive to say about this album.

I think the main thing I remember from this album is the waiting, waiting for a decent track but also the waiting for it to end which is what I did most of the time while listening to it. In the end, for me this album is best when I am not listening to it.

There was not much positive there for this band but some records are like that and in a way it feels more like this record was done just to be done rather than like something that a big amount of work was actually put into it. Unfinished is a word I come to think of as well, it feels like they never bothered to really write the songs into real songs and just recorded them as they were instead.

I think the name can at least be said to be a fitting one because that is exactly what you go through when you listen to this album, a circle of pain.

HHHHHHH

Label - Metalville
Three similar bands - Black Label Society/Billy Idol/Ozzy
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm