Review Summary: Alleviation of Pain is nothing too spectacular, but there is no damn bullshit and is sure to satisfy.
What is Chastisement? Well it’s pretty much just another Swedish “melodic” death metal band, but with somewhat high standards in their songwriting. It seems like melodic-death is a really hit or miss genre overall, and this album goes somewhere on the top bunk, but like a lot of other music in the same bed it lacks a bit of originality. It’s all been heard before. It should still get some kudos for being released in 2002 and not in 2010-. Whatever someone may feel about the originality, this album has one thing that cannot be denied and that is the lack of bull***. If you are a Swedish death metal fan and want something heavy, thrashy , no wankery, no cleans then this is the thing for you. Alleviation of Pain is a meaty assault without any overdue number crunching or mathematic scrambling.
The riffs are as I stated very thrashy and damn amazing overall. The entire album is in general very “head-bang-able” for anyone who gets that. The bass is filly and groans lovely throughout the album. There are no keyboards either so heaviness and brutality gets more exposed. The drumming is fairly standard, but really crushing and the double bass drums patters on just perfect. The vocal effort is also really good. They are growl-based with deeper or higher grunts. They never seem to deviate into screams which is nice, because it wouldn’t fit the albums heavy style.
A lot of the songs are mid-paced with a few faster tracks like Destructutorial which is a standout. Probably the best song from this album is Tsavo – The Land of Slaughter and that is a really good one. The intro track is an instrumental really fast opener. It’s actually the most technical track on the entire album and really does not give you a feeling of what comes next. Besides being somewhat misleading it’s actually a very cool track with some outstanding guitar-work.
Unfortunately, Chastisement broke up 2004 after releasing one live album. They released their first demos in 1997 and have since then only released one full-length album.
I give Alleviation of Pain a strong 3.5.
