A sumptuous DVD/2CD set capturing two full performances.

For those of you who have never come across Pain before, it began as a musical project put together in the mid 90s by the multi-talented Peter Tägtgren, who is not only the guitarist/vocalist with Swedish melodic death metal band Hypocrisy but also a producer of some renown having twiddled the knobs for the likes of Dimmu Borgir, Children Of Bodom and Sabaton. Pain provided an outlet for his ambition to play industrial metal shot through with electronic and techno music. Seven studio albums later, Tägtgren’s Pain have built a loyal following, particularly in mainland Europe, and some of you may, in fact, have caught them supporting Nightwish on both their ‘Dark Passion Play’ and 'Imaginaerum' UK tours.

‘We Come In Peace’ is a sumptuous DVD/2CD set capturing two full performances shot during their recent tour in support of last year’s well received ‘You Only Live Twice’ album. The first was recorded at Debaser Medis, a homeland show in Stockholm, which turns out to be an unfeasibly small venue with a tight stage. Now club shows like this are usually frenetic and sweaty affairs; not this one! Their hometown crowd are curiously static and subdued, even during the more energetic numbers like ‘Zombie Slam’, I’m Going In’ and ‘Supersonic Bitch’. It doesn’t help that the band are rather immobile; preferring to stand, feet apart, just banging and windmilling their heads, rather than engage with the crowd. To cap it all, this show is interspersed with footage of backstage tomfoolery – where the band seems to have an unhealthy obsession for tying up their roadies! – and on the road shenanigans that mostly centre on excessive drinking. Apart from a nice piece shot at the album release party with Tägtgren’s son behind the drums thumping out the rhythm to ‘Great Pretender’ that segues into the live rendition of the same song; these add nothing to your viewing enjoyment and break the flow of an already soulless show.

The second show is miles better capturing their triumphant set at this year’s Masters Of Rock Festival in the Czech Republic. The crowd response is much more like it and the band seem to feed off it to produce a killer show mixing new songs like ‘Dirty Woman’ and the excellent Rammstein-esque ‘Fear The Demons’ with crowd pleasers such as ‘Walking On Glass’, ‘Same Old Song’ and ‘Shut Your Mouth’, where they are joined on stage by Exodus’ Rob Dukes; and their incendiary metalized version of The Beatles ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is worth the ticket price alone!

The accompanying CD’s are excellent; both crisply recorded. Although the Stockholm show fares much better in audio only format, the Masters Of Rock performance shades it once again. To be honest, I can see me returning to these more often than the DVD!

Despite my reservations, if you like your metal full of meaty yet melodic riffs and huge gang-vocal choruses; then you will find much to enjoy in this bulging package (steady!).

Alister Strachan