This Rio De Janeiro based Brazilian Heavy Metal act was formed in 2009 by former Reckoning members Guilherme Sevens (vocals, also formerly with Death Box and It Sows Within), Carlos Eduardo Salone (guitar, also formerly of Neutralis), Marcelo Vai (bass, formerly of Imago Mortis, now playing with Obsin), André Andrade (drums, formerly of HeavenFalls, currently with Stalker) and second guitarist Marcel “Daemon” Ross (formerly of Neutralis, Imago Mortis, and Prophecy).
The band made an immediate mark upon the international Metal scene, resulting in Sweden's Inner Wound Recordings signing 'em for the April 2010 release of their debut album Dark World Burden (find review by then new colleague Jeroen posted on March 10 of same year), which was preceded by the exclusive single God Made Me Unbreakable, made on order as the UFC 109 theme for cage fighter Ronys Torres. In spite of the initial buzz around the band [the album had the additional bonuses of having been mixed by Alex Macedo (of Syren and Atlãntida repute) and Renato Tribuzy (known from his own band Tribuzy, and of Execution), and found vocal guest roles for Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), Gus Monsanto (formerly of Adagio, also of Revolution Renaissance and Takara fame), and Tribuzy himself] expectations were apparently not fulfilled, leading in to the band undergoing a major line-up change in 2011, leaving only Sevens and Salone as original members, and guitarist Leandro Carvalho (formerly of Unilever), bassist Thiago Dominogoroth (also active as member of Statik Majik, and as live musician for Tribuzy – interesting cross-insemination, eh?), and drummer Eduardo Julião re-completing the band.
The new line-up set forth to create new songs, some of which they eventually recorded in the latter part of last year, with the already online released singles Break The Hive (issued on 12/12/2012) and Reject The Silence (issued Jan. 23 of last). The new EP, which was already made available online for promotion a couple of months ago (which allowed me to give the three songs a repeated listening), was mixed by Mark Lewis (you may know him from his past collabrations with the likes of Trivium, All That Remains, Unearth, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Whitechapel) at his Audiohammer Studios in Sandford, Florida.
For the band, the EP is symbol for a new beginning: a new line-up, new logo, the start of a new fiction built by the band and, most importantly, a departure from their former dark lyrics. For Painside, it's now time to talk about life under a new light...and that's something which certainly becomes clear when you'll listen to the three songs on the EP, which you do when surfing to the band's official website (www.) painside.net (also available there for your listening pleasure is the song “God Made Me Unbreakable” - for samples of songs off the debut album, consult the band's MySpace – as I am still unable to log onto that music website with the network PC I use for fact-gathering after their upgrading, I am uncertain whàt is still available there...at any rate, you should be able to listen to samples of that album at the album's page on either one of the online sales sites carrying or having carried the album, right?). What you'll hear is a band which carries its music in its heart, a band capable of bringing out that music with Progressive leanings in a very prolific manner, a band with a great lead singer...whom one (with a reference to my colleague's review of the 2010 album) might (with some liberties) see as a Brazilian equivalent of Bruce Dickinson! Great work guys, and I hope some (decent) label reacts soon enough, so the world at large can enjoy your future recordings again.