Pro-Pain – Run For Cover

My review of Round 6, Pro-Pain’s sixth studio album, was my first review to ever run on White Trash Devil. Three years and dozens of reviews later, I find myself here reviewing the band’s ninth release, Run For Cover, 14 cover tunes recorded and released by the band.

Round 6 turned me into a Pro-Pain fan. The combination of the band’s heavy guitars, aggressive riffs, growling vocals and New York attitude hooked me from day one. Never having recorded a cover tune before, the guys of Pro-Pain decided to drop their guard a bit, have some fun, and release this collection of cover tunes guaranteed to please.

For a band that fuses punk, metal, and aggression in their regular set, the list of bands covered should come as no surprise. From Operation Ivy to Sepultura, from Motorhead to Life of Agony, from the Crumbsuckers to Black Flag, from Agnostic Front to Slayer, Pro-Pain covers all the bases and shows their true roots through their selections.

Run for Cover kicks off with a version of Discharge’s “Never Again.” Like all of the songs on the album, Pro-Pain doesn’t try and reinvent these classics, but rather do them in their own style. Pro-Pain’s drum, guitar, and vocal style are all here. The fourteen tracks on Run for Cover are presented as Pro-Pain tunes that just happen to have been written by other people.

A few of the songs, “Circle of the Tyrants” for example, were pleasant surprises. I haven’t heard this song since my Best Of Metal Blade Volume One tape I used to listen to back in seventh grade. As previously mentioned, like all the other tracks on the album Pro-Pain sinks their teeth into this one and makes it their own. While the chorus is instantly recognizable, the playing style is all Pro-Pain.

The band also does a good job on the more recognizable tunes, like Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist” and Slayer’s “South of Heaven”. Again, the tracks appear mostly in their original form, just aggro’ed up a bit.

Pro-Pain has nailed the perfect mindset of a good cover album — pay tribute to the originals by making them your own. In doing so, the band has created a work of art that stands on its own, and is certainly good enough to hold us over until the next Pro-Pain album. Long live the pain.

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