Problem of Pain Return with 'I Will Always Want to Let Go' EP, Stream New Song

BY Bradley Zorgdrager Published Jan 26, 2018

Michigan's Problem of Pain are returning with a new five-track EP called I Will Always Want to Let Go. Masochists eager for more hardcore-inflected metal can snag the follow-up to 2016's Burn What My Hands Wrought LP on February 9 via Blood & Ink Records.

The release marks a sidestep in sound for the duo. Drummer/vocalist Jake Beaver says, "Through the period of time when we wrote our last record, we really felt like we grew as musicians and truly became able to capture the sound we wanted. We took the approach of writing this album from an artistic standpoint not from a 'let's try to be heavy' stand-point; because quite frankly there are better bands doing that. We really thought out how to best captivate the listener."

Perhaps Problem of Pain think the aforementioned "better bands" (when it comes to being heavy) include Vatican and Heavens Die, whose singers (Jonathan Whittle and Danny Prock) the band tapped for guest vocal spots on "Within a Heart of Loss" and "Like Heaven Before Me," respectively.

Lead single "The Rust in My Veins," however, is just Beaver and guitarist/vocalist Garrett Finch, who also tracked bass for the release. Writing for this EP began in the winter of 2016, which is certainly reflected here, as this is about as frostbitten and blackened as you're going to get from this metalcore duo.

After starting out the song with a winding and eeryie passage (over blast beats, naturally), the mood gets positively desperate in the sparse midsection, itself cut for more blast beats and some eventual trem-picking. Fear not, though, fans of hardcore, as the song features some chugs in the last minute.

Still, mood does reign supreme here, and that's reflected in the lyrics, which Beaver says, "are about trying to comprehend mortality and anticipating the inevitable."

Check out the bleak-sounding tracklisting below, then get your first taste of the album in the player underneath.

I Will Always Want to Let Go:

1. I Carry the Weight On My Wings
2. Within a Heart of Loss
3. Like Heaven Before Me
4. The Rust in My Veins
5. I Will Always Want to Let Go

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