Cross Pain- EP

Cross Pain is a two piece epic thrash band from the United States. The members are sixteen years old but should not be written off for their age. This is the band's first release which consist of just under twenty minutes of thrashy instrumentals. With a real drummer thrown into the mix this could be something to look out for.

We'll begin with the negative things about this EP. The drum programming gets to be a bit grating on the listener. This wouldn't be so bad if the mixing didn't have the drums so loud in the mix. The guitar playing on the album is great but on more occasions than one it is overpowered by the drum machine. The machine isn't programmed horribly but when it is this high in volume it does get a bit tedious.

As mentioned previously the fretwork is Cross Pain's main reason to terrorize your earholes. They are armed with catchy grooves and lots of soloing. Some of the riffs tend to be a bit underwhelming due to the loud drum programming but the song structures are good enough to get the general idea across. The epic intro for "Rain Ghost" is one of the highlights of this EP as well as the breakneck riffing displayed on "Revival (The Beginning). It is clear when listening that these guys have chops and have the writing ability to show them off.

Overall throughout the playtime of this EP Cross Pain shows some potential and with a little tweaking in the mixing department this could be an excellent release. Another thing that could have helped the end product is a vocalist. In the end this EP isn't anything amazing but it definitely isn't something to ignore. The things that are done right on this release are done quite well. This isn't something I can recommend to everyone but if you are a fan of thrash or instrumental music or just things with a progressive edge in general I'd say give it a shot, don't expect to be blown away but there is some quality to be found here.