Single Review: Of Mice & Men, ‘Pain’

photos courtesy of: ofmiceandmenofficial.com and twitter.com

Single: Pain

Artist: Of Mice & Men

Record Label: Rise Records

Release Date: June 28

Rating: 3.5/5

After two years of no new content, (we’re not counting Live at Brixton because live albums are nothing new) Of Mice & Men hit us with a heavy mallet to our faces, which is honestly something we haven’t necessarily seen since The Flood. Yes, there were definitely some what heavyish songs on <em?Restoring Force but it was never anything to compare to The Flood. After that album, the fan base that knew Austin Carlile, from Attack Attack (throwing it back to the crabcore days) to everyone’s favorite metalcore 2010 song, “Second & Sebring” were more or less let down as they headed into a new direction, though every band tries something new at some point and some fans hate it, while others love it.

“Pain” seems like a song that could have been on The Flood but was left out for whatever reason. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that bass player and co-vocalist Aaron Pauley doesn’t make a single sound. For a second I thought he was no longer a part of the band. With this take of having Carlile take full control of vocals, “Pain” is torn apart and different from The Flood as Pauley replaced Shayley Bourget after the release of The Flood and took the chains of clean vocals and there were a lot of clean vocals at that point.

Credit is given though where credit is due. Carlile went through some intensive surgeries the past few months and to see him coming out swinging hard is incredible to see and a feat not many musicians would conquer. Though, The Ghost Inside has been doing absolutely amazing coming back after their bus accident.

“Pain” starts out with a riff strung together and then immediately hits you with Carlile’s growls that we all know from his earlier songs. Eventually though, it sounds like OM&M are trying to become like Beartooth with the speaking vocals leading you back into the screams, which Caleb Shomo would do a lot. Sadly, it works better for Beartooth than it does for Carlile and his crew. Guitarist Alan Ashby and Phil Manansala both work seamlessly together though and proves to the listeners that OM&M can still go hard in the paint.

The new album Cold World is set to release later in Sept. 9 though we will definitely get singles as we get closer to the date. “Pain” is a good introducer to the album, showcasing their heavy roots yet still able to mix it up. However, it didn’t necessarily reach its full potential. Hopefully as we hear more of the song it will get better, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Of Mice & Men bring to the table.

Pre-orders are available here