Review of the Album Brothers in Blood by Dutch Thrash Metal Band Project Pain

Brothers in Blood is the 2018 studio album by Dutch thrash metal band Project Pain and it is the band’s 3rd album. The lyrical content isn’t the most positive or pleasant but these guys from the city of Utrecht formed a band back in 2011 and their style is heavy, similar to Slayer, Annihilator, and even Kreator.

Lyrically, they differ compared to Distillator, another thrash metal band from the Netherlands. Herein lies kind of an issue and that issue is that the lyrical content of this band is similar to bands such as Eugenic Death and that certainly is not the best strategy if a band wants to attract all kinds of metal fans.

The title track lyrically is about a hunter that is after his prey. The music on this album can be described as old-school thrash metal with choruses that we can shout along to. In spite of the band’s name, what is offered on this album is not painful to listen to but it is also a kind of thrash metal that is not quite creative enough to be considered elite. Every musical album can be considered a project in its own right and musicians are doing their work with the express motivation to be as creative as possible.

However, this album begins with the thundering opening track called Primator. Think of this song as a more modern-day thrash metal tune similar to Slayer. After the vocals take a brief respite, there is a Kreator influenced section and then the solo comes in. “Final March” has a good melodic singing part as these words are uttered: “Life is fading away.” The song’s somewhat thunderous drumming start gives way to speeding thrash and then the melodic vocals come in, creating that atmosphere that people can sing along to this as well. What is clear is that thrash metal will not fade but is here to stay as part of the world musical genre for the rest of our lives and even longer than that.

“Silent Invader” is a song that continues in the tradition of basically being influenced by Southern California’s band Slayer however the vocals are respectable. The song lyrically makes reference to some silent thing that is invading our lives as death seems to come from above. The more I listen to the first song Primator, at least in this writer’s perspective the song sounds like something we would have heard in the mid 2000s with the Schizo Deluxe album. “Eternal Flames” lyrically is about soldiers of doom that have joined forces to inflict their brand of war and aggression upon the world. These kinds of concepts are typical for bands in the thrash metal genre but for those of you that can deal with this and somehow make it through this album what you will hear is decent groovy thrash metal. “Decay” is a song that lyrically describes the kind of person that lives life too fast and live life like it is a lie. “Regret Nothing” starts with this atmospheric like sound before getting into a sort of pattern that repeats itself in this album. This is one of the reasons why Brothers in Blood is good but not a great album. This song is about regretting nothing in our lives.

Fueled by Fear is just a 33 second short of snippet musically that just has some chanting in it similar to what you would hear in an opera which is rather unexpected from a heavy band like this. However, it provides a good change even if it is for just a brief moment in time. Driven by Hate is a song that tries to criticize the Bible. The song is basically a criticism of organized religion and this is the type of song that quite a few bands have addressed. Overall, this 3rd album from this Utrecht area band is quite a pleasant type of thrash metal that will appeal to fans of Slayer, Annihilator, and Kreator however it is not as elite as some other thrash metal albums.