When I received The Pain Machinery's first demo in 2000, I had been extremely impressed by the energy, catchiness and production talent of this young swedish act. Two years later, Anders Karlsson is at it again, this time with a full length CDR, trying to force again the door to some good EBM or aggro label, and doing it so well that one could wonder if what's on the other side of the door is worth The Pain Machinery's efforts.

Imagine you take some good old EBM, from the days when :Wumpscut: was writing exciting music, you mix it with some of Cubanate's fury, you add a sip of movie samples and you treat that all through the same kind of distortion that you can find in the current rhythmic noise scene. Let it heat on for a moment and take out of the oven: you've got a high energy Pain Machinery album.

Stomping, fast and generally headbanging inducing, the Pain Machinery is not something you stop easily. Made of a number of layers far superior to anything it could be compared to, it is driven to the core, revolving around the recurrent calm breaks to unleash more and more heavy percussions. May it be with hard aggro tracks ("Exit"), dancefloor noise ("Everything is wrong") or even almost happy twisted tech ("Acid attack"), this act knows his knobs and is guaranteed more complex and richer in proteins than any other act of the kind.

Still, one shouldn't see The Pain Machinery as another macho act full of testosterone. As full and hard it might be, "Chaos in expansion" doesn't lack any subtility. The overall sound is neither distorted nor saturated, and a lot of details are thrown into the tracks (I happen to wish that the mix would leave a bit more space for the most electronic sounds on some). Varied and really, really catchy (just try not to get into the rhythm of "Revenge"), and being clever enough to stay instrumental.

In a way more straightforward and far more massive than most electronic music I listen to at the moment, but also building on old structures and senisibilities, The Pain Machinery manages to find its own way, putting some old sounds on amphetamines and doing so with a very musical ear. Where most bands focus on a couple of extremely overdriven sounds, The Pain Machinery creates his chaos with a lot of various and well measured elements. In the end, this "violent but not dumb music" is all very tasty and impressive, once again.

Nicolas, April 30th, 2002

Review from Recycle your ears E-zine

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