IDEAL PAIN – Mask review

 IDEAL PAIN – Mask

Independent

http://www.ideal-pain.com/index.php

Recently we had the Greek carnival festivities and masquerade plays an essential role to them. Also the mask played a great role in the ancient Greek dramas. Behind it the actor could hide his/her own characteristics and play someone else. The mask generally became a symbol which literally or symbolically is used from people in order to hide their emotions and thoughts or even reveal them. We can talk for hours about that subject which also inspired IDEAL PAIN and this way gave the title to their debut album.

Behind IDEAL PAIN hide two musicians one of whom under the name “Heretic” is known to us who are into the Greek metal underground scene. He is also the guitarist of ADMONISHER (I can recommend their debut album “Face the Axe” to all the epic metal fans out there). Sandra Kakioni on the other hand is introduced to me for the first time here and she is the singer. From her bio I can see that she has a passion for music and dance (she has done studies on both) and of course loves heavy metal (and I think on that we have to congratulate her brother hehe). So, IDEAL PAIN is the project band of these 2 musicians.

Musically now IDEAL PAIN are a mixture of rock and metal sounds that emphasize on melody. The band through its music creates emotions of melancholy and nostalgia. I could say that IDEAL PAIN move between the melodic metal and gothic rock sound. Also the keyboards give, in my opinion, to the sound of the band an 80’s touch. Also Sandra’s vocals fit very well on the whole sound and enhance the atmosphere they create. The guitars also create nice melodies and good solo and lead parts that give to “Mask” more depth and detail. Finally the production is very clear and it has a natural sound that helps you enjoy all the details of the album.

For a first album IDEAL PAIN show they know their sound well and have ideas they can transform into songs. I am not a big fan of the atmospheric/gothic metal sound, but I think that those who are attracted by this genre, will find here an interesting album to listen to.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis