Album Notes

Although they abandoned their Jersey homeland for the even grimmer climes of Seattle, I still hold a place in my heart for the garage/gutter thrash duo Rukut - formerly herald in these parts under the moniker Filth - whose demo blasted its way through my brain cells like something out of a bad Van Damme movie. Clean-sounding by comparison comes Life's Pain, and although I'm not sure if they mean to say Life is Pain or The Pain of Life, what's clear beyond reproach is that the focus one way or another is on pain.

They sound pained. More to the point, they sound angry as fuck about being pained. The D-beat bursts of Chris Jones (he of the braided goatee) provide a cruel underbelly for Lew Hambley's (she of the barbwire throat) relentlessly guttural, bleeding-from-the-mouth vocals and tuned to China guitar. Aided by absolutely zero studio wizardry, Rukut's claws are sharper than ever before, and the clarity of sound only brings into focus the skin-peeling effect this band can have on the listener.

As ever, Life's Pain is a DIY affair. Nonetheless, the output is professional, the attitude intact and music heavy like asteroids are heavy. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if you were to crash this album into the surface of the earth at a couple thousand MPH, the resulting crater would be big enough to end life as we know it. What a way to go out.

- JJ Koczan
The Aquarian