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CD REVIEW: Pain Tolerance - A Momentary Act of Disclosure
By Steve Allat - 02/22/2005 - 10:04 PM EST

Artist: Band: Pain Tolerance
Album: A Momentary Act of Disclosure
CD Review: Label: Independent
Tracks: 12
Released: 2004
For Fans Of: Korn,
Fav Tracks: A Place To Hide, Alone, Tell Me

Pain Tolerance is an ambitious project. David G. Peterson leads the way - writing, arranging and performing along with three unknown session musicians bearing a close family resemblance.

The main response I have after listening a few times is that there are some excellent ideas here - vocally, melodically and overall song structure - but they get lost underneath a few glaring oversights on the part of the project leader.

The main weak point, and I have to say it David, is that the lead vocal isn't always strong enough alone, unlike how David Byrne of The Talking Heads sounds so off that he's on. The quietest vocals are fine (my favourite, in fact), the main vocals are a bit shaky, and the screaming vocals work some of the time. Unfortunately, it's the main vocals that we hear the most. Sounds like David needs to relax into the clean vocals, and either give the rest of the vocals more power or don't bother. One other trick is to double 'em up! When David finds his voices - all of them, from soft whisper to angry scream - his music will sound infinitely stronger. If this doesn't work then find a second vocalist. The best decision you can make as a band leader is to know when you need help doing something you can't do or can't do well.

I enjoyed a lot of the music on the album - the quiet guitar intros are all very cool. The hard guitar is just fine. The drums are very competent, with some interesting playing here and there. Song structure is pretty good all the way through as well. The 'guys' have thought about the music very thoroughly, you can tell. There's some repetition and the use of all 3 levels of vocals on almost all the songs is a weak point. Again, it's the vocal phrasing that throws off the sense of timing & structure and thus affects the strength of the whole mix.

'A Place to Hide' is where this album should have started for me as it's intro is exemplary of Pain Tolerance at it's best.
The main improvement is that they need to think vocally like they do musically. Smoothing out the vocal phrasing will do wonders for these songs.

The Best Vocals: Verses of 'Alone', 'Left Behind', 'Tell Me'.

I think it's obvious at this point what I'm going to say: Improve the vocals and you improve Pain Tolerance. The other ingredients are there. Go for it.

Contact: Info
Website: Pain Tolerance


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