for my pain fallen

Released: 06 April 2009 (re release) Label: Spinefarm UK

For My Pain is the Finnish “supergroup” made up of several well-known musicians from other successful bands. Consisting of Juha Kylmänen of Reflexion, Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish, Lauri Tuohimaa from Charon, and Altti Vetelainen, Olli-Pekka Torro and Petri Sankala of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, For My Pain found the time out from their respective bands to come up with this musical project and subsequently originally issued the Fallen album in 2003.

It’s accessible melodic pop rock, and this is probably a defining album for that Finnish melancholic keyboards based love-metal sound that spawned a thousand similar sounding bands. Looking back maybe there could be more passionate vocals as Kylmänen does not show off exactly what he’s capable of; he really is one of the best vocalists in Finland. Maybe there could be more variety in tempo of songs too. But all the members of the band have come on leaps and bounds in experience since then, and the songs themselves still stand the test of time.

Dancer in the Dark is a classic hit single track, with nice supporting sweet female vocals from Miriam Renvåg. Autumn Harmony is a catchy little fellow that will have you humming along afterwards. The tracks are melodic, and romantic. As expected, considering Tuomas Holopainen’s input, there are plenty of Scandinavian sounding keyboards, but there are also some nice heavier guitar sounds too. Dear Carniwhore definitely rocks. The UK release also includes the UK-only bonus tracks Killing Romance, a chart single in Finland back in 2004, Joutsenlaulu and Too Sad to Live.

If you like the Finnish goth and love-metal sounds of early Charon, Entwine, and HIM you will adore For My Pain. And if For My Pain everv EVER play a gig, I will pee my pants and sell my grandmother to get a flight and ticket to it. Until that day or the time they get round to making any new music as a band we can only enjoy this classic and rather sweetly naïve goth metal offering from some of the best musicians in Finland.

by Lynn Wyeth