Endless Pain: with a name like this it's easy to understand where and how the inspiration for this band is to be found.
Visceral Thrash Metal with a sharp teutonic mark, that hints us of 1984 when bands like Kreator and Sodom shook Europe and replied to the American Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer that made their debut on the previous year.
Well, this band's monicker, aside from recalling those beautiful years, also perfectly represents the band's style proposing woth this "Shotgun Carnage" 8 tracks, 3 of which are live recordings.

Here you have a brief bio of the band, excerpt from their official website: "ENDLESS PAIN formed at the end of 2001 from the ashes of NUCLEAR STORM, a band fonded by Juso & Beppe together with Eddy (drums) and, after the latter's leave, became ENDLESS PAIN right to cut off any tie with the past. In the band there was already Stefano, and with the addition of Gigi we have the most recent moniker, while some months later a last exchange is done with Enrico entering the band as bass player. In september 2002 the firs self produced demo is out, titled "THE CRUEL WAY OF WAR" and the live activity starts as well. ENDLESS PAIN play live together with Exsecratum, Hatework and other bands. Meanwhile they keep working on new songs that appear int he second demo "SHOTGUN CARNAGE" that appears at about half 2003".

Coming back to this aforementioned demo, that is mostly striking to me for the live tracks quality more than the studio ones. As a matter of fact, the live tracks appear more pleasant both for the sound groove and for the energy that the instruments and the voice manage to give out, a thing that, on the contrary, doesn't happen with the studio tracks, that - mostly because of the "home-made" production appear, in my opinion, much less involving.
Anyway, the songs are overall very energetic as competing to the most genuine thrash metal, yet being very difficult not to fall into the standards of this genre, appear at some times a bit too foreseen. A second point is that the voice is not very convincing, even though it has a very particular pitch and style, in the long run becomes lacking of character, not seeming to follow the groove of the songs and remaining a sort of "separate entity".
But I would be hypocrit if I didn't confess that often, during the listening of this work, I have been struck by sudden fits of "headbanging", and I think that when a band manages to cause such uncontrolled reactions in the listener, then it reached its scope; although I had to be critic sometimes I cannot therefore deny that these guys play real thrash, the funny one, the naughty one that gives us a stiff neck!
I reiterate that the three live tracks, managed to testify the skill that this quintet shows on stage, and I believe that with a demo recorded exclusively live they would have had more impact on the listeners.

In conclusion Shotgun Carnage is a thrashdemo, and this is beyond doubt, certainly with the limits of a genre that many give out as dead, but that few, very few, still keep alive ... THRASH 'TILL DEATH!!!

aNITRa'WC

http://www.endlesspain.it/