Pain of Living

The current logo from 2018

### Members

Shyrtexx [2017-present, founding member]Xenon [2017-2020, 2021-present, founding member]

Fatsmurf [2020-21]

Foosh [2020-21]

Pain of Living is a heavy metal band from Finland, founded by Xenon and Shyrtexx. It started its career on 22 June 2017, and so far has released nine studio albums, three EP's and numerous singles. The lineup has changed slightly within the last years - at the start, Xenon and Shyrtexx were the only members. The lineup saw a change when Xenon left the group in late 2020, after the joining of Fatsmurf. Later, Foosh joined the band as well, but in the latter half of 2021 both members were left out from the band. Xenon joined the band again, and is now there with Shyrtexx.

### History

#### Classic era

The band was formed on 22 June 2017. Members immediately began working on music, and the first album was made in one day- and it was released an hour after midnight on 23 June 2017. After the release the band took a four month break, and began working on their second album *There Is No God* on October 2017. The album was released on the second day of November in 2017.

After the release of There Is No God, yet another multi-month break was taken. After two months the band began the work of the third album *Bullets.* Bullets was released on 7 January 2018. Seven months later, band's fourth album *Atheist* was released.

Pain of Living released their fifth album *Black Magic* on 16 March 2019. On 28 March 2020, the sixth and self-titled album *Pain of Living* was released.

In 30 September 2021, after numerous lineup changes and struggles, Pain of Living finally released their seventh studio album, titled *Reincarnation*.

Pain of Living was formed on 22 June, 2017. Before the band was formed, Shyrtexx had made and released a solo EP on his own channel, called *The Eighth of The Alphabet*. Over half a month later Shyrtexx asked Xenon to form a band, and Xenon agreed. The name Pain of Living was chosen by Xenon.

Immediately after forming, the band started working on their debut album. The whole record was written and recorded in the same day as the band was formed, and it got released in the following midnight, 23 June 2017. Despite the album being rushed, it has earned its place as the most nostalgic album of Pain of Living.

Couple of months later the band started working on their second album. First single was released in September, and the album writing took a total of two months. *There Is No God* was then released in 2 November, 2017. The album was notably different from the first album, for a couple of reasons. The music itself was nowhere near as aggressive as it was on The End of The Earth, and most of the songs lacked uniqueness and most of them were rushed. This album is often considered to be the only failure in the bands discography.

Only a week after the release of There Is No God began the work of what was supposed to be the third album, Lightnings From Hell. The album was even more rushed and made in hurry than the previous album. It was released on 16 November 2017, only two weeks after the previous release. However, the album was short-lived. Only after two days of the release, Shyrtexx took the album down with no warning, due to the very bad quality of the record. This caused some arguments between the members, but it was eventually settled down. The album is currently unavailable.

After the takedown of the album, the band continued working further. After two months of work, their third album got released on 7 January 2018.

#### Modern era

The time between Bullets and their fourth album Atheist was the longest period of time in the band with no new albums. Atheist took over half a year to write, and it was later released on 26 August, 2018. This album, along with the 2019 Black Magic were often considered to be the most advanced albums of the band at that time.

The fifth album saw its release on 16 March 2019. The album took a sharp turn on the style of the band, as this was the first album with very little actual metal elements. The album was melodic, and the songwriting was entirely changed. The album has so far gotten the most critical acclaim, and it is often considered to be the best work of the band.

The sixth album, Pain of Living, was released on 28 March 2020, ending the longest period of no albums released.

With no real success in terms of views or feedback, the interest quickly fell down with Pain of Living.

### New modern era

The band began working on what was supposed to be their seventh album, *Minds of Misery*, a few months after the release of Pain of Living. However, during this period only four songs were ever written - and from those four, only two has since seen the daylight. The single *Wounds of Wisdom* was released 15 May 2020, and it was the latest song released for half a year until the release of *Get me Out* on 28 November, 2020. The band was on a stuck state for a long period of time with no actual progress at all - the general disinterest towards the project, especially from Xenon's side, was clearly visible at the time.

However, the band saw its first ever drastic change on 01 December 2020, when for the first time ever a third member was applied to join. Fatsmurf joined Pain of Living on that day, and for the first time since 22 June 2017 the band had currently more than two members at once.

However, the very next day, 02 December 2020, Xenon informed about his willing to take a break from the project, reasoned with his will to focus more on school and real life guitar playing. Not long afterwards, Xenon announced his department from the band entirely, leaving only one of the original founding members present to the project. The time Fatsmurf and Xenon were on the band at the same time was approximately 17 hours.

After Xenon's department, Shyrtexx and Fatsmurf started working on a renewed seventh album, titled *Vision Seven.* One song was written shortly afterwards, but the album project was shortlived - on 04 December 2020, another member, Foosh, joined Pain of Living. Vision Seven was cancelled on the same day and the band started (06 December 2020) working on the plans and concept of the new album. Upon the joining of Foosh, the band would have had vocals in the future - something which was never been seen before in Pain of Living.

A new EP, title *Fields of Sorrow*, was released on 08 December 2020. The EP is a remarkable milestone in the bands career and history, with last song of thvalimaki / Xenon in the band and the first with Fatsmurf. A Gift From Nature, the first release in 2021, saw its release on January.

During 2021 the general work input from the band had been consistently deceasing over the months. A total of four songs and an intro for the album got finished within the span of almost nine months, leading this period being the least active time in the band's history. On summer of 2021, Shyrtexx had some general discussions with the former member Xenon, with the possibility of him returning in the future. On August 2021, Shyrtexx kicked Fatsmurf out from the band due to personal issues between the members. The lack of communication, as well and progressively increased tensions between the members led to the department of both Foosh & Fatsmurf from the band, both within one day.

On 30 August 2021, Xenon rejoined the band following the discussions from the summer earlier.

On 26 September 2021, Shyrtexx released a double single, titled Death & Decay / Winds of Hell. The band also announced the new album "Reincarnation" to be released on 15 October 2021.

On 30 September 2021, only a few days after the double single, the seventh album titled *Reincarnation* was released.

As of 07 December 2021, the band is on a hiatus for an unknown amount of time.

Around the midway of December, the writing process of the eighth studio album, titled *The Agony of (In)sanity* began. The first song, titled *Soulrider* was finished. The whole album was written during the winter and the beginning of spring, and was released on 10 April, 2022. The album was a remarkable milestone within the band, as it is currently the only melodic punk metal album within the discography. It is also generally the most acclaimed album so far. Shortly after the release, the band went for another hiatus, lasting for an undetermined amount of time.

On August 2022, the band started working on a supposed ninth album, and the first song titled *Redacted* was written in August too. Shyrtexx wrote four songs since, but due to the more experimental songs and a lack of ideas for the upcoming at the time, the five new songs were released as an EP in 2022, titled *Portal of Time*.

Currently, as of 27 January, the band is working on their ninth studio album. No information about the album is public yet.

On 19 February, a new song from the new album was released - *Violent, Sinister, Deviant* was the first and only single from the new album *De Profundis Inferni,* released on 23 March 2023, being the first full record of the band since April 2022.

As of 2 April 2023, the band is on a hiatus for an unknown period.

### Style

The music style of the band has been highly variable throughout it's history. The band has seen a big amount of objective progressing through their career, and such can easily be seen by comparing the first album to the latest ones.

The first two albums, The End of The Earth and There Is No God are fast, heavy and chaotic to some extent with no one genre of music to define each of the albums. With the two next, Bullets and Atheist, the general direction was starting to be clear. Bullets was defined as a heavy metal album, and it was a considerable improvement over the two.

With the album Atheist the band took a more thrashy approach with the metal. The album is often considered to be the album which "matured" the band - and to this day, the album compares to the more recent releases in terms of general quality and improvement. Currently, Atheist holds the most likes and views on YouTube, and hence can be considered to be the "biggest success" of the band.

However, the Black Magic album was a changer in terms of style. For the first time, most of the heavy elements were almost entirely absent with very few exceptions - the music was very melodic and more rock-like most of the time. Despite the sharp change, Black Magic is considered to be one of the better works by the band.

The sixth album was a "return" to the more thrashy style, with the self titled album delivering a lot more heavier and faster music than Atheist. When compared to Black Magic, the album is pretty much the opposite - there are melodic parts about as much as there are heavy parts.

The EP Fields of Sorrow was very varied in style, with each song being different from each other. The record had elements from hard rock, heavy metal and progressive metal.

With the release of Reincarnation, the band introduced a few new stylistic features. The first notable difference is the increased tempo in the songs, resulting in a much faster album when compared to the albums prior to it. Another noteworthy this was the downtuned guitars, even more so than in the previous album. Reincarnation is currently the only album to be entirely conceptual, the only to have a specified intro, and the only one to have a song with an intro not consisting the usual instruments.

The Agony of (In)sanity was also remarkable in many stylistic ways. Similarly to Black Magic, the album is far from a traditional Pain of Living album - instead of having groovy and heavy riffs, the album is mostly punk riffs, leads and melodies, making it even less heavy than Black Magic. The album is also the first one to contain blastbeats, as heard in the song Mind Collapse. Despite the lack of heaviness, it is still often considered to be the best Pain of Living album since the release of Black Magic.

The Portal of Time EP has a varied style, similarly to Fields of Sorrow. With more experimental songwriting, such as in the songs *Moonlight* and *Redacted*, the EP is the only experimental release within the discography.

The band also has a few define characteristics, with the most common being the upside down cross. Other such things are pentagrams, fire and things related to hell. Despite these antichrist type ornaments, neither of the band members are satanists, and the use of such ornaments have severely deceased over the years and are likely to disappear entirely.

### Members

 Xenon
 Fatsmurf
 Foosh

## Discography

### Albums

* *The End of the Earth* *(2017)*
* *There Is No God (2017)*
* *Bullets* *(2018)*
* *Atheist* *(2018)*
* *Black Magic (2019)*
* *Pain of Living (2020)*
* *Reincarnation (2021)*
* *The Agony of (In)sanity* *(2022)*
* *De Profundis Inferni (2023)*
* *Testament (2023-?)*

### EP's

* *The Eighth of the Alphabet* *(2017, re-released 2019)*
* *Fields of Sorrow (2020)*
* *Portal of Time (2022)*

### Singles

* *Disaster* *(2017)*
* *Bullets* *(2017)*
* *Black Magic* *(2018)*
* *Boline* *(2018)*
* *Oblivion* *(2019)*
* *Pleasure of Dying (2019)*
* *Desire to Kill (2019)*
* *Anxiety (2019)*
* *Wounds of Wisdom (2020)*
* *Get Me Out (2020)*
* *A Gift From Nature (2021)*
* *Midnight Strikes (2021)*
* *Death & Decay / Winds of Hell (2021)*
* *To Set One Free (2022)*

### Trivia

* Pain of Living released their first album a day after the band was formed.