Band from Norway playing death metal came as a total surprise to me at first considering the notoriety of Norwegian black metal scene. But Cadaver’s approach to death metal seems very extenuating when one considers the flawless slab of ingenious death metal delivered by the band in In Pains.  You might not get your usual dose of brutality that comes with the general combo of dissonant atmospherics with blastbeats and sweeping tremolo picked melodies with doom passages as is the case in most old –school death albums. What you do get is in fact a very progressive oriented album that captures the true mood of morbidity with its intelligent, warped riffing that rides along with its well crafted narrative structure.

Near perfect synchronization of all the instruments works really well for this album as it accentuates the listening experience. And speaking of instruments, the first thing that strikes you on playing this record is the clean adaptation of bass guitars. This clean and light tone of bass compliments the drumming perfectly amidst the rhythmic riffing employed. The drumming is very intelligent, with a lot of fills which at times gives off a very jazzy vibe, but nothing of the sort you would have heard from Cynic or Atheist.

The vocals on the other hand reek of black metal as the vocalist seems to do away with standard death growls and employing black metal style rasps instead to tell neurotic tales of dementia as clear from song names like Mr. Tumor’s Misery or Ins-Through-Mental. The use of start/stop riffing style at different time signatures does well to capture the general morbid feel of the album. And with this In Pains truly stands out as well constructed album that succeeds in capturing the apathetic feeling of morbid isolation that comes with acute neurosis by combining the aggression of death metal with somber moods of black metal. Unlike any other death metal album heard before, Cadaver’s In Pains truly stands out as an unique cornerstone in the vast geometric field of death metal