The sound of an inner caress: A journey through Grain of Pain’s “Behind Us All”

Finnish doom metal has a certain “dark magic” to it, and Grain of Pain is leaning into that tradition with their second full-length effort, “Behind Us All“, arriving March 27 via Noble Demon. Born from the mind of guitarist and composer Timo Solonen, this isn’t just a simple follow-up to their debut; it feels like a total refinement of their craft. The pedigree here is undeniable, featuring Lars Eikind (Before The Dawn) bringing his award-winning touch on bass and clean vocals, alongside session work from Juho Räihä and Juuso Raatikainen—two musicians who helped Swallow the Sun win a Finnish Grammy. When you get this many veterans in a room, you expect technical polish, but “Behind Us All ” offers something much more raw and human than just skill.

This collective experience allows the band to truly understand the “color” of sorrow, proving that they know how to capture the deepest and darkest emotional charges within a composition. You feel this immediately as the album progresses; it isn’t just “loud and slow,” but deeply layered and intentional. A major turning point arrives with “The Offering,” where the dual vocal attack—those guttural growls paired with Eikind’s soaring cleans—enters the fray with enough intensity to send chills down your spine. Musically, the track acts like a mirror, using heavy, sustained chords to force you to look inward and uncover the hidden desires and pains we usually keep locked away.

As that internal exploration continues, the band pulls back on the throttle for “The House.” Here, the transition into a slower, more melodic soundscape allows the instrumentation to breathe. The gentle notes and emotive vocal delivery aren’t just filler; they are soul-touching moments that prove doom metal is at its most powerful when it dares to be vulnerable. The further you get into the tracklist, the clearer it becomes that the entire album is a cohesive map of the inner self. The production is dense—the guitars feel like a heavy, suffocating fog—yet there is a clarity in the songwriting that keeps the listener from feeling lost.

The pacing of the record is masterful, and as it approaches the finish line, the tempo slows to a crawl. It begins to feel like a dark lullaby designed to put your defences to rest before the final emotional blow. The absolute highlight for me is “Dance with Me,” which captures the sensation of a soft caress against your face through a haunting violin arrangement. As the guitar volume swells slowly behind the strings, the song shifts from a moment of pure tenderness into that classic “metal face” expression when a riff hits exactly the right spot. It’s a rare breed of doom/death metal that manages to be both crushing and incredibly delicate at the same time.

Tracklist:

1. Shattered Peace
2. To Burn Inside (feat. Pekka Olkkonen)
3. The Offering (feat. Eemeli Bodde)
4. Ruins of the Heart
5. The House
6. Dance With Me
7. Bless You With Sorrow
8. If Morning Never Comes (Kirsten Jørgensen)