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Grain of Pain is a project run by Infirmum's Timo Solonen to stretch his, here responsible for growls and guitar work while hiring session players for the rest. Unsurprisingly, this is a very doomy project akin to Infirmum, albeit with gothic leanings and four vocalists for different roles, including Lars Eikind's clean singing for the lighter moments. While there are plenty of melodic hooks scattered throughout the album, particularly on the almost ceremonial title track and the hypnotic, individually shamanic "The Witch," the bulk of the sound here is heavy and crushing as hell, as on the opener "Beneath" and the soul-destroying "As Suffering Ends." Rather than repackage old ideas, Timo clearly wants to explore different facets of doom with this project, and his first go at it is already a cohesive and sometimes surprising stab at it, so I'm definitely looking forward to what he does with Grain of Pain next. Give this a listen and see what I mean.