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Purest of Pain A painfully long process

Seven years of blood, sweat and tears, but now it’s time: the first full-length album of Purest Of Pain will be released on the first of March. De band of guitarist Merel Bechtold (also known from Delain, MaYaN and The Gentle Storm) completed ‘Solipsis’ partly using a crowdfunding on Indiegogo.

Purest Of Pain was founded in 2008, and it’s only 10 years later that they’re launching their first full length album. But they’ve made a name for themselves with Merel Bechtold as their leader. After winning second place in the local band contest Clash Of The Titans, the band already released the EP ‘Revelations In Obscurity’ (2011) and the single “Momentum” (2013). Purest Of Pain also opened concerts for Unearth, Suicide Silence, and Textures, got nominated for a 3voor12 award in the category of Best Liveact, and even reached the spotlight during Buma Rocks! in 2014. On top of that Merel and her bandmates also represented The Netherlands at Wacken Open Air the same year.

Merel, why did we have to wait so long for ‘Solipsis’? “I’m a perfectionist and a control freak, and actually I was constantly bitching that it wasn’t good enough. Apart from that, everyone was still in school at the beginning of the recordings, and we still don’t have the support of a record label so we have to work with a very limited budget. You have to be very creative with everything in that case. At first we used programmed drums, after drummer Joey de Boer joined the band we definitely wanted to have him on the album. After we played at Buma Rocks!, I was asked to play with The Gentle Storm, and later also joined MaYaN and Delain. That way I could perform again instead of spending 90% of my time answering e-mails and other management business. The Purest Of Pain album was pushed to the background because of this, but it never left my mind. Gathering the band on the other hand, wasn’t easy. I even got a burn-out because of all the chaos and stress. All of that caused the long wait.”

How would you like to describe the album? “It’s a Scandinavian sounding metal album of high quality, mixed by Mantis Audio and mastered by Jens Bogren. The music is in the line as bands like In Flames, The Faceless, and Amorphis. My musical taste has changed a bit in the meantime, but this album contains a very important musical period for me. ‘Solipsis’ is the first real album that has music I wrote myself. Being able to share this now feels amazing. What I’m going to do after this isn’t clear yet, not even for myself, haha!”

Besides Merel Bechtold, Purest Of Pain is: singer Jesper de Kruyff, guitarist Michael van Eck, bass player Frank van Leeuwen and drummer Joey de Boer.

The track “Terra Nil” can be streamed on Spotify, Google Music, Youtube, etc. ‘Solpsis’ will be released on the first of March 2018 on CD, LP and digital download, pre-orders are available on the website of Purest Of Pain.