Pro-Pain – Stone Cold Anger

Written by on 14-05-2026 at 20:55.

At long last, here is the new Pro-Pain album. Between 1992 and 2015, the band built around singer/bassist Gery Meskil put out a new record roughly every two years, but after Voice of Rebellion, things began to slow down. Eleven long years have passed since then. In July 2017, Meskil was the victim of a violent robbery in Brussels, and it took him a long time to recover. Then the pandemic threw yet another wrench into the making of the new album. But with the return of Eric Klinger, who previously played in the band from 1999 to 2007, the creative process quickly picked up speed. He wrote much of the music and oversaw the entire recording process, and the result is Stone Cold Anger, the sixteenth album from the New York band.

It is great to hear Pro-Pain pick up exactly where it left off: churning out that revved-up, bruising mix of hardcore and metal. Across ten songs, this is pure muscle music, with Meskil’s perpetually furious bark once again towering over everything else. And all that at the age of 60. The album barely stretches past the half-hour mark, so it keeps things short, sharp, and punishing. In fact, Stone Cold Anger is the second-shortest Pro-Pain album to date. But with an opening trio this ferocious, who is complaining? Oceans of Blood, Stone Cold Anger, and March of the Giants land like body blows.

Things ease up slightly on Uncle Sam Wants You, where Meskil brings in his clean vocals. It immediately makes for a weaker cut, but Demonic Intervention gets the momentum back on track. There is some strong guitar work here too, even if the slightly silly backing vocals could have been left out. Rinse & Repeat, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of song that will tear apart small clubs and festival grounds for years to come (Pro-Pain really is available for all your parties and events). “You can all… Go fuck yourselves again!” And then, once again, there is that glorious guitar work from Greg Discenza, making his first recorded appearance on a Pro-Pain album here.

Hell or High Water leans a little more toward the melodic side, but it still works well enough. Even so, I prefer Pro-Pain at full throttle, like on Scorched Earth. That break after just a few seconds is absurdly good. And from there, it only gets better, with Meskil practically growling the word ‘scorched’. And the fun is still not over, because Jonestown Punch follows, with Discenza and drummer Jonas Sanders relentlessly pushing each other forward. My neighbors are going to be hearing this one for quite some time. Finally, Sky’s the Limit is a straight-up punk track: melodic, partly clean-sung, just plain punk. I could have done without it, but it is what it is.

Stone Cold Anger is not a comeback album, simply because that label does not fit a band like Pro-Pain. It is just the sixteenth entry in the catalog, and a very strong one at that. Because even in 2026, what Ice-T snarled into the microphone back in 1994 still rings true:

You punk motherfuckers!
I wanna see some goddamn action!
This is Pro-Pain, fool
What the fuck you think you’re doing?
I want to see some blood on the goddamn floor!
I want to see some goddamn blood!
I want to see some bodies
Fucking elbows, you punk motherfuckers!
All you rejects, get the fuck outta here!
This is Pro-Pain, goddamnit!

Score:

85/100

Label:

Napalm Records, 2026

Tracklisting:

  1. Oceans of Blood
  2. Stone Cold Anger
  3. March of the Giants
  4. Uncle Sam Wants You!
  5. Demonic Intervention
  6. Rinse & Repeat
  7. Hell of High Water
  8. Scorched Earth
  9. Jonestown Punch
  10. Sky’s the Limit

Line-up:

  • Gery Meskil – Vocals, bassguitar
  • Greg Discenza – Guitar
  • Eric Klinger – Guitar
  • Jonas Sanders – Drums

Links: