First Posted: 9/2/2014

When Young Widows debuted in 2006 with Settle Down City, they awoke a sleeping giant that was the Louisville, Kentucky post-hardcore movement.

It’s a scene that spawned such groundbreaking underground acts of the 1990s as Slint, Squirrel Bait and Moss Icon.

And with each successive full-length, they take in the sound of their city’s sub terrain through a wormhole of dark, Gothic blues. But with Easy Pain, the trio go full fang on this fourth LP, hardking back to the most extreme aspects of Louisville loudness. Having toured with the likes of Boris, Baroness and Thursday in the three years since the release of 2011’s subdued In and Out of Youth and Lightness certainly seemed to have reminded Evan Patterson (guitar and vocals), Nick Thieneman (bass and vocals) and Jeremy McMonigle (drums) of their potential to pummel the listener into submission.

And numbers like the opening screed “Godman”, the damaging “Doomed Man” and the tempestuous “King Sol” serve as the perfect median between the atmospheric overtones of Youth and Lightness with the unbridled urgency of their halcyon days to create their most definitive statement yet.

Young Widows truly bring the Pain in 2014.