Pain have always offered some songs to remember - be it "Learn How to Die" or "Don't Let Me Down" off the raw debut "Pain" (1996), "End of the Line", "Suicide Machine", "On and On" or "Dark Fields of Pain" off the ground (and chart) breaking sophomore masterpiece "Rebirth" (1999), "Shut Your Mouth" or the cover version of The Beatles' classic "Eleanor Rigby" off the follow-up "Nothing Remains the Same" (2002), or "Same Old Song" or "Bye/Die" off "Dancing with the Dead" (2005), fans of guitar riff-driven catchy electro metal have always managed to find some tune or another to fall in love with. Now, with the release of Pain's fifth full-length album, all those "adorers of this or that track" have the chance to unite, as "Psalms of Extinction" offers a bit (or a lot, to be more precise) of something for anyone who has or still does like the music by the one-man electro metal side-project of Hypocrisy's mastermind Peter Tägtgren. Diversity and perfection are the keywords here. The first one should be stated especially regarding the melodies, ranging from slowed down dark opuses to furious sound blast, and the extreme variety in the vocals used in the songs - from clean melodic singing through deep moans to harsh screams. As for the perfection - it's literally everywhere: in Peter's musicianship, song and lyrics-writing, and especially in the magnificent arrangements, drifting from pure electronic padding to masterly orchestral backgrounds. In other words, the psalmist has developed immensely during the last decade or so, reaching the top of... Well, the word simply cannot be avoided, so here it is again: Perfection! What can be easily pointed out in "Psalms of Extinction" are... actually, almost all of the 12 tracks, but four in particular should be set on a pedestal. First comes the album's title track - a masterpiece with a song structure strongly reminding of Hypocrisy's "calmer" tracks, especially the slow to mid-tempo pearls in the self-titled record from 1999. Then we've got "Does It Really Matter", notable not only for its catchy chorus line, but especially because of the above-mentioned marvellous arrangements. Third in line appears the thought-provoking, uneartly beautiful epic "Just Think Again" (some would probably label it a ballad), where even the curly guitar solo by Children of Bodom's six-string virtuoso Aleksi Laiho fits the song perfectly, although such techniques aren't considered quite familiar with the electro metal genre in general... And finally, my certain personal fave on the record - a rendition of "Play Dead" by Björk, which is doubtlessly one of the most successful cover version created in years! The rest of the 48 minutes of "Psalms of Extinction", as already hinted, offer a bit of "high-class everything". There are aggressive sound slams like "Computer God", the debut single "Zombie Slam" (featuring Motörhead's drummer Mikkey Dee), and the closing hammer "Bitch". There are also more club suitable, almost dance-like tracks ("Clouds of Ecstasy" and "Bottle's Nest"), as well as hit-charged electro metal riff monsters reminding of Die Krupps's best efforts from the first half of the 90's, namely "Walking on Glass" and especially "Nailed to the Ground", the latter featuring Peter Iwers of In Flames. His bass guitar can also be heard in another track - the strongly industrialized album opener "Save Your Prayers", which, in fact, can be considered the only (tiny) weakness of this otherwise brilliant offering. What I mean is that perhaps it shouldn't have been chosen to be placed as number 1 on the CD, as it's somehow chaotic and... directionless, if I'm allowed to say... but that's just the subjective opinion of an old Pain fan, after all. Just listen, think (again) and judge for yourselves.