NECROMANTIK SUNSHINE THE PAIN OF PLEASURE ALBUM CYBERWARE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 3, 2001 REVIEW: NOVEMBER 30, 2001

I really want to like this. And partly I do. Here are echoes of many of my favourite bands from my teens. There’s a little Bauhaus, some Sisters of Mercy, part body, a little Alien Sex Fiend - you name it. As a bonus, there are also some nice dark cheap thrills, gothic punk and catchy melodies. So, what’s the problem, you may ask? Well, nothing really. Just that "The Pain of Pleasure" is like a blueprint of someone else’s music.
These Philadelphia lads doesn’t seem able to come up with something on their own. In a typical American way, they take over, colonise, a lot of other peoples music. In a very un-American way, they fail to make it their own.
Maybe Necromatik Sunshine says it best themselves, when they sing: "You take the pain - you believe it’s so romantic". They believe the pain to be romantic. They have not been there and brought back the dark stories. They just make them up.

KALLE MALMSTEDT