No, you're not going crazy. This is the exact same album that Swedish metal brigade Pain (actually a one-man project created by Hypocrisy front man and producer Peter Tägtgren) issued two years ago. If you will recall though, it never received a proper release in North America, a problem the folks at Nuclear Blast are finally remedying by giving the album a polished-up cover, some bonus material and a domestic shelf date.

As it stands, Cynic Paradise is already quite common in most North American metal minds, so Tägtgren isn't about to receive a fresh batch of accolades for something well into its second year of existence. In fact, despite the hoopla, Cynic Paradise is actually slightly disappointing. It cops much of its attitude from long-uninteresting industrial and hard rock conspirators, resulting in what feels like little more than Rob Zombie collaborating with Ozzy Osbourne in the sludgy, less-than-half-time rock style he's been mired in for the past decade. Surprising for someone of Tägtgren's stature, Cynic Paradise is interesting but not altogether necessary. Factor in the North American version's bland bonus material — a passable live show captured in France circa March 2009 — and even with the extra goodies, it's still just retrospective industrial-tinged rock with subtle bits of crunchy metal to make it seem more extreme than it really is.