By: Anders

Posted: Dec 19, 2005

This is my first listen to Face Down's material, and I have to say I am quite surprised about it, it's very far from what I had expected. Post-thrash with a nice and rough hardcore edge and a sludge-feel here and there, quite captivating and crushing, together with traces of death metal found in it.

Noisy, yet melodic and quite catchy guitar riffs lay the foundation for the music. The riffs are good and dark and really crunchy, there are almost a doomy feel to some of them, and the musical atmosphere is overall very dark and bleak, displaying a society falling apart. The almost Slayer-like leads in the quite Slayer-like track 'Heretic' shows good skills and is an elegant way of paying tribute to the gods on. The rhythm section is good and effective as well, especially the simple, but very hard hitting drumming fits perfectly into the universe Face Down displays. The rumbling bass is good as well, and adds a second dimension to the heavy and solid walls of guitars. The vocals from Marco Aro, who more or less is the single cause of the fuzz around the band, are very good, a frustrated blend of a harsh and snarling hardcore and thrash scream, again something that really fits into the dark universe of the band and adds to the final result. He gives a lot of himself to the cause and his voice is full of emotion and quite gripping.

This is an album that goes good in this dark and grey winter-period, the music and atmosphere invoked in the record, is as dark and cold as the weather and days outside. A lost future and lost hope are 2 things that paint itself on the mind again and again while listening to this album. Good crafted songs, really heavy and quite catchy, doomy yet energetic and violent. And the droning guitar that appears on the last track on the album 'The Unsung' is brilliant and fits perfectly on there, perhaps a thing that should be explored more on future material by the band. Beware, this is an album that demands many listens and one that gets better and better by each listen it gets, it didn't catch on to me immediately, it has taken some time, but now it has left its mark and won't stop haunting my mind.

Rating: 8/10

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