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Face Down: The will to power
11/01/12 || revenant
If you have ever clicked on the info section in the top right and browsed the staff profiles you will quickly realise that despite being a Swedish website, we really are an international cast of writers. Me? I’m not the least bit Swedish. Oh sure, I love eating meatballs and have some IKEA furniture, but ties to Sweden? None. I write this as an intro because it feels weird to introduce Face Down without prefacing the review this way, largely due to this statement: Face Down was the first Swedish metal band I got into.
That was back in 1995. Yeah, I know, I was pretty blind to a lot of classic Swedeath albums that came before then, but I was on the other side of the planet in a place where metal wasn’t getting a lot of exposure. I won’t make excuses for it though, it is what it is. Besides, I was in a real thrash/groove place back then, and when “Kill the pain” hooked me in after getting airplay locally, Face Down’s debut album “Mindfield” became the first Swedish album I bought.
The story of Face Down is pretty interesting (and I’m not just repeating it here to pad the review out, it is essential to understand the background to this album). After their first two (fantastic) releases, vocalist Marco Aro was offered the job for The Haunted, which he took, which in turn led to Face Down splitting up. It also led me to The Haunted (of which I am eternally happy for). Marco’s vocal style changed quite a bit with The Haunted. While in Face Down their thrashy style suited his yelled approach, The Haunted’s more melodic style led him to adopt a growled approach. After his departure from The Haunted, Face Down re-formed to record their third album “The Will to Power”, and with it Marco brought the growling style he learnt while in The Haunted.
Outside of the change in Marco’s vocals, not a lot else had changed with the band’s style, and “The Will to Power” definitely sees the band continue on from what they started on “Mindfield” and “The Twisted Rule the Wicked”, which is pounding thrash tinged with hardcore and bad arse grooves. However, whether it be the long holiday of the band, or the fact the sound was so dated in 2005, “The Will to Power” just didn’t deliver to the same monumental heights of their first two records.
For me, a lot of it stems from the production, which gives the album a flat feel. It’s definitely the weakest production of the Face Down discography, lacking the raw heaviness of the first two. In essence, the guitars lack muscle.
Another problem stems in the fact the first four songs are incredibly generic. It seems strange to say, but the opening four tracks are the weakest in the album for me. When I put this album on, the first four songs pass by without me really noticing. It’s not until track 5, the title track, is my attention really grabbed, because it’s here where the album gets darker and creepier, moving beyond being a simple thrasher. “Will to Power” (the song) opens with some serious bad grooves overlayed with a small speech on serial killers and how they are “invariably sane” before it goes into a thrash frenzy. The track closes with a serial killer talking about how he wants to kill all the human race, while the music fades into a creepy piano section. Pianos continue into “Grey”, where another spoken word section continues to dark atmosphere. In these 5 minutes of music the mood is set for the rest of the album, my attention is gained and I am hooked.
It seems a great shame the album starts so weakly. The great use of creepy spoken word intros (try listening to the start of “The Delusion” and not be creeped out) and dark lyrics create a great atmosphere, and the thrashing riffs are definitely brutal despite the album not having the production it needs. In many ways this album feels like a missed opportunity for me. The album is definitely a great album when listened to from the fifth track onwards. As for where the band are now, hard to say. Hopefully there are more works on the horizon but if not, well at least they’ve left us with three solid slabs of brutality to enjoy. “The Will to Power” is ultimately probably the weakest of their three albums, but is still a worthwhile investment.
- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Black Lodge Recording
- Website: Face Down MySpace
- Band
- Marco Aro: vocals
- Joacim Carlsson: guitars
- Joakim “Harju” Hedestedt: bass
- Erik Thyselius: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Drained
- 02. Blood Tiles
- 03. Heroin
- 04. Insanity
- 05. Will to Power
- 06. Grey
- 07. Heretic
- 08. The Delusion
- 09. War Hog
- 10. The Unsung
