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Facebreaker: Dedicated to the flesh

07/09/13 || Ironpants

“brains… brains… BRAINS…”

When the zombie holocaust finally will begin, cause it will, I promise you, Facebreaker will surely be at the front row. Not to fight against the zombies, no no, but to gather material for the next album. Did you know by the way, that science implies that there is a very small chance that a zombie outbreak actually can happen? Now I’m really scared. Why? Well, most of the people around (not you dear Global Domination reader) would only be a small snack or a fucken hors d’oeuvre for a zombie, with their tiny brains and small wits. Me on the other hand, would be a fucken 7-course dinner with my over-dimensioned, almost divine brain. A zombie-pack of twelve could live on my brain for weeks. That’s why I am afraid of zombies! I would be their prime target, the human version of Beluga caviar or, better yet, human Fugu and zombies would temporarily regain human sense and praise God for such a delicious treat.

While I wait for this to actually happen, I stock up on good music, batteries for my iPod, weapons, ammunition and other supplies. One album that would be in the top 5 on my zombie killing spree play-list is this one, for sure.

Facebreaker is back! Same lineup as before, the same kind of buzzsaw riffing in medium tempo and the lyrics covering everything from zombies to… eh, zombies. They are like all those other old school bands around, only better. Yeah, sure, anyone can spew out some decent riffing in this style by just plugging in to that old Boss HM-2 pedal and turning that shit to 11. But that’s not how it works. You got to have some brains (?) to compose something worthy listening to. You got to find that groove line and stick to it. And it’s here Facebreaker differs from all the other maggot infested corpses getting together to form a band.

I read an interview in a magazine (probably Playgirl or OUT) that they took a tour on a steam boat around their home town, and while they were on it, they heard the steady rhythm of the engine, and asked the captain to slow down a bit so they could record the engine sound and use as a metronome to their new songs. Cool feature… not as cool as zombies… but still.

Was I supposed to talk about the album? Oh, ok then…

Lets get one thing straight right away, shall we? It’s fucken old school death metal. There is only so much you can do within a genre before you have to start calling your music something like “djent-polka-core” or “avantgarde-black-psychedelica-dubstep-metal”. But you can play a style and perfect it, take it one notch higher just by writing good songs. Facebreaker writes good songs. Period. End of story. When you realize this fact, you will immediately find golden nuggets (teeth) in this rotten heap of dead bodies. Just like other bands, some defunct, such as Bolt Thrower, Asphyx and Hail of Bullets these guys depend on their ability to write memorable songs. I mean, who can resist the chorus to opener “Meat freak” or the almost dance-able “Zombie flesh cult” chorus? And in the bridge to the chorus “Carving for brains” where trigger words such as “kill”, “slay”, “maim and “smash” are repeated for your sing along pleasure. I can picture myself in the audience grunting these catchy lyrics together with a shitload of other drunken walking dead.

The band itself don’t fuck around with technicalities which also worth some kind of honorable mention, I guess they live by the principle “less is more” and they are actually on the border to almost getting boring, but just almost. And that is also only one or two of the drawbacks on this album. It gets a tiny weenie repetitive and on the edge of boring. And the other drawback is that it is a little too slow here and there. But I had to force myself for saying this, so it’s no big deal.

The production is of very high quality, and they have captured the sound to this zombie opera bang on target. The guitars are extremely heavy sounding, the drums have a natural sound (no over triggering here), and the bass is there (not in your face, but still there). And then the biggest asset, besides the the earlier mentioned sense of groove, singer Roberth Karlsson. He packs a really brutal pipe, and I must say, he’s one of the best growlers around, a deep guttural, bellowing grunt but with articulation that few can match. When I listen to this in my super expensive head phones (don’t worry, I’m rich), his grunts eats its way in to the backbone and locks itself with a steady firm grip and refuse to let go. There is no problems what so ever to hear the lyrics.

So, if you are into death metal in general, and first and foremost, quality song writing with excellent growls, I can’t see a reason why you should not buy this album. Maybe if you are a youngster and used to 240 BPM songs, with pig squeals and über-technical guitars you have trouble to find the excellence here, but that is just a legit reason for you to actually get this album. You need to be learned, schooled, in the art of true old school death metal. I sense that I’ve been handing out pretty high grades lately, but I can’t resist. I need to – kill – slay – maim, I can’t control myself, I am totally insane.

Information
Released: 2013
Label: Cyclone Empire
Website: www.facebreaker.com
Band
Roberth Karlsson: vocals
Mika Lagrén: guitars, vocals
Janne Ivarsson: guitars
Jonas Magnusson: bass, vocals
Mikael Wassholm: drums

Tracklist
01. Meat freak
02. Dedicated to the flesh
03. Catacomb
04. Zombie flesh cult
05. Mutilator
06. Nuclear outbreak
07. Hellmaster
08. Carving for brains
09. Swarm of zombies
10. Legions of doom
11. World cremation
12. Tomb of the hungry dead

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