We The Faceless - We The Faceless [EP]

Self Released

May 28, 2009, 05:02 PM

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Grunge is a sub-genre of rock music which has lived on the fringes for a large portion of it's existence, gaining prominence briefly in the early 90's when Nirvana and Pearl Jam broke industry barriers to become multi-platinum standard bearers. We The Faceless's self titled EP comes across as a noble effort to bring this golden age of heavy rock music back to the undergound. We The Faithless deal in the less melodic, heavier and slightly more esoteric style of grunge favoured by 'Bleach era' Nirvana, Mudhoney and early Soundgarden. It's a dated sound for sure, but the combination of lo-fi production, melodic vocals and Sabbath aping riffs result in a subtle cocktail which produced some of the 90's best albums.

Things start as they mean to go on with 'Firefly', a muddy, trashy rocker which sounds like it was recorded by Steve Albini in a garden shed. The growling bass thunders through the mix like it's been fed through an orchestra of distortion pedals and singer 'Jacques Smit' has the pre-requesit listless, angry slacker vibe down to a tee. It's all very predictable and yet endearing in it's own way with a decent chorus hook and sub 3 minute running time that keeps tedium from setting in. It's far from exciting stuff though and as it ends and 'Burn The Witch' begins the feeling that every other song will follow a similar pattern becomes hard to shrug.

'Burn The Witch' however, adopts a moodier, less messy veneer which erupts into a full on, old school hardcore chorus complete with metal guitars and half screeched/half hollered vocals. It's not as immediate as the opener but it's a little more interesting. The bridge feels bolted on though and the end drags, matters are not helped by the shoddy production. The drums here (and throughout the rest of the record) sound nasty, not nasty in an effective, menacing, brutal way, just thin and nasty. The vocals are clear and well delivered and the bass is powerful and sharp but the guitars lack definition and there's no dynamic to the sound, the verse's are interchangeable with the chorus's.

3 of the remaining 4 tracks here repeat the same tricks over and over with diminishing returns. My Girl's stupefying simplicity would sound charming with a decent melody or some memorable riffs but it's just a dirge and 'Taxi Driver' might as well just be the same song stretched to almost double the length. 'Franco's Parrot' on the other hand is just plain unnecessary. 'Yellow House' really breaks the monotony here though and is easily the records stand-out track. It's softer hue shows the band dig into a part of themselves only hinted at in earlier tracks and it's yearning (though lyrically drab) chorus ("your love has broken") hits an emotional high reminiscent of early noughties grunge-poppers JJ72, who's debut album I remember fondly.

A few solid riffs and obvious potential aside there is little here to recommend to anyone aside from devoted grunge enthusiasts (they still exist right?).

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