For Today-Ekklesia

Facedown
2008

This band has some definite possibilities yet this probably is not going to be the disc where they prove or define themselves. However, that doesn't mean that they didn't show some progress here. If I had to define this album with one word it would be "uneven", but I guess one word reviews are not all that fair so I need to expand on that idea. This is some sort of metalcore, but that doesn't tell a whole lot either. The guitars are quite different for this style because almost every single track starts with an exercise of swirling, bending riffs that surprisingly have almost a progressive flair. Yet most of those riffs fade rather quickly and unfortunately they serve more as pretty set pieces than as the backbone of the songs. The bass is what it should be be which is deep, churning and steady as clockwork. The drums are decent, but perhaps not as much in the foreground as they needed to be. The killer (in a very bad sense) are the vocals because they start at annoying and work their way down. Any message they hoped to pass is lost in the growls and off kilter ramblings that made my stomach feel sour. They do have some strong parts musically, but the downfall was they just had no idea how to tie them together to compliment each other. It was like different parts floating out there not really reaching for help so the results were a very scattered sound. There is potential in the playing and the production was everything it needed to be, but the poor vocals and lack of cohesion kept it off course.

http://myspace.com/fortoday