Review: Face Down - The Twisted Rule The Wicked (1998)

Two years after the smashing debut album "Mindfield" was released via Roadrunner Records, Swedish post-thrash/death metal act Face Down released its second album in early 1998, entitled "The Twisted Rule The Wicked". Some things had changed during those two years - a few line-up changes, a label change, and probably a whole lot more. We get to understand this as my first expression is that these guys seemed to be really pissed off during this period - at probably pretty much everything and everyone.

While "Mindfield" was rooted in a slower kind of pissed off 90's metal, like bands such as early Machine Head, Pantera, Fear Factory, or fellow swedes B-Thong and Misery Loves Company, this one has certainly geared up a few levels. It's overall more brutal in terms of speed, aggression and riffing, coming closer to the death metal aggression of bands such as Dismember and Entombed rather than Machine Head. The album's production also proves this, as it's an overall rawer and dirtier sound this time around.
 The album was originally recorded with Thomas Skogsberg who did all the legendary Swedish death metal albums in the 90's, but the band's new label Nuclear Blast apparently didn't approve of the final product. The band therefore re-recorded almost the whole album with "Mindfield" producer Daniel Bergstrand instead. There are still three tunes recorded with Skogsberg present here, and you can clearly hear in the industrial "Top Of The World" that it has a sound similar to Dismember's "Death Metal" album, which was released the previous year, whilst the other tracks sound groovier and cleaner.

The album's twelve songs still have the same kind of arrangements and patterns that Face Down presented on their debut, with no guitar solos present apart from in "Cleansweep". Although the album also is different in some ways to "Mindfield", the songs still feel very much like Face Down. The lyrical themes deal with the same kind of subjects as well.

The line-up changes have improved, however, with then new drummer Peter Stjärnvind (who would soon leave to replace Nicke Andersson in Entombed) definitely being a step up. Compared to the band's old drummer Richard Bång, Peter plays in a similar style but with more intensity and aggression, while he also plays very precisely. Henrik Blomquist who did "audio warfare" (simply just sampling) is gone, but we still get some movie samples this time around as well. The band also had some guest musician doing keyboards on "Mindfield", but those are long gone on this record. It's clear that the band aimed for an angrier and rawer sound, which to my disappointment leaves out much of the atmosphere and musical depth Face Down got into their music before. There are no tunes that sound like "Hatred" or "Holy Rage" from the debut here, and I really dug that shit.

My conclusion is that this album ultimately is a somewhat stripped-down, angrier and more brutal album than its predecessor. It's a really solid collection of headbangers, moshers and fighting themes present here, but it tends to get somewhat repetitive in the long run. I really miss the variety in songs and track-list layout of "Mindfield" here, as it's a much more dynamic listening experience than this one. However, if you are really pissed off, fighting some douchebag, or if your girlfriend left you and your reaction is anger rather than depression and Type O Negative, then this album is very much suitable for you.

Stand-outs: Self-Appointed God, Waste, Bed Of Roaches, Cleansweep.

Rating: 78/100

Face Down - Mindfield (1995)

Back in 2008 and 2009 I was very much into (early) 90's metal - Pantera, early Machine Head, Fear Factory, Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, Mordred, and too many others. Besides funky bands I think it was bands with great grooves that especially caught my attention. I don't like nu metal, and I never did, but I always liked funk and that groovy, almost "danceable" metal sound that some bands had.

Since I'm Swedish I've always been very interested in my own country's musical scene. There were lots of great heavy metal bands in Sweden during the 80's, and in the 90's Sweden ruled the earth with its finest death metal (Dismember!!). But other than death metal, I never really heard about bands that followed any of the American trends during the 90's. That was, however, until I read a 1996 mag of Metal Hammer that I bought in an auction. In this mag I read about this new and fresh band Face Down, which was described as a Swedish answer to Machine Head.

I managed to track down my own copy of the CD which was reviewed in that mag, which was their debut album "Mindfield". When I heard it I instantly heard those Machine Head influences, but it was still different. Compared to Machine Head, Face Down had less of the many hardcore-punk influences of Machine Head, and instead the influence of Swedish death metal. Now this is something I actually appreciate more, since I dig hardcore-punk, but never was a huge fan of it.

The "Mindfield" CD was played a lot in my old boy room back in 2009. I really their sound, like a darker and somewhat doomier sounding Machine Head, with Pantera's tight and heavy album sound, completed with Swedish death metal-thick guitars. Then at some point, I ventured further into the music world to discover more styles of a different kind (bands like The Doors, for instance), and so I kind of forgot about Face Down.

I recently rediscovered the album (and band), and "Mindfield" has been played a lot at my crib lately, which my girlfriend Linn ain't too fond of, as she's not into that 90's metal sound. I've also listened a lot to their second album "The Twisted Rule The Wicked", which I liked back in the day as well, but not as much. Today, however, I appreciate it a lot more. It's more brutal and sounds a lot more raw, which is the reason I didn't like that one as much back in 2009. I think it sounds like a more brutal brother of Testament's album "Low". But I always really liked the machine-sounding production on "Mindfield", it suits the music perfectly, just like with Pantera and their albums.

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I wrote an album review of "Mindfield" for the Metal Archives back in 2009, here it is:

"The first real feeling I got from this album upon hearing it was that it sounded like these guys was, or could've been a great Machine Head cover band in their formative days. I also later found out that they formed as Machine God. I don't think there's too much speculation from where their inspiration comes from. But anyhow, these guys weren't maybe groundbreaking, but they did in fact do some good metal music. I guess that this album could pretty much be described as a follow-up by Machine Head with different singer, 'cause they're very much alike. Another great thing I love with this album is that they've got "audio warfare" as they call it, which basically is keyboards. It gives the tunes the right athmosphere and it can probably remind a little of industrial metal as well.

All of the songs are heavy as hell and some are slower while others are faster. Some songs, mostly "One Eyed Man" and "Save Me, Kill Me" are like ballads with heavier and/or faster parties. "Hatred" is a song that pretty much catched everything this album's about. It starts off heavy and mid-fast and goes into an epic mid-section before ending pretty damn aggresssive. The most important about the album is probably Marco Arco, the singer (later in The Haunted, yes). The guy has gotta have some angry feelinga inside him since he screams the hell outta his loungs. The production is pretty nice, could've been better but it could've also been worse.

In it's whole I think the title "Mindfield" lives up to itself. This ten-pack of "post-thrash" explosives is defenitely of my recommendation. Also, if you're a fan of bands like Machine Head, Exhorder, Pantera, Lamb of God etc., and it'd actually turn out that you like Face Down ... Then check out the Swedish band Brainwave and their album "Outstretched". It's the same deal as this one. Enjoy!"

Watain live @ Malmöfestivalen

Watain came and played at Malmöfestivalen (the Malmö Festival), southern Sweden, on august 18 at 10 p.m. I took the train down to Malmö with my babe Linn and our friend Dennis. Since it was a festival slot, it was only an hour long, but it was fucking great anyway! It was my and Linn's first time witnessing their satanic ceremony, and it was the most powerful thing I ever witnessed. The power was just amazing, and they chose some very good songs for the playing slot given.

I wish their slot would've been longer so that they could've played more songs, as I've been real eager to hear my favorite - the amazing, haunting and powerful "Waters of Ain". But maybe I'll get that the next time, because it will be a next time! I usually don't care to see bands live twice, but in Watain's case I am just too eager to witness their ceremony again. The highlights were "Black Flames March" and "The Wild Hunt". The audience was really into them, which is fun because so many "trve kvlt" fans won't actually agree that they like (the album) "The Wild Hunt". It was a great night!

Watch Dogs: Thoughts and opinions

Watch Dogs - the most hyped game of 2014? I would say so, at least from what I've seen and heard around the globe. I have been very keen to try it out as well, as I was completely blown away when I saw it presented at E3 back in 2012 (who weren't?). So now the game is finally out, after quite a delay and yada yada. I was not a first-day-buyer this time around since I was short on cash and there was some other stuff I wanted more at the time. Now I have tried it out, however, since the local library is awesome and has got lots of games for a very cheap rent price, so I booked it about a month back.

Yesterday it was finally my turn to get my hands on it, and I sure did. I went home straight away to try it out, installed it and launched it. My personal anticipation had pretty much died during the month I had to wait, and the lukewarm reception from fans I've heard and seen during that time didn't help me either. But finally, I was playing Watch Dogs for the first time ever.

The intro is immediately very 50/50. It's kind of interesting, but mostly I wasn't very impressed ... at all. To be honest, what was I going to expect from it? I don't know, I just love free-roam and open-world games. I pretty much try everything that is one, and I'm horny as hell about the GTA-series, have always been. With that said, I didn't even know what I expected, but it sure was something more unique (the hype has been big, especially from Ubisoft themselves) than this.

After the very mediocre introduction, I'm launched into some action gameplay. Now this is looking more promising, thank Satan, and I play on. Since I'm a constant GTA-player I'm used to these kind of controls, so I pretty much get a hold of it quickly. That's probably the first thing I notice - the controls - and I don't like them. Overall they do feel clumpsy, yet still somewhat dynamic. It's so 50/50. Later on I also notice, probably the biggest question, the graphics and their overall feel and looks. What can I say? This is so goddamn totally disappointing! When we saw this game being presented at E3 back in 2012, everyone was blown away! But now, this just looks like and old and ugly piece of shit game made in like 2007.

Now I'm pretty disappointed. Sure, even I get that an Xbox 360 would never be able to recreate those graphics we were presented with at E3, but this is silly, really. There are so many more games, which are several years old now, that look so much better than Watch Dogs. I wasn't expecting those E3 graphics, but I did fucking expect more than this. Now it's up to everything else to surprise me, but that pretty much doesn't happen either.

I play on and I'm not really getting curious about the story. It feels unoriginal and is just told in a boring way that it has been told too many times before. I also heard quite many people state that while the graphics were not up to expectations, the combat should be good, as some people called it, "a good shooter". Well, I cannot really agree there neither. This was like the last drop for me - the shooting and combat system just fucking sucks, and it's boring. The hacking was also highly spoken of by Ubisoft as something "fresh and unique". Yeah, right. You press and hold the X-button everytime. Once in a while you get like a small mini-game where you must hack. But I have seen and done this all before. Particularly in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is a very good game by the way, you get to do a lot of hacking, which is much more developed and fun than in Watch Dogs.

Really, what can I say? I'm so goddamn disappointed with this game. I was very hyped about it before it's release, and while it calmed down after its release, I still was looking forward to play it. Now the only consolation I've got after two years wait is that I did not buy it. I rented it for 15 Swedish kronor (about 2 bucks). I'm happy that I did not buy it for like 70-80 bucks. That is a consolation that I'm very happy out, and sadly enough, it's the only thing I am happy about with this game.

I give Watch Dogs a greatly disappointing 3/10.

Into The Pentagram: New Demo Available!

We've just finished our new second demo, entitled "Wolves Of The Blackened Moon". We've done a hundred cassette-tapes this time around as well.. Maybe we will make vinyls as well down the road, but not at this moment as it costs way too much.

The track-list is:

1. Enter The Realm
2. The Garden Of Death
3. Transylvanian Necromancy (*earlier called "Necromancing In Transylvania")
4. Wolves Of The Blackened Moon
5. Across The Sea Of Fire
6. The Screaming Wall
7. A Stream Of Darkness

For more info, contact me! The demo will be 10 euro + shipping. (SOLD OUT as of 02/'15)

Studio Report: Into The Pentagram

Yesterday we entered the studio again! We will be working on a few new songs for the time being, and we're also thinking about reworking some old Deva material into more ITP-sounding death/black metal material. We'll see what happens regarding that. It's fun to be working hard once again. It was many years ago since Deva had this kind of spirit and working morality. We were a bunch of lazy fucking bums for the last 4-5 years, no wonder it didn't work out...

 

Daniel is checking out the equipment we're going to use - keyboards and pads.

We're thinking about doing at least like four tunes this time around. We are also planning on either releasing a new demo, like a part II of our concept story, or a single, probably pressed in vinyl, or actually making it all into our first official album, but we ain't sure yet. We do not wanna stress too much with putting out our first full-length and such yet. It feels better and more fun to demo around for a while before the "big" things come out. Demos are also more interesting anyways, so...

 

I'm warming up with some growling and black metal screaming, ready to rock 'n' roll!

I feel great about the things to come. It's real good to be back in the game for real again. Stay tuned!

Debut gig: Into The Pentagram

Last saturday, May 31, we did our very first gig as Into The Pentagram, and that was a lot of fun! We have been rehearsing intensely for the past few weeks in preparation for this gig and other upcoming. The band is still officially only Daniel and I, but we got some helping out from our buddies Oscar (bass) and Kristoffer (vocals) so we were able to perform. Daniel did the guitars of course, and I handled all the drumming as well as some vocals. Thanx to all friends and randoms that came out and banged their heads with us!

Oscar (bass), Kristoffer (vocals), Daniel (guitar), and I (drums, vocals)

We played ITP material as well as a few Deva "classics" and two covers. The set-list was:

1. Lucifer Rises

2. The Ritual

3. Mental Destruction [Devastation (Swe) cover]

4. Malfeitor [Watain cover]

5. Necromancing In Transylvania [new song]

6. Death Row [Devastation (Swe) cover]

7. The Oath [Mercyful Fate cover]

8. Black Riders In The Realm Of Death [new song]

9. Into The Pentagram