Painface gets a thumbs up from me. The band might be well-known to most of you readers, since their singer, Anders Colsefni, was at one time the singer of Slipknot, and released an album with them (Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat., which I truly dislike.) Allow me to be the first to tell you, though, that, besides both being metal bands, this has nothing similar to Slipknot. Painface has a less hardcore / more plain metal vibe than Slipknot.
Fleshcraft was actually a surprise to me, I must say. I never even expected it to be half as good as it is. I guess the only disappointing thing about it is Anders vocals. Let truth be told, Anders has a frigging annoying voice. You end up getting used to it after some listens, but damn, it took THAT long for me to get used to his voice. Thing is, even with his voice being that boring, it actually ends up working well with Painface's sound, especially in the heavier songs. Songs like Fallen Silent (which standout on the record for having a more "darker" side than the others) though, sounds almost pathetic with Anders trying to pass somewhat of a depressive feeling through his voice. Listening to Polymer, a song which Anders shares the lead vocals with someone, probably one of the other members, makes clear how his voice isn't very good. The other dude's voice sounds so much better it's not even funny. In my opinion, Anders' voice works better when the song has a more rapmetal vibe, like Cave Dancer or Failed, a song which you can actually listen to his normal voice, and not that forced one he usually uses. To my surprise, he actually has an okay flow. Who would have guessed?
The music itself is actually really surprising. Guitars are actually cool, with creative and, overall, catchy riffs. I don't know why, Pulkas' name keep reaching my head everytime I listen to the riffs, even though I can't hear much similarity on both bands. Maybe it's because Pulkas also has some real catchy riffs. Drums courtesy of Chad are kinda weird. During the album, there are songs when the drums are precise and really cool, but in others, it sounds so plain it makes me get angry. Anyway, it gets it's job and done on providing a solid background with bassist Jeremy.
Some tracks that stands out are Failed, Polymer and Cave Dancer, being all three the songs more pushed to the "rapmetal" vibe, and Outward, heaviest and catchiest song of the album. Overall, the album as whole doesn't have any really terrible song, even though Fallen Silent gets the prize for the most terrible vocal lines ever. My advice to Anders would be for him to try and sing a little more with his own voice. The forced one he uses ends up to be a little annoying after 3 or 4 songs. Either that, or let the dude who sings with him on Polymer sing more often.
I'm definitely sure Painface put their best in this album and they have succeeded on releasing a true metal record that, even lacking on originality, exceedes on excitement for the listener. A really nice CD that shows their gigantic potential. Once again, they get a thumbs up for me.
(4 / 5)
