Powerface are not afraid to flaunt their own weight as they slam through this EP's 5 tracks, carving out guitar driven songs flush with effects and a generally electronically enhanced sound. The group bring to mind a cross of something along the lines of Disturbed and Dope, but aren't copycats of the aforementioned acts and instead share similar elements and tack them onto their own thick blend of modern metal.
Vocally, an unrelenting staccato flow of words is used in a staggered manner that heavily brings to mind Disturbed, but instead of having flagrant nasal overtones, the spoken portion of this CD treads into throat wrenching screams and pissed off wails. A lot of vocal effects are used to give the verbal aspect a somewhat inhuman feel similar to acts like Dope, but the mood of group frontman Jerm seems more involved and aggravated. Guitars use a slightly muddy sounding distortion to scrape out their riffs which are heavy on repetition as they jump through inherently compact chord patterns. Bass is downtuned to a rubbery low that adds the always necessary extra depth to the material as it ambitiously follows the guitars lead, only becoming starkly detectable during the occasional fill or melodic breakdown. The drums on the other hand, hammer out defined beats that are expressed in a dull tuning and ample snare variation. Some impressive rolls are pounded out here and there and the roomy kick drum sound vigorously shoves the songs forward with piston like flurries. There's even the occasional tribal sounding excursion to give the material a wider scope but as a whole, the percussive experience is quite straight forward.
From start to end the band experiment with a lot of textured sounds that are accentuated with the use of effects and a slightly ethereal sound. The songwriting features some interesting parts and the band seems to shine the most in their horizon broadening breakdowns that can take the listener on a serene, winding journey. But there is also a thin line between clever implementation and excess the group need to learn, as the sound can rapidly become tiring with the constant use of effects clouding up the songs and making the change of song parts lose any chance of dynamic crunch or bite. The slightly muddy sound just doesn't not bode well for the band as the songs also lack any drastic variation and can begin to blur into each other, which is no doubt something that is brought out even more by the overuse of certain elements of their technological repertoire. With all this at play, its hard to honestly get into the music as a whole and it winds up being only the few times when they really go out of their element into spiraling melodic breakdowns that the listeners attention is grabbed. Powerface may have a lot of power and energy to fuel their music, but without some downtime or greatly charged surges, it will stay as nothing more than an unchanging current which will of course get the job done, but not in the most interesting or innovative way.
(3 / 5)
