Red
Until We Have Faces

Having already reviewed both albums by Red that have been released, I feel it's right to write something about this third work, "Until We Have Faces," which I had been waiting for since September 2010: the band, in fact, had announced that the album would be heavier than the other two. Then, at the beginning of December, when I heard "Feed The Machine", my excitement doubled. Even after listening to the single "Faceless", despite being a much more banal song than the other, I continued to wait for the first of February with eyes wide open.

Too bad for the disappointment that I found in my hands. Indeed, it must be admitted that there was a more Heavy turn in the band's sound, but a Pop component remains integrated, which is quite annoying. Songs like "Lie To Me (Denial)" or "Buried Beneath" could have turned out much better if only Red had pushed a bit more on the pedal of aggressiveness. The whole album has the flaw of never managing to take off: except for the furious opener "Feed The Machine", which is one of the few real surprises of the album, I find nothing as heavy as was announced, except for the angry "The Outside".

All the others are typical band songs, from the banal "Faceless" to the passionate "Lie To Me (Denial)", up to the worst song ever written by the band, that is the sappy and bland ballad Best Is Yet To Come. But, after all, this "Until We Have Faces" also has numerous merits: first of all the violence of "Feed The Machine," "Watch You Crawl" and "The Outside," then the emotion with which "Who We Are" is interpreted. We also have the poor copy of the old "Take It All Away" (from Innocence & Instinct): I'm obviously talking about "Hymn For The Missing", which practically presents the same sound, but is much less intense.

Regarding the ballads, the best is "Not Alone", which reeks a lot of Linkin Park but adds something that Shinoda and Bennington's band doesn't have: perhaps a greater expressive strength, perhaps a stronger pathos. The worst ballad, as already mentioned, is "Best Is Yet To Come", of really impressive banality, lazy and sleepy as I had never heard before.

A further flaw of the album is, besides the too many slow songs, their proximity. The first two, "Let It Burn" and "Not Alone", have "Buried Beneath" in the middle, which is a song that doesn't work at that point. You'll realize it by listening to the album. The others, "Best Is Yet To Come" and "Hymn For The Missing", are the last two tracks of "Until We Have Faces": I'll let you imagine how you can feel after listening to them in a row...

Then, we have a bonus track, that is the title-track "Until We Have Faces". A song of only 2 and a half minutes composed 90% only of music. Where is the sense? What is the point of writing such a song? Wouldn't it have been better to record a real song rather than a useless interlude? Perhaps the band, after three albums, is at the limit of their creative resources? I don't want to alarm myself too much, but repetitive and boring songs like "Let It Burn," "Hymn For The Missing" and "Best Is Yet To Come" make me fear the worst. I give it a passing grade only for the trust I have in their producer Rob Graves, who has proven to be up to the task. But next time, Rob, don't announce a heavy album and then give us as many as four ballads out of eleven songs.

I don't know what your concept of Metal is, but since this band considers itself as such (see here to believe it), they might as well shake things up and come out with something more decent.