Until We Have Faces
Posted January 30, 2011
By Crownless,
4 Stars/85%
Red’s been making waves in the Christian and mainstream markets since 2006. End of Silence, of Breathe Into Me, Already Over, and Wasting Time fame, was one of the best selling Christian records of that year (along with Skillet’s Comatose and Flyleaf’s eponymous.) Innocence and Instinct turned everything up a notch in 2009, with better production and more in depth lyrics. The disc contains some of my favorite Red songs, such as Forever and Death of Me. Now, a mere 2 years later, Red’s put out another record and the question on everyone’s mind is whether they will keep the upward trend, and continue to improve upon the sound from Innocence and Instinct, or will they try to appease fans and the mainstream, to disastrous results.
Until We Have Faces kicks off brutally with the most aggressive song on the record, Feed the Machine. Its blend of heaviness and chaos with more calm, passive pieces makes it thrilling to listen to. The bridge features schizophrenic whispering before Michael begins screaming “Wake up!” The song, however, is very similar to something Breaking Benjamin would put out, and the extended outro tends to result in skipping the last minute-and-a-half. Faceless continues the energy output, with a song that has a much more “Red” feel to it. Faceless is the title track, so to speak, as the bridge states “We are the nameless…. we are the faceless…. we are the hopeless…. Until we have faces!” The song speaks of the struggle within all of us to be a nobody – to blend into the world, to take the path of least resistance. But then we realize the desire comes from the whisperings of a monster, the enemy. The chorus is a plea to God, asking for a solution “Can You replace this, so hollow and faceless?”
Lie to Me (Denial) has a creepy sounding string intro, before blistering guitars kick in – with one even sounding like it’s bordering on a melodic metal. The song is from God to the listener, taking the part of an abused partner in a relationship. The chorus proclaims “Lie to me! You can feel that this love was never real. Walk away, but you can learn to love again. Lie to me! You can leave; I’ll still be here when you see you’re not alone. You don’t have to run again and leave me in denial!” Let it Burn is the album’s first ballad, and while it’s not my favorite one, I found myself humming this one’s chorus, regardless. It’s not your typical kind of catchy, but still has a melody that sticks in your head regardless. The song speaks of all the negativity we endure, and asks how long we’ll be willing to endure when there’s a cure within our reach – God.
Buried Beneath sounds very much like a 12 Stones song, even the way Michael sings. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not as creative as Lie to Me or Faceless. The song is a plea to God to save us from being “Buried beneath” our sins and everyday lives. Not Alone is a very slow song, and one of the weakest cuts from Until We Have Faces. It’s not necessarily bad – I can see myself enjoying it every once in awhile, but it’s not a “hit repeat” song either. The song is again from God to the listener, reminding them that He’s always with them, through the good and bad. Watch You Crawl kicks things into high-gear again, though it sounds similar to Kutless circa To Know That You’re Alive – specifically The Disease and the Cure or the title track. The songs is basically a large middle finger to what I refer to as “the thief” in the case of songs like this (It’s Not Me from Skillet, Game On by Disciple, etc), referring to the Bible verse stating “the thief….comes to destroy….”
If Feed the Machine is the most aggressive and chaotic, The Outside is the straight-up heaviest. Featuring heavily aggressive vocals from Michael and constant riffing (rather than the guitar stopping during the verses, which is so prevalent on most other songs of the record), this song is sure to please fans of Let Go, Confession, and Out from Under from previous Red records. The chorus is slightly more melodic, but the song is pretty consistently heavy. Who We Are is my personal favorite. It’s a rock anthem, declaring “We can be who we are, now we are alive. We can fight, they cannot contain us. It’s who we are – we are undying, we are forever. We won’t hide our faces from the light, eliminate the space between us. It’s who we are – we are forever, it’s who we are.” The bridge is Michael screaming “We will not die! We’ll never die! We will not deny! Now we are alive!” It’s an awesome, positive song to just get pumped up, physically and spiritually, to.
The record closes with two slower songs. Best is Yet to Come, my favorite slow song on the record, is a reflective song that also looks toward the future in a positive light, stating “After all that we’ve been through, and after all we’ve left in pieces, I still believe our lives have just begun. Now the past can be outrun, and I know You are the reason, I still believe the best is yet to come.” Hymn of the Missing is extremely slow, piano ballad, beautiful as a record closer. As an individual song, however, it doesn’t have very high replay value.
To answer the question I posed in the intro, the trend is still upward. Until We Have Faces is not only more overtly Christian than Innocence and Instinct, it fixes one of the main complaints I had about the record – the production and songwriting focus seemed centered around the first 2 tracks, and few other songs, but others were left obviously weaker in both departments. On this album, all track gets equal treatment, especially in production – they all sound great. However, a few things do stick out that could have been better – first is the track order. This is supposed to be a hard rock album, and is. However, a few things, such as ending with two ballads in a row (Alien Youth, anybody) and having a ballad-heavy-ballad section throw the momentum slightly. Another rocker or two and a slight rearrangement of the track order might have made this record better. Also, three of the ballads are fairly weak, and 2 of them are really record-only – that is, they fit in the record, complete it, but I wouldn’t listen to them outside of it. Finally, all the songs follow the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus format. Variation, anyone? I guess not. Expanding on that, in the bridges, there is not one song that contains a guitar solo. None. That’s slightly deterrent, however Red’s sound manages to make it seem like the songs are complete anyway, so that’s not a huge complaint.
My favorite tracks:
Who We Are
Faceless
Lie to Me (Denial)
Best Is Yet to Come
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