Faceshift

Formed out of the ashes of Swedish death metal act Eternal Oath, a band in which all members here spent time in over the years, Faceshift take a more melodic, gothic outlook towards their musical creations. With an emphasis on placing keyboards much higher in the mix than necessary and making them the main emphasis, along with clean vocals, the quintet have taken a turn in the wrong direction with this debut effort. Coming across somewhat similar to what legendary ’90s Swedish death metallers Cemetary did when they changed their name to Sundown back in 1997, this album reeks of being a commercial cash-in and does so in a meandering, somewhat tuneless fashion that’s unlikely to broaden their fan base. If the songs had real hooks, it might be a different story but after multiple listens nothing stands out as particularly memorable.