I had exceptionally high hopes for the second full length album from Christian metalcore act, A Plea For Purging, as I really enjoyed 2007s A Critique of Mind and Thought as it delivered some Woe of Tyrants and The Showdown – like levels of shred and melodic death metal mixed with intelligent Christian themes. However, […]

Its an interesting technique that Facedown have been employing, that being nurturing a band on their subsidiary Strike First and then ushering them forward into the big league if you will. Call to Preserve were a band I passed up on when Unsinkable, surfaced, can’t recall why, put something just didn’t pull me in. So […]

3 months ago, this was the perfect summer album; peppy, energetic, uplifting melodic hardcore with injections of pop/punk catchiness that you hummed along to while driving with the windows open that came across like a Christian Bane mixed with any popular pop punk act (Blink 182, Yellowcard, Sum 41, etc) but now in the grey […]

Anymore with Facedown Records, you know what you are getting; some form of quality Christian metal, whether it be the melodic death metal (War of Ages, A Plea For Purging), catchy poppy metalcore/hardcore (Take It back, Kingston Falls), or traditional hardcore (Call to Preserve, Sleeping Giant), and now we have Wrench in the Works (basically […]

Personally, (and I’ve thought this way since 2006’s Pride of the Wicked), Pennsylvania’s War of Ages are a far superior act to the far more hyped As I Lay Dying when it comes to Christian metalcore with a heavy Gothenburg lean. That fact is only cemented with the band’s excellent third album (not counting last […]

Apparently, the sweep arpeggio is the new breakdown.  Arguably thanks to Between the Buried and Me and since successfully cloned by the likes of The Human Abstract, All Shall Perish, Protest the Hero, Veil of Maya and With Passion, here comes the second wave of kids trying their hand and deathcore/hardcore/metalcore meets arpeggios. Whereas the recent […]

Sheesh-I must be getting soft in my old age with the likes of Protest the Hero, Eyes Set To Kill, November 5, 1955, Bury Your Dead and this unassuming yet highly addictive release from Kingston Falls recently getting more airplay than the likes of excellent releases from the likes of Origin, Azaghal and Leviathan. Named […]

The press notes from the debut album of Thieves & Liars proudly proclaim that rock ‘n’ roll is not dead. If this is the best it has to offer, though, it’s certainly on life support. A concept album, When Dreams Become Reality is a muddle of 1970s retro rock that, by and large, gets the […]

And so another bunch of kids has decided to add a Southern Rock element to their hardcore base, and the end result while not terrible sounds like a virtual clone of the genres current kings, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. Though far from a bad release, and will have some appeal to those that […]

I rather enjoyed this Christian metalcore band’s debut LP, Lay Waste the Poets, so I was looking forward to this follow up, but despite a solid attempt at some Life in Your Way/Misery Signals styled harmonics and shimmering guitar work, once again the curse of the clean vocals and commercial acceptability bring the album down […]

I’ll admit to enjoying the Facedown debut, Ice Upon the Night from this relatively obscure Finnish melodic death metal act, but I’m still surprised they released a follow up on the growing Christian metal roster of Facedown, but here it is and it delivers exactly what you’d expect from their self proclaimed “Winter metal”. 11 […]

Facedown Records is quickly becoming the dominant Christian metal label, surpassing Solid State, with solid release from the likes of Seventh Star, Sleeping Giant, Inked In Blood, Impending Doom, Means, War of Ages and now Tennessse’s A Plea For Purging, who on their debut full length deliver arguably the second best metalcore record I’ve heard […]

Uh oh. I think this one is going to ruffle a few feathers. Christian metal has slowly but surely elbowing it’s way into extreme metal, but with little success. From the early defining works of Believer to the more modern, often core based sounds of today like Becoming the Archtype and Extol, the Christians have […]

Recently I have received a few atypical, sludgy hardcore releases from the likes of Protestant, The Dead See, The Fucking Wrath, Daymares and Florida’s own Christian two steppers, Seventh Star, who with The Undisputed Truth have given Facedown Records two killer Christian hardcore records in the first half of 2007 (The other being Sleeping Giant). […]

As far as Christian metalcore is concerned, with 2006’s Pride of the Wicked, Pennsylvania’s War of Ages elevated themselves into the same realm as As I Lay Dying after a pretty ho hum self titled debut in 2005. Well, they must also have felt the same about the debut as here it is again, rerecorded […]

Wow. A devastatingly heavy Christian hardcore with some serious attitude to go with their beliefs and it makes for a pretty fucking crushing debut, and one of Facedown’s better releases. Even Facedown’s other Christian acts such as Alove For Enemies, Inked In Blood and War of Ages, can’t compete with Sleeping Giant’s blatant Christian rage […]

Originality in metalcore is pretty much non-existent, I think most of us can agree on that. But I have always wondered why more bands don’t rip off better bands. So many Killswitch Engage clones, yet only a few bands seem to have focused on the ultra layered, melodic metalcore of Misery Signals or Life In […]

More religious themed metalcore following the likes of Symphony In Peril, Zao, The Showdown and Norma Jean, but unfortunately despite a valiant and impressively powerful effort, Alove For Enemies just don’t quite measure up to their peers. The main reason for their slightly lacking result is that despite a super punchy production and a plethora […]