REVIEWS

Slightly later, but yet I got the first record of South-Moravian Bad Face. The group, relatively new, has the luck of having experienced musicians involved. The line-up list includes musicians from legendary Krabathor, Hypnos, or Depression. It's clear beforehand that instrumental quality is at a high level.
The CD contains 12 songs - emotions and one bonus song - Chromosomes sung in Czech. The booklet is not neglected, nothing important is missing. The total time footage spans near to 50 minutes. Let's listen to it... The sound radiates density, it's metallic, all instruments clearly audible. If I compared, hearing the guitars, I'd say it's like Soulfly, similar. Anyway, all the musical appearance of Bad Face is tailored in the Soulfly fashion, although inadvertently. The songs are generally designed as a middle or faster tempo with numerous elements of metalcore, with distinctive death metal tracks, the invincible roots of Bad Face. Their musical skills have the token of quality and the listening is a fine experience. Many swings in tempo or rhythm make the listening vivid and exciting. The singing fits perfectly, showing off the bright face of Bad Face. I'd appreciate more aggression in vocals, in the contrast I assume the Bad Face wanted the modern sound. Well, ok. My number one is the bonus song, no only for the text in Czech fitting impeccably to Bad Face style. It's such a representative song I recommend to listen as a tasting.
It's the first album of Bad Face. Technically the album is simply perfect, just sometimes I miss a specific mood of the music, it would lift up the well-done texts higher. I believe the next album will put the bar at least one level up, the guys know how to do it. What a pity it'd be if the Bad Face got lost in the mists of many similarly grounded groups.

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Vader (69%)

I have never been obsessive about modern deathcore pandemia. Most of groups playing this style seem to me as if moulded in the same pattern. Despite this, I have to admit, BAD FACE from the Czech Republic make me quite surprised. Although their debut "Emotions Burn" has all typical and well-known features of the style, Emotions is a creature having both "head and heel". Bad Face - core includes a brutal, vomiting, roaring singer's voice, novel and interesting music inventions and not least irresistibly groovy, driving guitar riffes.
Bad Face founded brothers Rad and Skull. Rad played his Gibson X-plorer for HYPNOS or SHAARK, Skull became famous as a drummer in KRABATHOR, MARTYR and for certain time in Speckmann's MASTER. Both brothers have a long time continuing music career, proved by years in rehearsal rooms, stages and recordind studios.
I think, that if there were more such groups like BAD FACE, my relation to a present-time deatcore fashion would be much more better and positive. In the contrary, I would prefer as few such groups as possible. By this BAD FACE can keep and carry their original, catchy state of exceptionality.
Guys are excellent musicians, Pawel shouts, bellows, roars as Ares himself, his voice causes chilling feelings and excitement inside me. Indeed, my ass is more struck and tightened only when I listen to Martin van Drunen's voice at his time in PESTILENCE and ASPHYX. BAD FACE combine scarifying brutality and splendid melodies, accompanied by trips into fields of rock, this is something what is not possible to hear too often from deathcore producing groups. It is not easy to describe where the BAD FACE draw their inspiration from, among other remarkable attributes. Definitely they have a large source of "music knowledge", and through their well-crafted music skills they manage to remelt all the ingredients into an individual, deeply impressive mixture.
The answer for a question, what they sound like, might be brief: " Like BAD FACE!"

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Blackmoon *****

A brother's duo dominates to new groupment of BAD FACE, a duo which once stood on both sides of divided Krabathor's basic members. In BAD FACE the brothers combine deathmetal experience with thrash riffes, creating densy, solid, consisting sound, and the more this mortal combination tears itself out of chains of control, the better the result is.  
Songs declared as emotions don't suffer for lack of freshing melodic lines, but the feature is not managed and developed fully. The collection of emotions sticks in a very good, but not extraordinary achievement. The final product is a crafted, skilfull album, neither displeaseful nor heaventaking. The album complements one bonus song "Chromozomes" sung in Czech.

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Ladislav Oliva

New group and experienced belters as members - it could be an easy Bad Face description. Skull (ex-Martyr, ex-Krabathor, ex-Master), Rad (ex-Hypnos, ex-Shaark), Pawel (ex-Decay), later they took bass-player Ritchie. After three years they've just released their debut CD. Two recordings had been published before, but my first experience with Bad Face happened when DVD Shadows From Underground was released lately. The DVD contains video clip Chromosomes, and I think, that Bad Face chose very representative song, having high ambitions, of course in limits of style. The style, it's problematic to define it. Images on Bad Face t-shirts can read power thrash or death core. Here and there our ears hit electronic samples, just for surface finishing and completing, fortunately nothing like trendy nu-metal performs.
During my first listening to CD I couldn't get on well the sound, as if unclean, shadowy, and the singer's voice and his timbre. But with increasing number of listenings these attributes were becoming less important, basically, I got used to it. I got used to Pawel's voice, covered and blurred. The singer tries to work with it, so besides angry shoutings the singer comes with recitations or with an attempt of civilised singing in few refrains. I got used to guitar sound, "droning", and that the drum set sounds like "from old school". On the other hand, Skull's snare drum doesn't sound as a hollow barrel, it's heavy and bass-deep. By the way, I like Skull's performance a lot, it's brief, clear and comprehensive, without useless extravagance, which would be contraproductive. The best work is done for bass guitar. The bass is perfectly audiable and sometimes it emerges in foreground as a leading instrument.
A short guitar intro starts the album, with integrated a suffering woman's voice. Then, it comes. About fifty minutes agressive, energetic avalanche. Straightly, the first song "Rubious Eyes" is a merciless, fast beating with no chance for a rest. "Attack Of Wolves" pretends to be boring initially, but the refrain diverts the song into a potential hit, and a guitar solo in a final part surprises lovely. While "Attack Of Wolves" just slightly touches a hit ambition, "Chromosomes" is a real hit completely down the line. A soft start does not indicate at all, that with the refrain are coming the strongest moments of the album - melodies attacking subconsciousness supported by perfectly fitting artificial sounds - here I would prefer a melodic vocal, even though roar it's fine. "Speak With Me" just passes around and leaves some time for taking breath, before the next and very strong "Drowsing To Expectation" strikes, with creative melodies hidden sometimes underneath the singer's overpowering voice. A pumping rhythm itself makes one's head moving "up and down", no doubt that "Drowsing To Expectation" takes a prominent position in a final audit, not only for a changed voice. A bass guitar openes "A Frank Game" up, but this song leaves me unimpressed. A cock crows, then alarm comes, furiously fast core, again nonviolent samples (sorry if it's played on a guitar), then an original guitar solo slowing down the song. Then again extreme agression, with stepping out to the another concert hit. A song in a slower tempo follows, probably the most ingenious work containing lots of concealed witty tricks, apparent after multiple listenings - it suggests connection to the name of the album, emotions are sensible a lot on background. And the following song carries on, in its opening, from where the previous emotional song finishes. But after a while the song transfers in spaces, where I don't like Bad Face so much, in a middle tempo. Well, with drums crossfire, roarings, and nice guitar line dived in sound, but it doesn't help as well as a speedy part in the second half. Generally, as the end of the disc comes near, the tempo slows down. The evidence is in "Story About". The song is in a slow tempo mainly, and a blurred recitation intensifies dreary feelings. The last song again prefers feelings and slower tempos, not my favourite song. The collection closes "Chromosomes" bonus in Czech. The song looks like recorded again, without samples, the sound rough. Probably it is not a live song, sometimes the echo effect is used for singing. The text in Czech is interesting. Although I like Czech texts very much in Czech music, for Bad Face English fits perfectly.
The cover is conservative work, always pleasant to me. Not too much creativity, just simple graphics, with all information needed, photos of musicians on a stage, texts and so on. Perhaps, the first page resembles the covers of Wawe or Sad Harmony - so many eyes recently.
Generally Bad Face surprised me, Emotions Burn is a top quality product without questions. I would have even given better classification, if there had not been a few weaker songs. Those weeker songs, it's just an instant view of mine, somebody else may hear it absolutely differently. Despite a couple of objections, Emotions Burn is high above average, having songs that evoke pure pleasure. Somebody else may hear it absolutely differently (laughter). I've never been bored while listening, and I believe at concerts nobody will be bored. Yeah, and instrumental technique, par excellence !!!

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Johan

Somehow I had the name Bad Face fixed as core, and I listen to the style just ocassionally. So that's logic, that we have never met until now, when I'm about to write a review of Bad Face's debut album Emotions Burn, released by Elysion. Let me say, I'm surprised at what is surging around me from speakers. After two EP's (Good Time To Wake Up, 2004 and Speak With Us, 2005) and a disc, compiled from these two (Opening Years 2006), Bad Face decided to push things forward and they've done it stunningly well. First, what petrifies me, is a killing sound, sometimes shifting the core to death metal cesspool, this corresponds to my likings a lot. If I look at the members list, no wonder that it sounds like this. The members have past experience in Hypnos or Decay, not to mention Skull's presence in the best Krabathor's album "Cool Mortification".
Very important factor is the sound, the recording studio Sound Design Paradox (Hodonin, CZ) made the best. The vivid, solid and energetic wall of sound in an opening song "Rubious Eyes" sweeps me down right after a short intro. The onset is really massive, my lower jaw slowly goes up after half minute massacre, initiated by Bad Face.
A straightgoing turmoil boosted by stylish, angry vocal, the vocal keeps the sound generally in core line. This style, core, is exposed more widely in upcoming parts, but still it is fine for me, for the "metal flavour". Slower "Attack Of Wolves" is more structured, yet with no lose of energy, exploded at the album's beginning. A short guitar solo flashes through the end. The anger filling both songs is amplified by texts, in which mirrors the quick solution "shortly by hand", and it corresponds fully with no-compromise music demonstration. "Chromosomes" seems to be nominated as the hit of the album. A perfect concert song with a strong refrain, this will always be functioning. I think everyone must be brought down by selfconfidence, by which is the music-massacre served - the forceful point of "Emotions Burn". Next "Speak With Me" doesn't even slow the highly set tempo. At the end of the song I see, that although Bad Face have their own sound, all Cavalera-buffs will piss blood while listening to the ending of the song. "Drowsing To Expectation", from the very beginning it's a song that let not anybody to stay motionless, it will surely move you even though you're sitting in an armchair in your home. At the end of "A Frank Game" I think about Max again, precisely because this is a bloody good song and I like it. "Barrier Of Stupidity" runs the killing machine faster again, after slower swinging songs I can only welcome that. My ears gradually accustom to the sound, in the last third the tempo slows down and abandons the devastating violence. In the contrast, the fast part in "Sad Man's Theatre" is a cool alteration. Generally in this part of the disc Bad Face operates mainly with emotions and moods.
As the last song, bonus "Chromosomes" comes. An interesting attempt of how could Bad Face sound in Czech. It's all right, Bad Face chose English though, the language of modern music, much better option. It's not easy to write a good text in Czech.
Bad Face made a good impression, and either if you like just core or you're metal "omnivore", you will like it as do I. A prestigious covering goes hand in hand together with imposing quality of music. Definitely, an export article ...

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Demimortus

Bad Face is unknown to me, fortunately I got mini CD and a leaflet with basic information. So: Bad Face was founded in Uhersky Brod (CZ) in 2004. The initial impulsion lies on an agreement between two brothers Skull (Proscription, Krabathor) and R.A.D. (Proscription, Stagnant, Hypnos, Shaark). Several months later Pawel (Decay) joined the brothers as a singer, and Espin (Mouchys) as a bass guitar player. In September 2004 Bad Face recorded their first EP - Good Time To Wake Up, in the Shaark studio. Soon after Dan (Depression) came as a second guitarist. But troubles inevitably came, as is the rule of an existence of many music groups. Espin left Bad Face and they were seeking for new bass guitar player.
About music: Bad Face play death metal. In my taste there is too much compromise and the first listening says nothing to me. After second I see, that is difficult to write review for a band which is a good-class but average in creativity. Much easier is to write about definite shit. I don't know whether you know my reviews, said shortly, I like words such as splatter, sick, gore. I didn't get this from Bad Face, but they use more playing skills, the sound is at very good level and the players are perfect musicians. Truthly, I expected that the music would be much more wild and boosted, especially when the founder members are R.A.D. and Skull. But nothing like that happened, I think that the brothers founded Bad Face for having some rest. Pawel resembles Max Cavalera (in a good way), he doesn't feel like trying experiments and works with his voice quite well. Vomit is vomit, but a change is a change. First four songs are good, an easy, fine listening, but I haven't found any interesting idea, or any revolutionary changes in tempos, and I could only dream about something that would get my brain neetled. But, I have to praise "Senti", the fifth song, surely the best one in the disc. An ingeniously weepy guitar, a bastardish riff that lifted me up from a chair, in a background a fantastic frame of drums and bass, from sides Skull's cimbals attack, a skull crushing success!
Summary: I would not change anything, hovewer for future I would be glad for "a higher speed". The singer, super, sometimes he could try the deep vomit, it'll make plus. The sound is super premium.

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Caligula