Review Summary: A solid effort that unfortunately features a band making their own sound borderline generic while still putting out some of their best songs yet
Until We Have Faces is RED’s third studio album and was released in 2011. The album features some of the band’s heaviest work up to that time and brings in more theatrics while maintaining an even more radio-friendly sound than their previous efforts. In my opinion it is a very enjoyable album that does start to overuse and at times grow old of RED’s formula and sound they have become known for. The album has some of Red’s best opening and closing tracks and feels like the culmination of both Innocence & Instinct and End of Silence, but with more influence from Skillet and Breaking Benjamin than nu-metal, unlike the previous two records.
“Feed the Machine” opens up the album menacingly with heavy, fast guitars, and a great drum groove. The pre-choruses are intense with fast screaming before going into a soaring chorus and super heavy guitars. It’s one of my favorite RED songs and it has an incredible pacing, especially for an album opener. The song goes into a super headbangable screamed breakdown and ends with a half-time chorus in which the orchestra gets the spotlight and sounds absolutely awesome. Red always does the heavy opening tracks super well and “Feed the Machine” is no exception. The song fades out into an orchestral interlude that goes straight into “Faceless”, the lead single off the record.
Though still a great song, “Faceless” was definitely made for radio, keeping a great riff and a very catchy chorus. The guitars in this song are very choppy and the mix as Mike Barnes gives another stellar vocal performance. The breakdown in this song is rather tame for most of RED’s discography, but still headbangable with the choppy outro riff having a great groove.
“Lie to Me (Denial)” opens with glitched electronics before going into a very headbangable riff with another great groove reminiscent of Breaking Benjamin. The chorus of the song gets stuck in your head with the song flowing into the bridge almost seamlessly before dropping out with acoustic guitars and closing with another chorus. While the song is formulaic in structure, it’s still a great song and another standout on this album.
The album finally slows down its menacing pace with “Let it Burn”, a slower track with an emotional vocal performance from MIke Barnes. While it’s definitely not quite as good as it’s preceding tracks, it is still a solid song and the Armstrong’s backing vocals add a lot to the song’s dynamics.
“Buried Beneath” picks up the pace a bit from the previous track, but still feels somewhat formulaic after the past 3 songs, which the album does suffer from at times. The chorus is one of the best off the entire record and the guitar work, while very simple, effectively drives the song forward into an epic climatic bridge as the song ends having effectively built up without the listener even realizing, which still makes this a very enjoyable track.
Next up is the CCM single, “Not Alone”. It’s a very emotional and uplifting ballad that has helped many people through hard times, which I have a lot of respect for. At the same time however, It is a slow burning song on the record despite it still being a very solid track, it’s placement on the tracklist could be better and the album starts to drag a bit. The song has a great last chorus with the full band having finally kicked in, completing the uplifting feel of the song, which definitely is effective and makes it a worthwhile listen.
“Watch You Crawl” is easily one of the weaker songs on the record, which despite picking up the pace, it doesn’t feel like it ever reaches its full potential and ultimately fails at engaging the listener like the previous 7 tracks. It does have a great breakdown and an okay chorus, but it doesn’t stand out at all on an album as good as this one is.
“The Outside” brings back the faster pace and looking back at it, now sounds like them starting to dabble with the sounds they would use on Release the Panic. That said, it is another weaker song overall and feels out of place. The chorus also gets old very fast and is very repetitive.
“Who We Are” falls under the same umbrella as its predecessor and ultimately has the cheesiest lyrics on the album that honestly sound like they could have been written for Skillet’s latest record “Victorious”. It's an okay song, but is easily the worst track on the album and is nothing special. The insanely generic and repetitive lyrics ultimately are the downfall of this track. The song was obviously made to get mainstream rock radio airplay, which it did, but everything on the song feels bland and tasteless, especially the drums.
After a disappointing stretch of “harder” songs, we encounter “Best is Yet to Come”, which is a standout ballad track with an encouraging feel and positive lyrics. The guitars build and add a nice edge to the song, as the lyrics and vocals are clearly the forefront of the song. It feels very reminiscent of the slower songs off of Skillet’s “Awake” album, but it’s familiarity is what makes it a great song somehow. It’s placed perfectly on the track listing and is, in my opinion, what should have been the CCM radio single.
Things slow down drastically with the album closer “Hymn For the MIssing”, a dramatic, piano-driven track with a very emotional and passionate vocal performance that quickly captivates the listener and almost leaves you in a trance. The song makes you feel exactly what the lyrics and vocals portray, which is an incredible feat in and of itself, and the lyrics are about the heartbreaking revelation of never seeing a loved one again. The song slowly goes into a theatrical instrumental with guest vocals from Kerrie Roberts, who adds a very dramatic flair to this already captivating song as the violins grow louder and louder before fading into a climatic end.
There is one more song however that was only on limited releases of the album that acts as an effective outro and it is very odd that they didn't put it on the standard album as it is an absolute firecracker of a track. The title track starts continuing the slow theatrics and the vocals of “Hymn” before bursting into a blazing fast and heavy riff and vocal samples from Faceless. The song builds even further with an intense and absolutely filthy breakdown as Mike Barnes screams grow more aggressive as the song ends on dissonant chaos and effectively sums up and wraps up the entire album. Though this song isn’t on most editions of the record, I still wanted to include it, as it is an absolutely amazing listen and the perfect ending and outro track to the album.
Overall, Until We Have Faces is a stellar album that while it definitely has its ups and downs and doesn’t beat it’s predecessor in my opinion, it has great production and mostly solid lyrics and some of the band’s heaviest moments of the early half of their career. The album keeps an intense pace and pulls you in, captivating your attention and ears to it. While many of the tracks feel a little bit too radio friendly for my tastes, most of them are still very, very good with the exception of a couple songs. The album brings the theatrics even more forward and feels like the full culmination of what the first 2 albums were building to. Some of the songs haven’t aged the greatest but then there’s others like “Feed the Machine” and “Hymn For the MIssing” that are absolutely phenomenal and some of the best tracks of the band’s career, and it brings a solid close to the first era of Red’s career.
Rating: 4.2/5
Favorite tracks: “Feed the Machine”, “Hymn For the Missing”, and “Faceless”
Least Faves: “Who We Are”, “Watch You Crawl”, and “The Outside”
