Godsticks – Faced With Rage | Echoes And Dust 20/11/2017, 1934 About Meet the Team Join the Team Contact HOME REVIEWS FEATURES INTERVIEWS LIVE PHOTOS RECORDS OF THE YEAR (((O))) REVIEW: GODSTICKS – FACED (((O))) WITH RAGE RECOMMENDED LISTENING Heavy 1 Lord! Kesseli & the drums - Dear John [official video] Rotation - 2 Richard! Barbieri - New Found Land (from Planets + Persona) Progressive Rock & 3 Roger! Waters - "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" Progressive Metal 4 KYLVER! - Hy-Brasil (Official Music Video) Playlist by echoesanddust 5 LEPROUS! - Slave (Live At Rockefeller Music Hall) 6 The! Pineapple Thief - In Exile (from Your Wilderness) Powered by Faced With Rage by Godsticks Godsticks on the web: Website | Twitter | Release date: October 13, 2017 Label: Kscope (((O))) ON THE WEB by Dave Cooper | November 19, 2017 | Reviews Facebook Twitter Faced With Rage is the fourth full-length album from Cardi!-based rockers Godsticks. It follows 2015’s self-released Emergence, a record Instagram that saw the band’s previously expressed progressive tendencies tempered by a tougher more ri!-based sound. Whilst well-received, it turns out that Emergence was a transitional record of sorts – with this record, the band have married their new-found crunch to the more (((O))) SUPPORT THE ambitious song structures of their earlier work. SITE! Regular visitor? Please consider Faced With Rage is the "rst Godsticks record to be released on the a small subscription to help us Kscope label, a label that’s become synonymous with the best new keep the site running. As little as talent in progressive rock; it’s also the band’s "rst record as a four-piece, £1 a month could make all the featuring new drummer Tom Price and guitarist Gavin Bushell, who have di!erence. Click here for more made an immediate and substantial impact on the band’s sound. Price details. brings a more metallic approach to the drumming whilst retaining previous drummer Steve Roberts’ impressive sense of progressive drama, whilst Bushell is nothing less than the perfect foil to Charles’ (((O))) WHY NOT pyrotechnics. As an ensemble they sound tighter and more focused – http://echoesanddust.com/2017/11/godsticks-faced-with-rage/ Page 1 of 5 Godsticks – Faced With Rage | Echoes And Dust 20/11/2017, 1934 and heavier – than ever before, their enhanced musical rapport likely a TRY… side e!ect of their recent touring activity supporting The Pineapple Thief BOG – (of whom Charles is also now a touring member). Whilst Charles has UNSHRIVEN always been a remarkable guitarist, it’s particularly striking to hear how (REVIEW + EXCLUSIVE he has grown as a vocalist – always an e!ective performer, he sounds far ALBUM STREAM) more assured throughout this record. In short, everything seems to have by Werner Roozen | fallen wonderfully into place. June 10, 2017 LIMBONIC ART – Godsticks - Hard to Face (from Faced with Rage) SPECTRE ABYSM by Matt Daniels | September 18, 2017 UFOMAMMUT – 8 by Jamie Jones | September 21, 2017 THE NECROMANCERS – SERVANTS OF THE SALEM GIRL by Martyn Coppack | August 28, 2017 Of course, it doesn’t matter how great the musicianship is if the material DON’T YOU(,) doesn’t measure up, but it is here that the album really scores. Godsticks MEAN PEOPLE? – ANOTHER have upped the ante here on every level. The more abrasive sound that REASON permeated their previous album Emergence has been re"ned, but Faced by Adriana Ciccone | With Rage is a more varied and emotionally richer record. Spiky rockers February 27, 2017 like ‘Avenge’ and the savage ‘Guilty’ are interspersed with more progressive fare, such as the thoughtful ‘Revere’, the haunting ‘We Are Leaving’ and the cleverly constructed twists and turns of the title track. The cunning sequencing of the record steadily builds complexity until (((O))) the eight-minute ‘Everdrive’ appears. The penultimate track, ‘Everdrive’ RECOMMENDED GIGS provides an opportunity for the band to stretch out instrumentally, allowing each member more space than ever before to build momentum. Previously, brevity was a Godsticks speciality; on this record, it seems that the band have found another gear, greater con"dence to embrace their progressive tendencies. This spirit of adventure has not left the album feeling unfocused; the record possesses a conceptual thread, where each song examines a person dealing with emotional con#ict of varying kinds. The title track sees the protagonist dealing with depression and a sense of hopelessness that leaves him wondering “Am I destined for suicide?“, whilst ‘Unforgiveable’ tackles the psychological dangers of a self- destructive taste for revenge in the wake of a betrayal, and the closing ‘Fame And Silence’ watches the disintegration of a celebrity who "nds out the hard way that fame can attract fair-weather friends and an emptiness that can’t be "lled: “I just can’t get enough / Can’t I just buy the love?” Perhaps most moving of all is the slow-burning ‘We Are http://echoesanddust.com/2017/11/godsticks-faced-with-rage/ Page 2 of 5 Godsticks – Faced With Rage | Echoes And Dust 20/11/2017, 1934 Leaving’, whose protagonist, trapped in a hellish environment from which he can’t see an escape, pleads for release. Charles produces possibly his "nest recorded vocal to date, which drips with pathos. “Say we’re leaving / Somewhere in the world, or place in time / I just wanna run.” Faced With Rage is comfortably Godsticks’ most uncompromising, con"dent and ambitious record. It successfully marries their progressive tendencies with their new more muscular sound, and yet it manages to avoid the obvious progressive rock and progressive metal clichés. Powerful, involving and emotionally satisfying, it builds on the established Godsticks sound and pushes it in new and intriguing directions. Those who enjoyed Porcupine Tree’s latter-day #irtations with progressive metal or The Pineapple Thief’s starkly atmospheric rock will "nd a lot to enjoy here, as will those who enjoy the warped ri!s and desolate introspection of Alice In Chains – the chunky bass and eerie melodies of ‘Angry Concern’ in particular should feel instantly familiar to Alice In Chains fans. Progressive metal more often than not tends to be a poisoned chalice. In theory it should appear broadly to both fans of progressive rock and fans of metal, but usually albums tend to fall closer to one stool than the other. Not so here: Godsticks have turned in a record "lled with superb performances that will appeal to both camps. This is the sound of a band who have come of age and can go toe to toe with the very best that both genres have to o!er. SHARE THIS ARTICLE http://echoesanddust.com/2017/11/godsticks-faced-with-rage/ Page 3 of 5 Godsticks – Faced With Rage | Echoes And Dust 20/11/2017, 1934 0 Comments Echoes and Dust !1 Login & Recommend ⤤ Share Sort by Best Start the discussion… LOG IN WITH OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ? Name Be the first to comment. 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