Metal Underground.com

In stark contrast to the band’s musical style, Face of Ruin has taken a nice leisurely pace with releasing new material, only dropping short EPs with plenty of time in-between. It’s been three years since the last release, and now the Wisconsin death machine is back again with another EP to show off a new vocalist and pack as much as technical metal mayhem as possible into three new tracks. Taking their cues from the tech death metal gods, the lads from Face of Ruin keep the music brutal, chaotic, and include just a touch of the unexpected.

A frenzied slab of barely controlled chaos, these tracks have just about everything that would be expected from a band that worships at the altar of the likes of The Faceless and Obscura. The guitar work is complex and interesting, the bass always has a strong role to play keeping the music groovy and bottom-heavy, and the guttural vocals maintain the brutality and keep the music harsh.

In a change of pace from the previous self-titled EP, newly recruited vocalist Matt Bishop makes a few departures from the standard growl. In one instance heavily distorted clean vocals pop out of both speakers in a disjointed cacophony for an atmospheric twist, and in a few other places higher and scratchier screams are thrown in to break up the sound.

With only three songs, Face of Ruin doesn’t have much time to show off and make an impact on potential fans during “Within the Infinite.” The real gem of the EP is easily the title track, which delivers the goods on pretty much every level. A sudden slow down and crazy guitar solo changes the game and shifts gears halfway through, while the track ends on an extended fade out that brings out some melody and prog elements.

The stylistic vocal shifts are a welcome change for “Within the Infinite,” but in several places they are overshadowed by how similar the interchange between guitar noodling and drum pounding sounds in each song, as bleed through is an issue here. That’s definitely not a deal breaker though, as the music is still high quality, and honestly it just makes this reviewer want to know how the formula would fare on a longer release. So the questions really are – where’s the full-length and the record deal already?