Face Down - The Will To Power

*=Staff's pick	Drained* Blood Tiles* Heroin Insanity* Will To Power Grey Heretic The Delusion* War Hog The Unsung

Genre	Thrash Metal	Marco Aro	Vocals
Tracks	10	Joacim Carlsson	Guitar
Runningtime	41 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Black Lodge Records	Joakim Hedenstedt	Bass
Release	04 Nov. 2005	Erik Thyselius	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	The Haunted, Construcdead

For over five years, this band was dead, laying face down (sorry) on the ground. The Stockholm-based thrashers had split up in 1999, as the vocalist Marco Aro departed to enjoy a couple of successful years with The Haunted. But last year the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to come together again, as Marco Aro had left The Haunted and the other band members found their way back. Face Down played at Sweden Rock Festival this summer and started writing new material shortly afterwards.

The result of the reunion can be found on The Will To Power (the title being inspired from Nietzsche's book Der Wille Zur Macht). The opening tracks are real knuckledusters, especially the policy statement "Drained" (which begins with a desperate voice declaring that "there is no god") and the equally impressive "Blood Tiles". Another highpoint is how nicely the title track (which is a tale about serial killers) fades into "Grey" with the help of an eerie piano-melody.

Aro's raw vocals is perhaps the greatest joy to be had with The Will To Power, and it's a reminder to anyyone who might have forgotten is superb performance on The Haunted's classic One Kill Wonder. Unfortunately, there are a few compositions that aren't out of the ordinary, and the slow-moving "The Unsung" is a weak finisher. But if some tracks do drag a bit, Aro manages to keep them interesting enough to accept.

When Peter Dolving decided to return to his old friends of The Haunted, they indirectly resurrected Face Down and should therefore be applauded. Because while this doesn't reach the heights of last year's The Haunted-masterpiece rEVOLVEr, it's definitely worth an encouraging pat on the back and a big "welcome back".

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	8	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Niklas