Face To Face

No Way Out But Through

Written by: PP on 05/11/2021 00:28:58

Kings of melodic woo-hoo punk rock Face To Face are back with their first studio album in five years, "No Way Out But Through". Now if you've listened to a Face To Face record in the past, it's very much like a Bad Religion experience: you know exactly what you're getting and it's usually good stuff. Solid melodic punk rock with ginormous amounts of woo-hoo chants and sing-along bits, which is also the case here on their eleventh full-length record. It is true that previous album "Protection" showed signs of the formula getting old. It simply sounded like a career extension rather than a record with a purpose. Fortunately, "No Way Out But Through" is a much needed improvement and arguably their best material since 2011's "Laugh Now, Laugh Later".

Essentially, this record highlights what we've come to understand as the modern Face To Face soundscape with plenty of references to bands like No Use For A Name and The Bouncing Souls in the process. You even have some Alkaline Trio-style melodies on album highlight "Blanked Out". Common to all songs are the woo....hooo / woo-hoo / wooooo variations that exist on almost every track, leaving behind an experience that in a live setting just feels like a community experience every time. Tight, fast-paced punk rock tracks like "Ruination Here We Come" have eerie Propagandhi vibes, whereas others like "Anonymous" or "Vertigo-Go" reference the golden 90s melodic punk era on top of which NUFAN built most of their career.

In short, Face To Face are veterans within melodic punk and probably the very centerpiece of the definition that pigeonholes a band to said genre. They are the benchmark of how the genre should sound like. "No Way Out But Through" doesn't bring anything new to the style, but instead delivers anthemic sing-alongs and woo-hoo bits with the same class as we remember it from the 90s. Sometimes that's all you need from a record, a nostalgic reminder of how the genre sounded during its heydey, and that is exactly what "No Way Out But Through" accomplishes without any unnecessary flair or other bullshit.

Download: Blanked Out, No Way Out But Through, Anonymous, You Were Wrong About Me
For the fans of: H2O, The Bouncing Souls, No Use For A Name, Millencolin
Listen: Facebook

Release date 10.09.2021
Fat Wreck Chords

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