Face the Rail

Fractures [7-inch] (2010)

Brian Shultz

Face the Rail guide their Fractures 7" with a serrated style of '80s-ish hardcore, but there's something extra here that's hard to place, and gives the band's sound a fresh edge.

There's a bit of Swiz in there, perhaps, from the sharp shout and clanging guitars (plus a solo!) in the title track opener. (More solos come later.) Unexpected momentum shifts stop and start all over the second track, "Bleeding Eyes", and it happens so often it almost makes it sound spazzy. There's a lot of froth about the recording on this song, though, with everything clouding over each other a little too heavily. But there's a jagged smoothness that comes to light at one point, with their singer's usual atonal shout over it. Flipside "No Hope" has more talk-shouted vocals and dynamic guitars that cement any Dag Nasty comparisons. I'm reminded here of bands like Police & Thieves, but Face the Rail's guitar work is quirkier, vaguely more dissonant and almost even experimental in some regard. They stretch it out in an epic manner, too, letting it run to around the five-minute mark or so.

Fractures is a creative 7" given its style, but the rhythm of guitar melody and insistent, forward push is really what makes it worthwhile. There's plenty of room for improvement; I think Face the Rail could expand on this tremendously and make it more memorable, but it's not necessarily a bad start.