There is something falling from the sky on this planet. The surface is slick. Slimy even and whatever this milky substance that falls around your group of soldiers doesn’t make this trip any easier.
Glassy rocks litter the surface of this alien planet. Smith Rogers has fallen twice. His arm is in a sling as a result. Dumbass. Doesn’t matter, you think. He won’t survive the massacre you already know you are headed straight into.
Here there is no salvation. Even the shadows stare back. Everything, especially in the blackness that is the void unfolding before you, seems to be on the move. There is something out there.
Stay alert, you tell yourself. The three-member team that went out ahead of you after the crash has yet to return. And your fate must be different. It has to be.
Because.
Because. You.
Because. You. Are.
…you turn around. That’s when it becomes clear.
You are alone.
Everyone is gone. Even Smith Rogers, the dumbass that he is, has been swallowed up by the strange alien limbs in the shadows.
Because you are alone. Absolutely alone.
This is the imaginary scene that plays out in my mind when I listen to FacexHugger’s new release, Sci-Fi Violence. Already a favorite on the rotation, this album is a straight up killer at establishing a mood that screams into the shadows that surround this fictionalized search party. Space doesn’t want you. GAME OVER! Whether it is the slice and dice of “Med-Bay Incident” or the haunting chill of “Ethos of Betrayal”, FacexHugger transports his listeners straight into a cosmic hell that is as real as the titles of these songs are familiar.
Darkwave. Satanic synths. Cyberpunk. Modular metal. Whatever label you choose to slap on FacexHugger’s work, just know that to my ears his creations are tiny bursts of electronic eargasms and the Depeche Mode in me just can’t get enough. Metroid. Predator. Whatever your particular brand of Sci-Fi Violence is, FacexHugger is your Dave Gahan.
Mood. It’s important in Synthwave and establishing the right mood for any release is El Supremo. It’s damn important. Leave it then to FacexHugger to deliver the electronic goods when it comes to establishing an atmosphere where his scourging sci-fi wavelengths can radiate from.
That’s right; FacexHugger’s second album is already, just this week, crawling out among us. You’ll want to bring this creature home and, yes, feed it after midnight. As Stripe says in that beloved Joe Dante-directed movie, “Ah. Yum. Yum.” Indeed, this is a tasty release.
FacexHugger’s opening track, “Neon Death”, cuts through the stratosphere and lights up the darkness surrounding the cruel planet outlined in the life and death situation that opens this review. We get an electronic foundation that gets compounded with an intricate repetition that quickly pulses into our veins. A drum pattern carries the melody as the pacing remains constant, surrounding us in the sickly sweet goo that is some new alien life we might be tempted to actually reach out and touch. Don’t. Hell follows.
We go bouncing into the void with the next track as “In Space No One Can Hear the X” comes blasting into our earholes thanks to the grinding skills of Shredder 1984. Wait. What. FacexHugger and Shredder 1984 on the same track? Take my fucking money. Now. This track, with gushing synth lines that stack upon themselves until this ancient alien Babylon is toppled by Shredder 1984’s wicked licks. Cue the mass panic. The echo tells us all we need to know about survival; no one does.
Enter “Fear Itself” as John Carpenter’s own brand of Horror composition gets brought to its knees. This track is all sorts of Halloween III: Season of the Witch and those Silver Shamrock vibes come to the light thanks to the efforts of Gregorio Franco and Street Cleaner, who help create the nastiest of vibes as synth lines collide and reverberate on into the void. A stalker’s anthem if ever there was one.
It is “Day Walkers” – a cosmic-sounding high-five from the other side of the universe – that wakes us from the Horror nightmare. Suddenly, we are journeying through the stars. Or just maybe it is what plays as we power slam the green milk that Luke Skywalker himself so eagerly chugs thanks to the female Thala-sirens on the island planet of Ahch-To. Whatever this damn tasty song is doing, I am ALL for. Crank the volume on this sucker; the interplanetary Demonoids on this planet we got ass-kicked onto absolutely beg for it.
And then all goes dark as “The New Batch” grows into something frightfully intense. It begins soft and still. What it becomes is a behemoth of synths that shouldn’t be believed. A stealthy slow burn of sorts is the first minute of this song. Brooding. Dark. And then it explodes into something so damn nasty that it begs to be put on repeat.
Which brings us to the aforementioned “Med-Bay Incident” and the thrills contained within its shadows. Street Cleaner returns in “Power Unleashed” and, especially after the haunts of the previous song, brings one of the most uplifting tunes on the release. Is that a hero’s theme I hear? Get prepared. Get pumped. We’ve got places to go and, with Glitbiter and The Encounter offering their skills, the already released (and damn epic) “Come Up To The Dark” follows, feeling perfectly at home on this album. Bow down.
With the tones of “Ethos of Betrayal” following the eerie mood of Glitbiter’s vocals, we get chilled to the bone. And then “The Final Chapter” is cued. Synthesized absorption is the best descriptor I can come up with. This song simply pulsates itself into a sort of galactic victory lap as what was old is made new again. Notes like diamonds sparkle through the darkness here. Maybe this is the only hope we get; that, yes, all of this Sci-Fi Violence will happen yet again. You just have to believe.
If anything, Sci-Fi Violence establishes FacexHugger, a certified fan of 1980's Horror and Sci-Fi flicks, as an artist that is not to be underestimated. These songs are intense and skilled in their delivery of everything that the Alien franchise hasn’t been in over a decade. Ah, snap. I AM NOT KIDDING. I mean, just look at that AWESOME cover art by Mark Kosobuck! WE. NEED. TEES. YESTERDAY.
Set phasers to Killwave, Boils and Ghouls. There’s no turning back after these 10 tracks play. From start to finish, FacexHugger takes us rocking right into space before dropping our asses off on some far off and out there planet in which we get absolutely destroyed by whatever alien race resides there. Want to survive? GET OVER IT. You won’t. This album, with face-melting synths and pulverizing beats, is going to finger-snap your very existence into a meaningless pile of sand.
Sophomore slump? I don’t think so.
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