From Glory to Infinity

I had never heard of Faust previous to their release of this particular album. I remember checking them out but quickly moving on since I didn’t find it interesting. But now that I’ve received a promo version of the album I have no other choice but to give it some serious listens. One of the first things that strike me is the ugly artwork. Sure, a naked nun isn’t very unusual for metal, but it’s the way it’s drawn. Bodily it looks like a 70 year old woman, the face looks like a 40 year old and the breasts like a horrific boob job. It doesn’t give me high hope that I was wrong back when I first gave From glory to infinity a listen.

The line-up consists of some highly talented and renowned musicians. Vocalist/guitarist Aleister is also the live guitarist for Norway’s famed Ancient, bassist Steve DiGiorgio has a history in Sadus, Autopsy, Iced Earth, Death, Testament (etc etc), and last but not least we have the session drumming by Daray of Vader, Dimmu Borgir and a bunch of other acts. So it’s safe to say these are no spring chickens when it comes down to metal. Hence I’m utterly confused as to why they settled for such a lousy production. It’s muffled and mumbled in all the wrong ways, where the guitar sounds way too high, the vocals too murky, the bass too rumbly and the drums a little too digital. Nothing sounds as to fit with the other.

Musically, on the other hand, I get somewhat confused as well. It sounds like they’re clearly taking influence from the Swedish death metal scene in the early 90ies, but way too melodic. Maybe if they were going for an In Flames style of metal I would understand, but since it also carries attributes of the American Floridian scene’s burliness it comes out very strange sound-wise. The melodic guitar leads along with the rumbling bass is one thing, but combined with the deeply grunting voice and blastbeats it feels weird. I’ve heard other bands mix both of the mentioned styles, but with much better results. The occasional thrashy heavy metal-esque guitar lead doesn’t bring it all nicely together either, it just adds to the confusion. I honestly don’t get this. And to be perfectly honest neither riffing nor drumming is particularly interesting, it’s rather bland.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net