Album Reviews

- by Nick Metherell

Having just hit the 30 year mark in their career, face to face are now legitimate elder statesmen of the SoCal punk rock scene and have the white beards to prove it.  They’ve crafted their own unmistakable sound within the skate / punk rock genre; driving, urgent guitars and drums, meandering basslines and Trever Keith’s distinctive vocals, harmonised with plenty of “woahs” which are thrown in for good measure.  No Way Out But Through is their tenth full length release, returning to Fat Wreck who put out 2016’s Protection long player as well as the great Hold Fast: Acoustic Sessions EP in 2018.

The album starts brightly enough with Black Eye Specialist which has a tense atmospheric feel to it, then into more traditional face to face fare with the galloping drums and harmonies of the title track.  Next is one of the album’s highlights, A Miss Is as Good as a Mile, which has one of their classic big poppy choruses, akin to Shoot the Moon from How To Ruin Everything or Best Defence from Reactionary.  These guys wouldn’t know how to write a bad song and whilst their songs are by no means cookie cutter copies, there’s no huge deviation from their tried and tested formula.  Other standouts for me so far are Ruination Here We Come and Vertigo-go.

Overall this is another solid release from face to face, on par with their recent output and with some great tunes that will undoubtedly find their way onto their live set list.

Track listing:

1. Black Eye Specialist
2. No Way out But Through    
3. A Miss Is as Good as a Mile
4. Blanked Out
5. Anonymous
6. Ruination Here We Come
7. Long Way Down
8. Vertigo-go
9. You Were Wrong About Me
10. Spit Shine
11. This Is My Vanishing Act
12. Farewell Song