TurnFace

"TurnFace" and "Ignorance Reigns"
(First and Second Demo CD's)
"Brutal hardcore that has the pissed off attitude of Tarzan after you have just shagged cheetah in front of his face, and with vocals that sound more angry than an angry person who has just won first prize for being the most angry, at an angry convention."
Okay, there is no mistaking that TurnFace play Hardcore Metal.   Not only that but they play it well. The sounds produced on these two demo's are forceful hardcore with masses of attitude, aggression and in your face enraged vocals.   These boys take a "no messing" stance, and don't you forget it!

Featured here are the bands first two demo's.  Starting with their most recent (Jan 2000), Ignorance Reigns contains four tracks:

01. Stand
02. IRS
03. Hand Of Indifference
04. Behind The Flag

A further four tracks are found on their debut demo, the self-titled, TurnFace:

05. Padlock
06. Mao
07. Dead End
08. Choke
TurnFace Demo Cover
From the opening bars of the first song, you know what your up against.   Once in it's stride, the track Stand delivers a classical riff that begins to rip up the turf.  The song typifies the type of goods this band is determined to deliver.  This is closely followed by another classic opening riff with IRS which soon explodes into a thousand pieces hoping to deliver maximum injury, a nail-bomb in it's own terms.

Hand Of Indifference is a little more calm and collected (a least for a short time), however it still demands attention but with a little more persuasion.  Behind The Flag is back to unadulterated bludgeoning that has character, albeit the character of an homicidal manic intent on smashing your brains onto the pavement.

Now that I have had a chance to listen to the demo's and get more familiar with the songs, I feel that the Ignorance Reigns demo shows a promising development and subtlety more intense than the first self-titled collection.

Having said that the crunching rhythm of Padlock gives no quarter in its relentless drive to run you down, then reverse back over you and do it again!  Mao has another classical riff that just sticks in your mind griping like a limpit, you just can't shake it off.  Dead End and Choke are charging mailstorms of hardcore in their own right, but somehow don't have that something that makes the other songs stand out.

So overall, if I had to offer any criticism, it would be that the vocals are a little too one dimentional, but this is often a signature of the hardcore style with vocals that insist you listen to the message. However, whatever you do, please don't let that minor matter of opinion distract from what is a good set of songs...

Where currently maybe they may fall short of the class of some of the more well know counterparts in this genre, there is massive amounts of talent and promise from this band and I genuinly look forward to hearing their next demo, due out very soon I hope.

Rigsby (3rd June 2001)
Transcripts From The Downtuned

 

All the tracks from both of these demo's can be found on the bands mp3.com pages at www.mp3.com/turnface.