Blood on the Face sees Grenouer taking another turn, and this time it's rock. No fear, it is not the garage, punk or alternative kind, we are still talking about Grenouer after all. It's still heavy, and if you remember the feeling you had the first time you've heard Devin Townsend or Hypocrisy (or, well, Grenouer), this is the feeling. The sound is massive. Minute after minute you can feel the machines and recognize the neurons behind Blood on the Face. It's Grenouer but it's just... Slower. That one was obvious. More spacey, too, with lavish keyboards adding another dimension, and the complex riffs creating echoes where there actually are none. Play this album on a stadium and the stadium will start looking too small. The rhythm section is rock solid, persistent, and wouldn't be out of place on a Ministry or a Rammstein album. Yet somehow it's still rock. Same band, different feeling. Partly because of song tempos and structures, partly because of the vocals, this Grenouer doesn't feel like Grenouer. If you are an old fan, you will probably complain. If you have never heard of them before, you will wonder where the hell a band this great came from (see the beginning of the review) and realize that they don't really sound like they are from any particular country. As for the music, technical stuff aside, and speaking in modern rock terms, there could have been more catchy parts. Way, way more. Something with emotion. It would take nothing from the music and it would give it just that extra punch it needs to become something you could connect to. The vocals are one part of the problem, with lines too similar and little vibrato, you are left with listening to someone singing in a similar way, all the time, every song. And with all the complexity still on display, individual parts aren't that great on their own.
In the end, whether you are a fan or not, Blood on the Face is an excellent album. Unless you start thinking about it too much. But the question is - can you listen to a band like Grenouer and not think?
Source - Funereal Drone