It's barely been a year since the last album from FACS and these three are back to fuck up your head all over again. Present Tense, out on Friday via the esteemed Trouble in Mind Records, is a beast. It is unrelenting in its precision, and the sort of thing to bring joy to any head who's missed the era when bands like Live Skull and Swans could have cranked out something that would never have gotten played on the radio.
FACS, wisely, have calibrated their assault a tiny bit. Opener "XOUT" is a fist in the face, but "Strawberry Cough" is more unwieldy. Flashes of Jawbox here, along with vocals from Brian Case which recall Thurston Moore at times. "Alone Without", the epic this time around, reveals further shades of sound, with the bursts of drums from Noah Leger making room for the HEAVY bass-lines from Alianna Kalaba. The tune is Merzbow-like in its fury, but things are reasonably listenable compared to that point of comparison.
And that's what makes FACS such a wonderful proposition for fans of this style of music. I would be hard pressed to name another active band who understands how to both pummel a listener while offering up hooks of some kind. Heck, "How to See in the Dark" has a melody that's nearly lilting. FACS, however close they get to that kind of thing, temper their enthusiasm for the obvious in their playing, and instead do the difficult thing of embracing the abrasive. Things here are tight and concise, yes, but this is brutal landscape, with every cut being the natural heir to what bands like The Jesus Lizard birthed years ago. FACS make this their own thing though, and here, on this fine new record, they've really come into their own as noise merchants.
Present Tense is out on Friday via Trouble in Mind Records.
More details via the band's Facebook page.
[Photo: One Beat PR]