Based out of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Facelift Deformation are a brutal death metal band that’s been active in the scene since 2016 and have made such a huge impression in the scene with two full-length albums being 2018’s Dominating the Extermination and the last we heard was the 2019 sophomore full-length entitled Cybernetic Organism Atrocities, that album really introduced the band to such great heights and upscale the musicality and became such a huge transformation in comparison to the debut record. Now fast forward couple years later, we have the first EP offering released on Brutal Mind titled Path To Retribution which is only about four tracks of unsophisticated, uncompromisingly heavy music that is full of many wonders and soundscapes that is surely but steady the most comprehensive material this band put out to date.
Musically and stylistically speaking, Facelift Deformation’s style is almost in the veins of the early to mid 2010’s era of extreme metal if you were to take heavy hitters like Organectomy, Analepsy, Maggot Colony, Internal Devour and Abominable Putridity but for Facelift Deformation’s stylistic approach, detail, signature sounds and a atmosphere that is thickened and maddening, this EP is only taking leaps and bounds to create the living dream of this band very intriguing as someone who’s been a fan of them for several years. Lyrically, this EP has a wide variety of fascinating songwriting passages and the contexts of this album is anywhere from gore, science fiction, mutation, conspiracies and biology to other works such as horror and much more which in this case I like the atmosphere and instrumentals represented on this EP than what they’ve done before.
Not only you get Larry Wang who’s been in other artists such as Maggot Colony, Guttural Corpora Cavernosa, Gorepot and Umbilical Asphyxia to Wilson NG who’s also in other projects such as Incestuous Impregnation, Awaken the Misogynist and Dimensional Decay to vocalist Randy Leung also in Cowonaviwus and Virginity Fraud to name a few which all the members from Facelift Deformation have done such a remarkable job having their fair share to unleash songs featuring infectious grooves, audible bass structures, viscerally infected vocal patterns and the drums, alongside guitars are presented in a much more cohesive and consistent fashion where I truly feel every instrument sounds extremely sharp, detailed and you can tell this band surely knows how to like their arrangements to be as accessible and naturalistic to the best of their own ability. I would say tracks like Aberrant Clone Pseudomixis and Geocentric Laceration for example introduced us the pummeling and assaulted double bass drums, meatier vocals which brings out the best of the best and guitars bring out a atmospheric touch to the EP which I’m sensing a Rendered Helpless and Necroticgorebeast slam esque melodies as each track gives the listener into deep submission which gives such a technical prowess and insured the listener to get a glance of the evolution Facelift Deformation is taking for future material. Path To Retribution is the next big step to the band’s career and I see nothing but potential to take brutal death metal to the next level.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
