Welcome to their world…..
With their quite superb debut record “Revolution” some three years old, it was time for Jupiter Falls to get back in the ring with album number two. Last years “Saints And Sinners EP” whetted the appetite a little sure, but it’s kinda like enough with the foreplay lists get down to business, shall we?
Which is why, 12 months on, “Faces In The Sand Part 1” is so eagerly awaited.
And, for the sake of any argument – and to avoid any confusion later – it is an absolute copper bottomed triumph.
Rather like “Revolution” it doesn’t settle for one thing, preferring instead to ransack rock’s history and take only the best bits. This is probably because Jupiter Falls are a band that is brimming with ideas. Need proof of this? Well how about none of the new studio recordings on “….Sinners” are needed here and how many bands could say that?
If the band don’t need a signature sound as such, they do rely completely on their ambition. “Faces In The Sand PT1” kicks off with something of an epic. “Welcome To My World” sounds somewhere past massive, and contains something of an overture. Think Alter Bridge if Alter Bridge were as good as they thought they were and you would be somewhere close.
But here’s the thing – and herein lies the reason why JF are so good. They follow this up with a slice of classic rock sleaze, “Nothing To Me” contains this as an opening couplet: “I see you lying naked in my bed….almost as good as when your friend was there last night…” and gets nastier from there.
“Illusion” on the other hand, is an excuse for Deano Silk to show off his prodigious guitar skills over a chugger, while “Call Me” is a power ballad that deserves to be sung by 10,000 people with mobile phone torches on – and if it was Shinedown it would be too.
“Sickened” wanders off down a heavier road, with Bass Player Dan Clark supplying a mighty groove. “Follow You” is another enormous ballad which proves that in James Hart they have one of the most versatile singers around, and “Voices” is the type of thing that Avenged Sevenfold do, given a kind of British steel.
This though, is perhaps a record that is at is very best when it is pushing the boundaries and being as big as it can – as on the real highlight “This Is A War We Cannot Win” and if your head isn’t banging to the opening of “It’s Your Problem Now” then can we suggest you go back and listen to it again?
The last pair of tracks are right from the basket marked “giant sized” in Jacamo. “See You On The Other Side” is actually pretty stripped down musically – certainly to start with and certainly for this record – but as it builds, there is a real sense that it is carrying a lot of weight on its shoulders. The collection ends with the title track – all nine and a half minutes of it – and it is pretty astonishing. In parts it wouldn’t be too out of place on a Dream Theater record and it stands as a testament to just how good an outfit we are dealing with here.
On the “Saints And Sinners” review we posed the question as to whether this was the best underground band in the UK. “Faces In The Sand PT 1” means it’s time to stop talking in those terms. Jupiter Falls are quite simply one of the UK’s best rock bands full stop.
Rating 9/10
