Album Review: Fox Face – End Of Man

  • Steve White posted
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Fox Face

End Of Man - Dirtnap Records

With members from various parts of the Brewtown, Milwaukee music scene, the quartet of Lindsay DeGroot and Mary Hickey (The Olives), Lydia Washechek (Static Eyes) and Chris Capelle (Midwest Beat, Long Line Riders) made a name for themselves with Fox Face‘s 2018 album “Spoil & Destroy“, described as “a gloriously bruising half hour of visceral, unsettling garage punk” by one reviewer. Their new full length “End Of Man” will be released on 22nd January 2021 via Dirtnap Records, the album continues their hard hitting garage punk legacy. As I review this at the end of December 2020 it’s fair to say “End Of Man” is the perfect listen to help drag us through the remaining part of the shitstorm that has been 2020, and is likely to be the start of 2021.

Furious guitars overlaying fuzzy bass riffs and thumping drums. Twelve tracks full of anger and frustration at the current climate of political ineptitude, inequalities and the pandemic. You name it, people who are angry, pissed off, depressed and who may be overwhelmed with what’s going on, will find solace in “End Of Man” for many different reasons, all with a common ground of despair at the current state of society. Opener ‘Vessels’ rumbles with speaker testing bass and slicing guitars with lyrics spat out with pure venom. ‘SWF’ follows, slamming you hard in the gut with it’s driving musical intro and the words “No one told you to apologise..” before exploding into a vicious high speed noise. ‘Slow Burn’ reverts back to the deep, fuzzy bass and pounding drums before building to another savagely fierce chorus.

Pumped up garage punk. Ferocious, angry, stormy are all words that first spring to mind yet underlying it all there’s a sense of a real need to get off your backside, leap around and actually do something. Perfect for letting off some pent up frustrations. Fox Face occasionally stroll close to a real heavy rock vibe,  ‘Johnson Death Farm’ being one such song full of rolling drums and stabbing guitar spikes. The relentless pace rarely slows but when it does, just a little, there’s glorious elements of some heavy blues (‘We Do Nothing’) and the marching beat of title track ‘End Of Man’. With not a single weak track, no filler at all, Fox Face have delivered an album that speaks for the times we live in and will appeal to anyone who likes hard hitting, blazing riffs and lyrics that tell it how it is.

End Of Man” can be pre-ordered on vinyl here