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Dissapointing output from the promising Hangface

For a band who are described as a mixture of Metallica, Audioslave and Velvet Revolver, you would expect Norwegian LA rockers Hangface to be exciting, innovative and most of all high quality. Unfortunately this is anything but the case. "Freak Show", whilst sounding promising in description, does not live up to reality, which is a shame as Hangface are a band with clear potential. Whilst this album has a few redeeming songs and one or two catchy hooks it is fair to say that picking up an album by any of the other bands mentioned above will be a better use of your precious cash.

In terms of the music itself, it is all of an acceptable level of competence and the band can certainly play their instruments but the albums failing is the lack of the vital hooks that make music such as this appealing. The guitars of Tom Espen Pedersen, whilst not lacking in enjoyable quality, never have any truly memorable riffs and merely serve as a backdrop to the vocals. The drums and the bass, whilst being of a suitably "rocking" rhythm, also fail to provide truly memorable songs; the overall impression gained is of mediocrity.

Lyrically speaking the album treads a thin line between appropriately boisterous and ridiculously macho such as in the song "Ultimate Man" with the lyrics "Well here I am; I'm the ultimate. I shoot to score I'm gonna get me some more". Other than these laughable lyrics there is nothing else to note in the subject matter, making the songs subject's themselves entirely forgettable. The vocals of singer Bjornar Flaa are certainly melodic and not harsh on the ear but the constant faux-American styled accent begins to grate after a while.

Altogether Hangface are a band who do not deserve the level of success the bands who they name-check do. I will avoid the obvious joke of saying that "Freak Show" is freakishly bad, as that would not be true; this is simply an album that is mediocre, and surpassed by other, better bands in every respect and there is no sense of spectacle that is vital for this genre of rock to succeed nowadays. There is promise in the concept of what Hangface are trying to do, but this album truly misses the mark.