Face Yourself – “Martyr”

As someone who was born in the 90s and grew up listening to the 2010s deathcore bands like Chelsea Grin, Whitechapel, early Bring Me the Horizon, Emmure, or Thy Art is Murder – I did not expect the wave of nostalgia I got from experiencing “Martyr” by Face Yourself. Short, but incredibly intense five-song extended play got me deep in my soft spot for this kind of music.

Face Yourself, being a fresh band on the metal scene who just got signed to iconic Sumerian Records, proves a point this EP is already showing standards as to how great deathcore music should sound in my opinion. While some certain sounds can be dated with heavy inspirations from the golden age of deathcore a decade ago with MySpace rocking the social media game, I sense there is still a wave of freshness and modernity to their music.  

From the very beginning with the first tune of the record – “Primal” – we are being served a mysterious, presumably female spoken intro… that immediately blends into super intense high screamed vocals by the band’s lead vocalist – Yasmine Liverneaux. Before I have a moment to process the first few seconds of “Primal” – I am musically punched with more ginormous drum and guitar instrumentals that intertwine Yasmin’s voice like a snake that is about to choke your neck… and yet I am so ready for more. Even the pun at the end of the song: “Well then, great production” caught me off guard and intrigued me for upcoming songs.

The hype continues with the drum and bass-ish track “Predatory”. Again – I cannot skip Yasmin’s vocal abilities here – the fact that she can do super-fast high screams that are mostly known to be performed by Atilla’s frontman – Chris Fronzak – makes her one of the top deathcore performers in my eyes.  I am not surprised this song was chosen to be one of the singles of “Martyr” – it is one of the catchiest, interesting heavy songs I have listened to from the genre in a long time. 

And if we didn’t have enough surprises… I got swiftly caught off guard with the peculiar intro of “Saboteur”.  I did not expect that with classic deathcore guitars you can combine… the sounds of airhorn that made me laugh hard – not that I found it odd to be there – but it was a smart move to catch me to further parts of “Sabouteur” that had yet another phenomenal combination of vocal abilities of Yasmin and her male bandmates – Corey Doremus and Kyle Muenzer – that just hit in right spot.  

Face Yourself couldn’t wrap up “Martyr” better than having “Sideration” – the first single from this album – as their last track. When I mentioned “modernity” in their sound, this is an epitome of this mood. A fantastic electronic intro to this song, repeating itself here and there during this song refreshes the sound and amplifies guitars to the next level. I am not even bothered when Chelsea Grin inspired drums hit in the second part of the song – they even seem to blend into an overall feeling of airiness and lightness despite the sound being cleary heavy. And again – we get another great pun to wrap up the EP that just felt like putting a gold crown on a royal head.  

I have to praise how amazing the whole package is with “Martyr”. For a band that isn’t even 2 years performing together, this is an outstanding piece of music with deeply touching lyrics mentioning mental health hardships. I haven’t heard about Face Yourself prior to this review and I am pleasantly surprised. Not sure if it’s the touch and ears of Joey Sturgis who produced this piece or the band’s songwriting… But everything feels right. Even the music videos they released for “Sideration” and “Predatory” are directed in-house by the band’s drummer, Eric DiCarlo and his company SquaredUp. I’m honestly impressed with them being such incredible musicians at the beginning of their journey with this band and hope this is only a taster of how kicking buttocks they will be moving forward.