FACED WITH RAGE

The fourth studio album by Godsticks is their first one recorded as a four-piece band, following the replacement of their drummer with Tom Price, and the inclusion of their second guitarist Gavin Bushell, both of whom had certainly added an aggressive, heavier tone to the band's music, initially familiar for their branch of heavy progressive rock with fusion and psych leanings. This is also their first release on Kscope, a label they are still signed to (as of 2025) and supposedly their most successful work yet, especially critically. Of course, the other two members of the band are frontman Darran Charles and bassist Dan Nelson, with the former being at the time a member of The Pineapple Thief, with whom he had been touring live and had contributed guitars to 2016's 'Your Wilderness', one of the most recognizable and well-received LPs of the Bruce Soord-headed group. And with their new members and the valuable experience of their frontman, Godsticks released 'Faced with Rage' back in 2017 - their heaviest, most progressive and most compelling album of the first four.

The music on the album can get heavy, meaty and aggressive but also quite atmospheric and moving at the choruses, and this is precisely what this band is really good at. Stylistically, it seems natural for Godsticks to expand upon the impressions of their previous release, and to go further down the heavy rabbit hole, introducing not only a good amount of alt-rock influences but also a more progressive tendency within their writing, soloing and song structures. Blending great melodies with tight playing, complex instrumentation and a lot of feel seems to be Godsticks' specialty, and this formula works in spades on 'Faced with Rage'. Simply experiencing the raw power of opening tracks 'Guilt', 'Hard to Face' and 'Open Your Eyes' might be enough to pull listeners in, and Godsticks definitely follow that lineage of heavy progressive music with a strong alternative edge and occasional glimpses of heavy-psych and prog metal, with fellow UK-based acts Porcupine Tree and The Pineapple Thief lying there as potential influences. The idiosyncratic singing voice of Darran Charles fits in perfectly with the cavalcade of raucous riffs on 'Faced with Rage', even if some of the mellower tracks see the use of extended guitar solos and slower build-ups ('We Are Leaving' and 'Revere'). So this album is quite consistent and heavy, a bit front-loaded with a couple of generic tracks in the middle. The end, however, hides a few experimental surprises, with the 8-minute track 'Everdrive' being especially rewarding.

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