Mortal Sin — Face Of Despair

Originally released at the tail-end of the 1980’s Face Of Despair was the second album from OZ Thrashers Mortal Sin. It’s a ten-track affair which found the band adopting a more technical, at times darting and sleekly meaty take on the Thrash metal form. And while it largely stepped away from the rough ‘n’ punchy feel of their early material, it still highlighted the band's compositional flair, and knack for writing good headbang-to-moshing riff craft.
 

Here from Dissonance Productions, Cherry Reds Metal/ rock reissue sub-label is a CD reissue of the album. It comes presented in a glossy four-panel digipak- this features a sixteen-page inlay booklet, featuring a write-up about the album/ band by respected metal journo Malcolm Dome, band member reminiscing, full credits, and band photos/ flyers.
 
Face Of Despair appeared in the year 1989, following up the band's well-received debut 1986’s Mayhemic Destruction- which has also recently got a reissue on Dissonance Productions. The ten-track album appeared on  Vertigo, and it was produced by Randy Burns- who got a name for himself producing  80’s extreme metal, with his credits taking in albums from the likes of Megadeth, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, and Death.
 
 
I guess the best way to describe what we find over much of the album runtime is a mix of Master Of Puppets' tight urgent riff craft, And Justice For All’s more technical side- without the overlong track runtime- and with touches of Megadeth’s more widdling solo edges.  Added into this we have more general bay area Thrash sound manic-ness, with a few slips into meatier and at times almost doomy slugging riff craft. Like their early work lead singer Mat Maurer has quite a young  James Hetfield-type vocal, with maybe slight touches of early Dave Mustaine growl ‘n’ snap.  
 
The ten-track album flows by well enough, with nothing overstaying its welcome- and along the way we have some nice head-shaking riff craft going on. The songwriting is dynamic and at points edged with some creative touches. Though personal I didn’t find the album quite as impactful/ enjoyable as the band's debut- as at points it does sound a tad derivative, and lacks its own identity…but it’s far from a bad or disappointing Thrash metal record.
 
In conclusion, Face Of Despair saw Mortal Sin tighten and develop their Thrash metal craft. So if you enjoyed more technical if still meaty and chugging metal craft I think you’ll like what’s on offer here. Another great/ worthy release from the folks at Dissonance Productions.