face to face

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Photo by: Derek Bahn No Way Out But Through by face to face Face To Face are a rarity in the music world: A band that not only helped define a sound, but who continue to fine-tune their music with each subsequent release. This is undoubtedly true of the band’s tenth full-length No Way Out But Through , a melodic-punk masterpiece teeming with blistering guitar riffs, fleet-fingered basslines and vocal harmonies that are so infectious they’ll be rattling around your brain for weeks on end. Then again this should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Face To Face’s 30-year history. The band—guitarist/vocalist Trever Keith, bassist/background vocalist Scott Shiflett, guitarist Dennis Hill and drummer Danny Thompson—once again reject complacency and push their musical limits on the follow-up to 2016’s return-to-form, Protection . ”This lineup of Face To Face has been intact for well over a decade at this point and it’s the best lineup the band has ever had,” Keith explains. This connection and chemistry lies at the core of No Way Out But Through and is why the inherent energy on the album sounds so effortless. While Face To Face’s sound is rooted in the West Coast punk genre they helped pioneer, No Way Out But Through raises the sonic bar when it comes to songwriting, arranging and musicianship. “On Protection, I was intentionally writing songs that were reminiscent of our first three albums but on this album I was able to try some different things. There’s a freshness and a newness to the way that these songs came together and I think that’s really evident when you’re listening to this album.” This time around, Keith was able to get out of his proverbial comfort zone by renting a cabin near Malibu, California, and holed up with Shiflett as they transformed a collection of their respective demos and ideas into the polished recording you hear today. Production-wise, the band teamed up again with Juno Award-winning producer Siegfried Meier and Davey Warsop (Foo Fi