Melodic/goth Rock/Metal is a genre that during the last years is in bloom. The record companies are trying to get a piece of the sales, so they sign almost every band in the planet, playing this kind of music. But, is FACESHIFT a band that we are going to forget fast or not?
Do you know ETERNAL OATH, the Black Metal band? If yes, you also, probably know that the band split up early in 2007. Well, FACESHIFT emerges from the ashes of the previously mentioned band. As the band wrights in their bio, they began realizing that hardly anyone in the band was interested in making yet another Death Metal album. So they started rehearsing the old material with their friend and vocalist  Timo Hovinen. Things developed really fast, since the songs were almost ready. They recorded Reconcile in a few days (as the band says)! So, late in spring of the year that had just passed, the recordings were over and the debut album was ready to be released.
While I was listening to the album for the first time, I was reading the biography of FACESHIFT. So, from what I read, I was expecting to listen to guitar harmonies, melody and aggression. But alas! Nothing was there. OK, you may find some fragments with nice ideas, but the overall result did not match my expectations.  This album is a Finnish-style Goth Rock/Metal one but without the oomph of other bands like SENTENCED, POISONBLACK or CHARON (even though I don't like the last one's too much). Even though the album opens up strongly with Reality/Fatality, the continuity of the album is not the same. In my opinion, Reconcile is a monotonous album, without having that something to make it special and original. It has one or two nice songs like The Dark Domain and The Craving, the best song of the album in my humble opinion. Timo Hovinen's voice is not something extraordinary. To tell you the truth, I think that - in some points - he was out of tone.
I think that Reconcile is one of those albums that are well worked; they may recorded it in just a few days but they were working the songs for more than a year, plus with good mixing and sound. But - on the other hand - it lacks originality and the vocals are not good and sometimes in false note. Gothic fans that like aforesaid bands and ELUSIVE will like this album.  I think that they may do something better in the future if they manage to get out of the Finnish-style goth Rock/Metal and Timo's voice improves. As for now...