Second album from Oregon based Rainbow Face with their unique brand of punky prog rock.

Release Date: 6th December 2024

Label: Bandcamp

Format: digital

The ambitious Oregon outfit Rainbow Face waste no time in grabbing your attention with their exciting and enthralling brand of Prog Rock.

Screaming guitars herald the opening track before all the complexities expected from riff laden, twiddly keyboards and brain scrambling percussive time signatures are revealed. But rather than confuse and bewilder they combine to make very listenable Prog Rock.

Rainbow Face are clearly a band which doesn’t like to make life easy for themselves. Setting challenging targets, the demonic thrashing one hears in Automation may descend into mayhem but the musical control they have overcomes all. The computerised effects on Virus explode into grungy metallica but the result is a roller coaster thrill ride, showing their eclectic, varying styles of exhilarating sounds.

They play some tricks with you by initially introducing some melodious guitar work in My Crusade before throwing the kitchen sink in as the music erupts before our ears get another instrumental and vocal pasting. Breathtaking and invigorating stuff.

High energy is clearly the watchword for Ransom and you really need a penchant for rock at its most raucous with Borders following in a similar vein with pneumatic drums and guitars pounding away with the wild vocals.

There is some tranquility in Drown to show their versatility, shimmering keyboards from Salvador Altamirano-Farrell letting us down lightly. There are some great riffs from Jake Rose and Dominique Reveneau’s bass runs are stunning. With several time changes in its more complex moments, guided by drummer Connor Reilly, it’s Genesis-like but other Prog influences creep in too.

Overall with the strong yearning vocals of Jake, Rainbow Face have a unique sound avoiding the trap of over-egging the pudding, yet able to maintain interest with many layered textures. There is plenty to appeal to all different fans of Prog with even something in for the doom metal guys too as they don’t get too airy-fairy with the risk of disappearing up their fretboard.

Here’s My Crusade:

Rainbow Face online: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp

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