Reissue of the 1989 Swedish crusher.

Our take: Unrest Records gives us the first ever official vinyl reissue of this Swedish metal/hardcore monster. Black Uniforms is most famous for featuring Cliff, Anti-Cimex’s guitarist during the 90s, whose distinct riffing style shaped Absolute Country of Sweden and Scandinavian Jawbreaker. If you like those records (or Cliff’s later band Driller Killer), you should check out Black Uniforms, as his style is fully on display here, including a few licks that later make their way into the Cimex oeuvre. While there’s a lot of thrash metal influence in the riffing, the harsh vocals and the drums’ relentless d-beat, which rarely breaks the rhythm with fills or accents, keep things sounding very punk. (Also helping punk up Faces of Death is a medley of Moderat Likvidation songs that closes the record’s a-side.) Faces of Death is similar to the records English Dogs and Broken Bones were making in the mid-80s, and I think the songs on it are just as great as great as the ones on all-time favorites like Forward into Battle and Bonecrusher. Unfortunately, though, the production on Faces of Death is murky. I only knew this record from downloading crappy vinyl rips, so I was curious if this official reissue offered a big improvement in sound. It certainly sounds a lot better than any of those rips in terms of fidelity, but I still think the guitar-forward mix blunts the rhythm section’s impact. With a stronger mix, I think Faces of Death would be in the “all-time classic” category, but even if it falls a notch lower than that, it still fucking smokes. I certainly jumped on the opportunity to grip this record for less than several days’ wages, and if you like any of the aforementioned groups, you won’t regret following my lead.