NOTE: This listing is for the newly remastered edition - available on vinyl, compact disc and digitally. The original 1994 master recording has also been made available on CD, cassette and digitally - and it can be found at the link:
skingraftrecords.bandcamp.com/album/face-of-collapse-original-master
“Face Of Collapse” will be inducted into Decibel Magazine’s “Hall of Fame” series with an extensive seven page feature in the June 2022 issue.
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Dazzling Killmen "Face Of Collapse: Special Edition"
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Now in a DELUXE Six-Panel DIGIPAK Gatefold CD Edition, packaged with a commemorative 16-page booklet packed with exclusive liner notes from Aaron Burgess (former editorial director of Alternative Press), an oral history of the album from Hank Shteamer (senior music editor, Rolling Stone) plus artwork and comics from Mark Buckheit, Mark Fischer, Paul Nitsche, Miles Rutlin and Rob Syers.
Gatefold Sleeved DOUBLE LP Edition includes collectible Footlong OBI, Twelve inch 16-page book and artwork silk-screened directly onto side four. Packaged in a crystal-clear resealable overbag.
Recorded and Engineered by Steve Albini. Remastered by Blake Fleming and Andris Balins at Dryhill Studios. Analog Tape Restoration by Jason McEntire at SawHorse Studios.
Special Edition bonus tracks include “Medicine Me”, “Poptones” (Public Image Ltd. cover) and “My Lacerations” (alternate version). Collects every studio track recorded by the quartet version of the band.
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Was DAZZLING KILLMEN a hardcore band? A metal band?
The world’s gnarliest progressive-rock quartet?
“Yes” is the easy answer, but only because it’s easy to rewind through two decades of genre fragmentation to hear Dazzling Killmen’s influence on any number of “math-metal,” “prog-core” and similarly classified bands. At the time, however, this St. Louis quartet occupied a genre of one. When SKiN GRAFT released the Killmen’s 1994 sophomore album, “Face of Collapse”, that genre had its touchstone.“
- Excerpt from Aaron Burgess’ liner notes
"The band formed in the St. Louis, MO area, and forged its singular sound with almost no music scene support for such a fringy concept - technically impeccable playing enabling whiplash stop-starts that recalled John Zorn’s Naked City more readily than any rock group one could name, cathartic and discordant guitar stabs, a jaw-dropping rhythm section, arrangements of baroque complexity, and a harrowing, overbearing, inescapable sense of pure dread”. - Dangerous Minds
“Most of the great progressive underground bands of the ‘90s would not exist if it weren’t for them.” - Ben Weinman, lead guitarist & primary songwriter of The Dillinger Escape Plan
Loud Life at Alternative Press magazine declared it the top album of the 90's based on the following criteria: 1) Avoidance of formula or cliché. 2) Dexterity of rhythm section, 3) Quality of album’s production values, 4) Lack of predictable lyrical subjects - Satan, Straightedge, Viking folklore, etc. “Sounds like Dave Bruebeck’s Time Out played through Carcass' PA system."
Spin Magazine called Blake Fleming one of the 100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music; while Fact Magazine named the album one of the Best Post-Metal Records Ever. Guitarist / vocalist Nick Sakes went on to form Colossomite (with Ed and John of Deerhoof) and now performs in Upright Forms. Blake founded Laddio Boloko and then The Mars Volta; while Tim Garrigan and Darin Gray formed You Fantastic! Darin is renowned for his work with Jim O’Rourke, including their bands Brise-Glace and Yona-Kit. Currently Darin performs with William Tyler and recently appeared on The Tonight Show in the band Tweedy, alongside Jeff of Wilco. Tim went on to form the band Skryptor with David McClelland of Craw.
Released by SKiN GRAFT Records.
released November 11, 2016
LINE UP:
Darin Gray: electric bass
Nick Sakes: vocals, guitar
Blake Fleming: drums
Tim Garrigan: guitar
Recorded by Steve Albini
Cover art and design by Paul Nitsche and Mark Fischer