Chris Caffery is best known through his ‘day job’ as lead guitarist in Savatage as well as his involvement with the hugely successful, platinum selling side project Trans Siberian Orchestra.Faces represents Caffrey’s first outing as a solo artist and whilst you could be forgiven for thinking that this may be some sort of fretboard waking session, nothing could be further from the truth, What Caffery has achieved with his debut album, is quite frankly astounding. Each of the sixteen songs on the ‘Faces’ portion of the album (there is also a second bonus disc of a concept album called Goddamn War totalling another nine songs at over forty minutes) contains vocal performances , unlike many of his contemporarieswho use the idea of a solo album to play us 100mph solos in the pentatonic scale played with perfect finger placement. Not only does Caffery contribute the songs and guitar but it also marks his arrival as a vocalist. Partly Jon Oliva in delivery (as could be expected after working closely with the Mountain King himself for fourteen years) but ultimately carving out a niche for him self as a bone fide singer in his own right. From the pure Savatage sounding ‘Faces’, ‘Fade into the X’ ‘Remember’ and ‘The Fall’ to the more diverse acoustic based ‘Music Man’ and the Savatage meets Rage Against the Machine ‘Pisses me Off’ Caffery has created a new heavy metal masterpiece. Yes, heavy metal.No two ways about it, this album is one for the old school head down , see you at the end merchants who want power,groove and searing guitar work to ease from every pore of the record, and it has that in abundance.If further evidence were needed check out the blues soaked Steve Broderick (TSO) co write that it ‘Bag o Bones’, totally amazing songwriting , the heavy groovy rhythm supplied by acoustic guitars and Caffery shredding like a bastard in the most controlled fashion, forcefully but delicately in the background. It is amazing that over the course of time Caffery almost never makes the list of best guitarists as polled by various web sites and magazines , but for the first time he has had enough rein to finally do what he wanted to do and his performance here ranks right up there with the best that the likes of Gilbert, Vai, Petrucci , Friedman et al have to offer. Soaring, searing, powerful, controlled,wild, in fact just about every conceivable angle is covered here throughout the course of the album without ever once overplaying or shredding for the sake of it. Savatage fans will adore this , metal fans cannot fail to recognise it’s brilliance and you will be awe struck by the sheer magnitude of ‘Faces’. Metal album of the year without a shadow of a doubt!!