I was fortunate enough to hit up the 2011 edition of HEAVY T.O. and even purchased the tickets before the band were announced. For some reason, I had a feeling it was going to be a good year :-)
Now, for these articles, I usually throw around some opinions and constructive criticisms. I'm going to keep all feelings aside and just report on some need to know facts about these bands to make your experience at the festival a little more enjoyable. If you know of someone going to the festival, pass the articles along and get them just as stoked as we are! For today, AFGM brings you THE FACELESS!
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The Faceless was formed in Encino, California by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin in 2004. They released their debut album Akeldama in 2006 and toured extensively with bands such as Necrophagist, Decapitated, Nile, and The Black Dahlia Murder. After touring, drummer Brett Batdorf left the band during the recording of Akeldama. Former drummer Nick Pierce, recorded the instrumental song, "Akeldama" the name of the debut album. The band went through several fill-in drummers before adding current drummer Lyle Cooper to their line-up.
Currently, The Faceless consists of:
Michael "Machine" Keene – Guitar, Vocals | Geoffrey Ficco - Vocals | Wes Hauch – Guitar | Evan Brewer – Bass | Lyle Cooper – Drums
The Faceless released their second full-length album, Planetary Duality, in November 2008. The album debuted at number 119 on the Billboard 200.
In January 2009, the group announced a North American tour with Meshuggah and Cynic; and in February 2009, another North American tour, with Cannibal Corpse, Neuraxis and Obscura; then toured the US with In Flames, Between the Buried and Me, and 3 Inches of Blood; then a co-headlining tour with Dying Fetus.
The band were confirmed to tour Europe as part of the Bonecrusher Fest in Spring 2010 alongside The Black Dahlia Murder, 3 Inches of Blood, Necrophobic, Obscura, Carnifex and Ingested. Prior to their performance at California Metalfest IV, founding member and bassist Brandon Giffin announced that he would no longer be in the group. They also announced that they would be playing in the 2010 Summer Slaughter Festival along with such bands as Decapitated, All Shall Perish, Decrepit Birth and others.
In May 2011, The Faceless Guitarist Micheal Keene confirmed via Facebook that Geoff Ficco would be replacing Derek Rydquist as the vocalist for the Faceless. Geoff is the vocalist on the Eidolon Reality demo. In April 2011, The Faceless were joined by Evan Brewer of Animosity.
The Faceless are working on a new album that is to be released in 2012. Guitarist Michael Keene has said via twitter that he hopes to finish the album before the band leaves for the 2012 Metal Alliance Tour.
In March 2012, founding guitarist Steve Jones left The Faceless and was replaced by Wes Hauch. This leaves Michael Keene as the last founding member still in the band. Keene stated that "he's moved in a different direction than us and we wish him good luck in his ventures." Keene has also stated that the addition of Wes Hauch gave the band some fresh energy, praising Hauch to be "one of the best guitar players I've ever had the privilege of playing with, he's really amazing". The band is hoping to include a song that Hauch has written for the 2012 album.
So far, The Faceless have completed on full LP and another one on the way (*crossing fingers* so the music world will stop bitching about when it's coming out!). Check out (below) some artwork, track listing, (Album stream), and some mixed reviews from notable music sites in regards to "Planetary Duality".
1. Prison Born
2. The Ancient Covenant
3. Shape Shifters
4. Coldly Calculated Design
5. Xenochrist
6. Sons of Belial
7. Legion of the Serpent
8. Planetary Duality I (Hideous Revelation)
9. Planetary Duality II (A Prophecies Fruition)
Check out the entire album streaming via Sumerian Record's YouTube channel:
The Faceless - Planetary Duality
"Duality is the operative word on this second release by technical death metal band the Faceless. The band sets up a spine-tingling tension between instrumental prowess ('The Ancient Covenant') and sheer brutality ('Coldly Calculated Design'), and when the band fires all guns the result is a complex and challenging listen that doesn’t stint on chaotic mayhem. Credit for the latter goes to vocalist Demon Carcass, whose voice suggests nothing less than full Satanic possession." -All Music
"The Faceless have managed to write a collection of fairly memorable tracks. While all of them are of the tech-death variety, each song contains a section that makes it stand out from the other tracks on the album. 'The Ancient Covenant' contains a section of hyper speed blasting that turns into an oddly timed start-stop rhythm underneath one of Keene's many great solos. 'Coldly Calculated Design' displays a frantic, almost panicked sounding riff. On 'Xenochrist,' we hear a hint of black metal influence not far into the song, but it quickly fades away. 'Legion of the Serpent' starts off similar to rest of the album, but after a short pause with some acoustic-y guitars, it takes off with a cold, somewhat blackened melodic sound.
On the downside, the album is pretty short, coming in just over 30 minutes long, and 2 of the tracks on it are short instrumentals that are there mainly for atmospheric effect. The production on Planetary Duality is pretty good. The bass is buried a little bit, although that seems a fairly common thing, and some will complain about the drum sound when it's at full speed, but I don't find that it takes anything away from the album.
All in all, Planetary Duality is an excellent album, especially considering how young the band is. The Faceless have managed to write some very technical, powerful music without becoming a frenzied blur, all the while remaining pretty memorable, something it seems many tech-death bands struggle to do. If The Faceless keeps improving like this, perhaps we may see their names alongside some of the tech-death greats in the future." -Metal Storm
"The Faceless’ sophomore release is one of the better death metal albums I’ve heard in 2008, but it’s not without its evident flaws. While the added technicality here is frequently entertaining and occasionally jaw-dropping, I can’t help but miss some of the incredibly catchy melodies Akeldama featured in songs like 'All Dark Graves'. I do appreciate The Faceless for not making Akeldama Pt. 2, but this album didn’t hit me quite as hard. A few of the robotic and clean vocal sections, while providing contrast to the songs, just seem out of place and more comical than anything else. And even though “Planetary Duality I (Hideous Revelation)” is pretty badass from a musical standpoint, I can’t help but be annoyed that the band completely stole the audio sample from Tool’s 'Faaip De Oiad'.
Planetary Duality isn’t a classic by any means, but it’s still a solid technical death metal release that should grab the attention of any shredder out there. The Faceless have clearly matured as musicians and show potential for complete perfection with “Xenochrist”, which I consider to be the band’s strongest song to date and possibly my favorite song of the year. A few imperfections aside, this should be heard by any fan of heavy or progressive music." -Sputnik Music
And then there is always the unimpressed reviews as well. Just to play both sides...
"The music could be partially redeemed were the vocals unique enough, but The Faceless fucked up there as well, instead choosing a vocalist with one of the most unoriginal vocal styles imaginable. It's that sort of low, barky death growl anyone will immediately know if he's listened to any technical death metal album made after 2000. Everyone uses it (though I'm not entirely sure why), and after hearing six hundred million bands use the style it goes from mediocre to actively fucking annoying. The growls on this album are sort of catchy at times, but generally they feel like they're not the style that would allow Planetary Duality to reach its maximum artistic potential (not to imply that a good vocalist alone would redeem this piece of shit). In what appears to be an attempt to be "moar pergresive", the band also included clean singing on a couple of tracks. While they're not overused, Jesus Christ they are some of the worst singing vocals I've ever heard. The vocalist seems to prefer sleazily slurring his voice (a great example is around 1:37 in 'Sons of Belial': 'THIEEE DEH-VINE, taayyyyyse of *dance pop voice* EH-NUH-SENCE'...for fuck's sake, this is not singer-songwriter music) to precisely hitting the notes and making them sound nice. There are also deathcore screams every now and then sitting in the background, but they don't ever come out very loud in the production (makes sense: the band's had a habit throughout the rest of this album of basically closeting all their deathcore elements; heaven forbid people actually think The Faceless are a deathcore band, oh no!). Again, these screams are the generic, high, raspy kind that you could hear in any deathcore band ever; to spend more than two sentences on them in this review would imply that there's something worthwhile about them to observe, which there's not.
Overall, this is fruity, closeted deathcore that despite its constant breakdowns, screams, and the riffs generally being ripped from any technical deathcore band ever, insists that it's some sort of death metal album by covering up its deathcore tendencies with influences obviously thrown in at the last second. The songwriting is poor, the vocals are banal, the breakdowns are unoriginal, and the production and guitar tone is typical, overproduced modern deathcore trite. On a level of 1 to 100, you would have to think of an imaginary number near infinity to comprehend just how much I hate this; to judge its actual musical quality on such a scale, however, a 17 will do." -Metal Archives
Now onto the myth/legend of the new album. Sumerian Records founder had the following to discuss about the band after their highly successful first album:
"Of every signing in the history of Sumerian Records, I feel the re-signing of THE FACELESS is the most symbolic and monumental of all. Back in 2006 when I stopped touring, I was living in a one bedroom Venice Beach apartment as an aspiring but struggling DIY booking agent trying to pay the bills. With a dream of having a record label built upon the spirit of family and perseverance and comprised of a heavy, cutting edge roster, I set out to find the perfect first band. I could not have chosen a better group than THE FACELESS to begin the story of Sumerian Records. With no office or staff, just sheer determination and a vision, we shook hands and decided let's show the business what the little guys can do together with all the odds against us.
Both as a huge fan and a true friend, I have watched the members of THE FACELESS go from being an unsigned, struggling local LA band to a critically acclaimed, internationally renowned, touring force that have been chosen to travel the planet w/Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Cannibal Corpse, In Flames, Between The Buried And Me, Necrophagist, The Black Dahlia Murder, Cynic and more. One of the greatest joys of my job is to be able to help incredibly talented musicians build and grow a career. THE FACELESS have undoubtedly become an influential, timeless, progressive metal act that continues to evolve before the world's eyes. Now with their songwriting at an all time high and their forward thinking approach to music showing no signs of slowing down, I believe 2011 will be the biggest year THE FACELESS has ever seen and I am very grateful to be a part of it." -Ash Avildsen
Keene has also been somewhat vocal when it comes to the new ink deal for the new LP with Sumerian Records:
“After five years and two successful albums we've decided to sign on with the sphinx-obsessed, record-pedaling Sumerian Records for some more! We've worked together from the start of both of our respective careers and have grown together the whole way. That brings me to the question, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? There is no doubt that Sumerian has been there for us time and time again when we've needed them and they continue to grow and expand as a label every day. I'm very confident in their work for us and am proud to not only call everyone at Sumerian our business partners, but also our great friends.
This next record is going to be the most musical and progressive record we've made. Since recording Planetary Duality, the goals of THE FACELESS have changed a bit. You can still expect a fast, technical and blistering record, but I personally am less focused on a musical aesthetic and more on musicality and making an expressive, unique, moody and expansive record. Speed picking, flying double bass and skin melting guitar solos are certainly still in order. However, you can also expect more clean vocals with big harmonies, some unique instrumentation, dark moody passages, interesting keyboards, synth guitars, vocoder and sequenced segments. It's going to be the most focused and depressive FACELESS record to date.
I'll also be filming as much of the recording process on my FlipCam and posting frequent webisodes along the way. I'm really excited to show our fans a glimpse into the daily life of THE FACELESS, the recording process and my little world at Keene Machine Studios. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.” -Michael Keene
Peek From The Pit got ahold of Keene for an interview not too long ago, where the guitarist shed some light on the new material and what fans can expect:
"It's pretty new. I think people are going to be pretty surprised, but everyone I've played it for, as far as my friends and musicians, they've all given me very positive feedback. I'm pretty excited to get it out and show it to people. I think it will have a pretty positive reception overall. There might be some people that are bothered that it's a little bit less death metal at times, well a lot less death metal at times, but there is still a lot of blistering brutal stuff going on. It's very diverse, there's a lot of dynamics. Overall, the songwriting is way darker than it's ever been. It's a very eery dark record, whether the extreme death metal parts or there's lots of sequenced things with orchestral arrangements. It's all kind of eery and scary sounding which is kind of what I wanted it to sound like."
Check out the rest of the interview here:
So I'm thinking that The Faceless (subconsciously) knew that I was doing my article today. I hopped onto the net this morning to see an album preview and album artwork for their long awaited sophomore album "Autotheism" (and tons of pre-orders to boot!).
The album will see the light of day on August 14th, 2012 via Sumerian Records.
1. Autotheist Movement I: Create
2. Autotheist Movement II: Emancipate
3. Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate
4. Accelerated Evolution
5. The Eidolon Reality
6. Ten Billion Years
7. Hail Science
8. Hymn Of Sanity
9. In Solitude
Stay tuned for more details!
The Faceless have been spotted playing some of their newer material on the road. You can see them playing a new tune called "Deconsecrate", which was filmed from March 23rd, 2012 in Montreal, Quebec:
*THE FACELESS WILL BE PERFORMING ON SUNDAY (THE 12TH) AT THE JAGERMEISTER WEST STAGE FROM 14:00-14:30*
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