The result is a unique blend of intense tech-death metal, groovy rhythm passages, bluesy solos, and blistering shredding that expands upon nearly every aspect of Akeldema but manages to sound completely new and fresh.Īs in any tech death band instrumentation is key, and The Faceless certainly don't fail here. They're a band capable of creating something truly classic and while this might not hit that mark, I will be eagerly awaiting their next release.Review Summary: A diverse and enjoyable tech-death album that will please old-fans and offers enough new ideas to bring in new ones.įollowing their critically-acclaimed debut, The Faceless attempt to expand upon the technicality of Akeldema while simultaneously incorporating a diverse group of influences into their evolved sound. The Faceless may not have an extensive pedigree or a back catalog proving their hard-earned cred, but they have something that metalheads often lose sight of: talent. Planetary Duality is an impressive new take on a genre that has been done so many times before in a much less inspired fashion.
There's nothing wrong with being straightforward but I give The Faceless credit for the extra bit of creativity.īottom Line: The angry old man in me didn't even want to put this record into my CD player but the actual music fan hiding in there just couldn't be repressed upon repeat listens.
Additionally, there are a handful of points throughout the disc where the drums and guitar seemed at odds in the mix, especially when I listened to it at high volumes on my stereo, as if the two were fighting for your attention and sadly the drums almost always won.įinally, the combination of their artwork and lyrical content reminded me of a cross between Cynic and Nocturnus and it's always fun to hear a metal band sing about death and dismemberment in the context of space and sci-fi every once in a while. I'm interested to see if they are able to pull all of this off as precisely live but I'd almost rather hear a looser incarnation of these tracks, as the material itself isn't done justice by the trophy case treatment. The drums are never off but they are also rarely natural. The guitars are recorded with just the right amount of reverb and the bass never ventures out of its too-tight groove. There is an absolute sterility to the disc's sound that is unfortunately par for the course with most releases of this sort. My only real disappointment with Planetary Duality is in the disc's production and mixing. The Faceless make the majority of their technical passages seem as effortless as the less intricate ones. All too often, bands seem to rely too much on their speed or timing to mask their songwriting deficiencies. Virtuoso guitar work is accented at every turn by a rhythm section that pulls out every trick and tempo in the book over the course of the album. It's not a disc that pushes boundaries genre-wise, but the band has certainly set themselves apart from a talent standpoint. It's relatively apparent that founding member and lead guitarist Michael Keene is a quick study, building on metal both current and past for his own band's future. The Faceless have a knack for fitting all their musicianship neatly into songs that are both well-structured and concise. If the talk of tech already has you tuning out, I would strongly urge you to reconsider. Planetary Duality may clock in at a relatively lean thirty-one minutes, but there are more than enough good ideas, face-melting riffs and technical flourishes to satisfy even the most gluttonous tech-head. These guys pull off what 99% of bands who have been at this a lot longer have failed miserably at simply by making the segues, experiments and left-field bits work in context. While it might be easy to nail them on their impetuous co-opting of Cynic's trademark vocoder routine in "The Ancient Covenant" or the unfortunately comical vocal shortcomings on "Sons of Belial," you would have to be pretty fucking jaded to write this album off altogether. To be honest, their latest release Planetary Duality hits most of its bases so precisely that it nearly becomes suspect. As a result, they've since developed into one of the most technically adept and virtually flawless acts of the variety that I've ever heard. Tech death metal act The Faceless have spent the last few years since their debut release tirelessly touring with some of the best death metal acts on the planet.
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