The last thing that this release offers are some of Michael Keene's clean vocals sprinkled over it. Whether its with clean guitar like in the forty-four second track titled "Shape Shifters" or the intro of "Legion of the Serpent" or the fantastic little organ and piano bridges in "Xenochrist" and "Legion of the Serpent" as well, these breaks from the albums relentless brutality are very much welcomed. Considering The Faceless' sci-fi theme with the lyrics and artwork, the guitar work fits perfectly here.Īnother thing that steps up Planetary Duality's game are the little clean interludes thrown in every once in a while. A lot of the lead guitar through the songs have long, held out, slowly bent notes (especially the title track) that really give an old-school-alien-invasion-movie-soundtrack feel. The bits I've got to point out here are the little extras that make this album stand out (albeit not by too much). Mega fast, mega triggered double bass drums, tremolo picked riffs out the ass and more sweeping than a broom convention. Driven by Michael Keene, the lead guitarist/ clean vocalist/ songwriter/ lyricist, The Faceless bring a surprisingly cool angle to the mechanical and formulaic genre of technical death metal.ĭon't get me wrong, Planetary Duality isn't much more than technical death metal, but it's enough more for me to want to listen through it more than a once. I haven't heard a peep about Alkedama, their first release, but I've heard a bunch of praise and general cocksuckery towards Planetary Duality. The Faceless are a relatively new up and coming band, with only three albums over six years (including their upcoming 2012 release, Autotheism). " Plantery Duality" brings things to a whole new level of brutal. "Planetary Duality" sees the best aspects of deathcore and death metal unite in a feat of stunning musicianship that, if anything, should bring the two camps closer to each other.Since announcements about the new Faceless album have been cropping up recently, I decided to give these California based tech-deather's last album a listen to see why everyone is jizzing their pants in anticipation over this new release. Although the band's influences are obvious, they play into The Faceless' own tricks as inspiration, not as borrowed elements from those bands. Unlike many deathcore aspirants, "Planetary Duality" isn't instantly forgettable: it's both extreme and beautiful without ever compromising the unwritten rules of the genre. Through sci-fi imagery, state-of-the-art production, clever use of melody, and an underlying progressive drive, The Faceless have been able to create an ultra-modern album which is far more accessible than is the norm in the genre. In fact, it's these playful elements á la Between The Buried And Me together with the progressive aspects familiar to fans of Cynic that lift The Faceless from the host of other bands of this type to be shepherds rather than sheep. The sci-fi context in particular is a welcome change to the usual death and gore imagery bands of this kind like to play with, and although the robotic voice that occasionally interrupts the vocalist's guttural growl sounds strange, it never sounds out of place. Keene's virtuosity in not only shredding the shit out of his axe, but in song-writing, too, keeps things interesting throughout. It puts a smile on my face to know that hardcore poster boys with clean haircuts and death metal t-shirts can pull this off better than most grizzly metal dudes who are true to the cause, so to say, and honestly, who gives a fuck if their lifestyles don't reflect the music they make when it's this good. Yes, the production is clean, and lo and behold, there are some clean vocals here and there, but "Planetary Duality", like it or not, is first and utmost a technical death metal album and a very good one at that. "Planetary Duality" comes to a time where deathcore is outpacing death metal, yet despite the fact that everything about this band indicates that they belong in that pack, The Faceless have taken care not to blend in. So fast, that the undersigned had to listen to the opening riff of "Prison Born" multiple times before admitting that yes, that sound did, in fact, come from shredding on an electric guitar rather than a chainsaw cutting through thick wood, and that he has earned every letter of his pseudonym. The Faceless is the brainchild of guitarist Michael "Machine" Keene, who reasons that if it no longer suffices to play fast, the solution must be to play even faster. The Faceless Planetary Duality Written by: AP
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