The Faceless - Planetary Duality

The Faceless is a band whose rise to notoriety came from the recent deathcore explosion, though you'd have a hard time classifying them as such. They are and have pretty much been a technical death metal band since the beginning, but they gained their current rise in popularity through touring and word of mouth through the deathcore scene. Since that time they have spent a long time touring with some of the biggest names in death/technical metal and have really established themselves as something different.

They released their first full-length album 'Akeldama' in 2006, to some success on Sumerian Records. I enjoyed a small bit of that album, but overall, I didn't really get into the band. I found a majority of the songs on the album to be kind of boring with a few exceptions. Now, 2 years later, the band has released 'Planetary Duality'. I originally never anticipated listening to this album, but after hearing the rave reviews of people around me, I decided to give it a shot, and it is clear that those 2 years have made quite a difference on The Faceless.

To simply say that it is better than their first album is quite an understatement. As soon as you begin listening, it becomes clear that this is miles and miles beyond what the band produced with 'Akeldama'. Every aspect of the record is much better than anything that was on their previous effort. From the production and sound quality, to musicianship and just songwriting in general, it just blows 'Akeldama' out of the water.

A problem I had with 'Akeldama' was how a lot of times to me, it felt like a lot of pointless riffing that never went anywhere. 'Planetary Duality' has nothing of the sort, everything feels deliberate and perfectly placed and playing off each other, it all works and intermingles perfectly. The album is about 31 minutes long, which is pretty short for a album of the genre; I highly suggest other bands in the genre look at these guys for inspiration. Often time long songs get lost, but everything here is modest and straight to the point. There are some parts of writing I question, there is some dabbling with clean vocals and kind of tech synth singing that I feel really sticks out and doesn't have a place, but those parts aren't often.

The technical proficiency on this record is outstanding. That was clear even with the first album, but it seems like every member of the band has gone above and beyond in perfecting their craft. It's impossible to find a rough spot on this record, it is performed absolutely perfectly, that is a plus and a minus. Because of this perfection, the album feels very clinical; almost too clean and perfect. There is a certain texture missing from the album that disappears with the kind of surgical precision this kind of music has.

'Planetary Duality' is a technical, blistering assault of progressive death metal that really puts The Faceless in a position as a forefront of the community that birthed it. While I'm not ready to say it's one of my favorite albums of the year, it is certainly miles better than their older material, and I think that it's definitely worth listening to.

The Faceless on MySpace
Sumerian Records