### The Faceless: Planetary duality

#### 28/03/13 || The Duff

The classic tech death bands of the new age are pretty much universally accepted as Necrophagist, Spawn of Possession, Obscura and maybe Anata and Psycroptic. But for the widdly shit the first three definitely, which beggars belief then why a band like The Faceless should go so unliked. They’re a popular band, a mix of Between the Buried and Me and Psycroptic’s more frenetic, tremolo nature, but mention them in forums and they are usually met with scorn on the same level from an equally proficient and talented band, The Black Dahlia Murder.

That said, the band only truly found its calling with “Planetary Duality” in my mind, as with this record it had abandoned its Swedo-death of its debut, “Akeldama”, and gone full on jazz-leads meets prog meets full-on tech death metal. Melt this all into one smooth flowing concept record about aliens, or governments, or mind-experiments, or gender-ops and throw in one of Par Olofsson’s least inspired works (almost androgynous, methinks) but dazzling none the same and you have a pretty nifty record.

One thing that I admire about this record is that, despite the musicianship undoubtedly being of the highest grade, The Faceless do not overstep their welcome. “Planetary Duality” only just passes the thirty minute mark. The compositional strength of the band is also exceptional, this being before the band lost most of its core members, this record has a fluidity to it that could only come from multiple gifted musical minds.

The beauty of it is that, a fine balance of tech and riffery having been struck, every musician essentially has a constant opportunity to show his worth, and yet nobody outshines the other; the quality comes in the mix of heavy, catchy, progressive, complex, but first and foremost, great music be it metal or otherwise.

There is a lot of jazz, a lot of unusual, stop-start rhythms, a lot of tight, tremolo picking, but at the end of the day, The Faceless sound like their own band of astounding musical experience that knows of texture and structure while being very passionate, very hungry. Such rings in every note of “Planetary Duality”, a classic tech death record no matter the contempt the band may have received on account of their image.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Sumerian Records
- Website: The Faceless MySpace
- Band
- Derek Rydquist: vocals
- Michael Keene: guitars, vocals (clean), vocoder
- Steve Jones: guitars
- Brandon Giffin: bass
- Lyle Cooper: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Prison Born
- 02. The Ancient Covenant
- 03. Shape Shifters
- 04. Coldly Calculated Design
- 05. Xenochrist
- 06. Sons of Belial
- 07. Legion of the Serpent
- 08. Planetary Duality I (Hideous Revelation)
- 09. Planetary Duality II (A Prophecies Fruition)