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The Faceless - Planetary Duality
Hailing from Los Angeles USA, the technical death metal/deathcore outfit The Faceless are quickly making a name for themselves. They've gotten tours with Lamb Of God, Meshuggah and Cynic to name a few, and their second full length is about to burn down Europe. Let’s see what Planetary Duality offers.
 
This band has found a way to combine various extreme genres in a very appealing and impressive way. Take extreme, technical and brutal death metal and combine it with the deathcore groove and math metal song structures, then add some extreme musical freak virtuosity and you hear The Faceless. It appeals to a wide variety of metal heads, that’s for sure. The songs are all tight, brutal efforts, displaying very talented musicianship and song writing abilities. But even though this all looks very positive, I have detected a couple of downsides to Planetary Duality.
 
My main problem lies with the (over)production of this record. The extremely triggered drums most of all, especially the bass drum. It sort of is not a bass drum anymore, but just a high click. This is becoming standard nowadays I know, and it sort of sucks I think. Also the sound of the guitar is a bit thin and powerless every now and then. It is crystal clear though. My final problem lies with the one-sided grunt vocalist Derek ‘Demon Carcass’ Rydquist packs, a little more variation would be nice. Luckily one of the guitarists helps out with some clean vocals (which are not really necessary for me) and also does some vocals through a vocoder, which has a pretty cool effect actually. It makes the music sound a bit futuristic.
 
So, there are some downsides to Planetary Duality, yet it is a fact that the songs are very well written and executed. This results in that I occasionally lose attention when listening, but all the songs have passages that lure me right back into their world. Therefore I really doubt about how to score this disc, and I’m really curious to hear other people’s thoughts about this record, as I am curious to finding out how this band fits me in a live environment. Progressive, technical and brutal metalheads should definitely give The Faceless a try though, there is bound to be something in there you will like.
The Faceless - Planetary Duality
80/1001Details Lifeforce Records
Released on Monday Feb 23rd, 2009
Progressive Death Metal / Deathcore

Writer @DemonDust on Sunday Feb 8th, 2009

Tags: #The Faceless
Tracklisting 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)
Line up Michael Keene - Guitar, Vocals
Derek "Demon Carcass" Rydquist - Vocals
Brandon Giffin - Bass
Steve Jones - Guitar
Lyle Cooper - Drums