After a long five-year gap, technical death metallers The Faceless have finally released their fourth album In Becoming a Ghost. Throughout their career, The Faceless established themselves as one of the best bands in the genre of technical death metal. Their 2006 debut, Akeldama, displayed amazing instrumentation and acted as a showcase of what was to come. Their 2008 sophomore effort, Planetary Duality, is considered by many to be a masterpiece and one of the best albums in the genre. The Faceless’ last album, Autotheism, saw the band use more elements of progressive death metal by featuring more clean instrumentation and clean vocals via guitarist and vocalist Michael Keene. While this album polarized their fanbase and critics alike, Autotheism showed that The Faceless were willing to change up their sound and experiment. Now after five years, numerous line-up changes, and several cancelled tours and drama later, In Becoming a Ghost is here.
Like their pervious works, In Becoming a Ghost features a change in lyrical content. Planetary Duality focused on aliens and cosmic horror, Autotheism (as implied by the name) discussed the concept of worshiping oneself as a god. With In Becoming a Ghost, death and the afterlife take center stage. The album opens with a haunting spoken word track (titled “In Becoming a Ghost”) with a man discussing the irreversible process of becoming a ghost and wandering through the afterlife. Behind the narration are some dark synths, strings, and piano. While this track does feel a bit like filler, it leads excellently into the next track “Digging the Grave.” Right from the start, this track displays that The Faceless mean business on this album. New to The Faceless is Abigail Williams vocalist Ken Sorceron. Sorceron’s long career in black metal can be heard from the first verse. Sorceron’s high and gruff screeches work rather well with the virtuosic instrumentation. While this new vocal style my not be everyone’s cup of tea, the addition of Sorceron to the line-up of The Faceless was definitely a solid choice. The theme of death is also seen right from the start with the track opening with the lines:
“Feel a pain so cold under the skin,
As I dig the grave to bury these sins,
Taste a misery so real that purity stains,
Obsession with a thrill that possesses my veins.”
The guitar work from Michael Keene and The Zenith Passage guitarist Justin McKinney is fantastic as well. Just like on Autotheism, the riffs shift from fast and heavy to clean and atmospheric almost seamlessly. In an interesting twist, “Digging the Grave” also features a flute solo. This is not too odd of a choice by The Faceless considering they featured a saxophone solo on Autotheism. The flute adds to the haunting nature of the album.
Other standout tracks include “I Am” which features some of the heaviest riffs on the album, “Black Star” which showcases Keene’s bass chops. While Keene is by no means as great a bassist as Evan Brewer, his bass arrangements on “Black Star” are well-crafted. The single that teased this album nearly two years ago “The Spiraling Void” also stands out. These tracks feature fantastic arrangements and lyrics that perfectly convey the overall theme of the album. Also, for the first time in their discography, The Faceless includes a cover song on In Becoming a Ghost. The song they cover is “Shake the Disease” by Depeche Mode. This cover is fantastic because it does what a cover should do in my opinion. The Faceless play the song in their own style and make it their own while still respecting the original. Keene’s clean vocals greatly match the inflection of the vocals from Dave Gahan on the original track.
In Becoming a Ghost however, is by no means a perfect album. Three out of the ten tracks on this album are, in my opinion, complete filler. The intro, the reprise of the intro, and the terribly named “(Instru)mental Illness” (Ha! Ya get it!?) add very little to the album. The track “Cup of Mephistopheles” sees the band utilize elements of industrial music for the intro of the song. In my opinion, these industrial elements seem a bit out of place for The Faceless. The album is also surprisingly short. Granted, every album The Faceless have released did not exceed past the thirty to forty-minute mark, this album ends rather abruptly. When I first listened to this album, my initial reaction to the album ending and starting over again was “Really? That’s it?” I guess I expected more out of this album after a five-year gap of no new music. Another small nitpick but this album also does not feature any movements. From Akeldama to Autotheism, The Faceless featured two or three tracks that acted as a movement with a related narrative. Featuring a couple tracks that acted as a movement discussing the album’s theme of death and the afterlife would have been a very welcomed addition.
While In Becoming a Ghost features some strange stylistic choices, three filler tracks, and a surprisingly short runtime, the album overall is great. The instrumentation and lyrical content are fantastic. This album sees the band bridge the gap between their original technical death metal sound with the more progressive elements they established on their last album. However, due to the long gap between albums and a lack of touring, The Faceless’ once heralded place on the ivory tower of technical death metal is beginning to fade. Over the past five years, bands like The Zenith Passage, Inanimate Existence, and Archspire have released fantastic pieces of technical death metal that, in my humble opinion, excel past The Faceless’ old efforts. I’m apparently not alone in this feeling. Many critics and fans of the genre consider Solipsist, the 2016 album from The Zenith Passage, to be Planetary Duality 2.0 aka this generation’s tech death masterpiece. In Becoming a Ghost showcases all of what The Faceless do best, but after all the waiting and drama of the past five years, it leaves something to be desired. On their next release, The Faceless need to pull out all the stops, actually go through with a tour to promote themselves, and move past all the petty drama to create another masterpiece.
Score: 3.5/5
Standout tracks: I Am, Digging the Grave, Black Star, Shake the Disease
Released via Sumerian Records
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