The Faceless are an American technical death metal band from the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. They released their debut album, Akeldama, in November 2006, and a follow-up, Planetary Duality, in November 2008. The band's third album, Autotheism, was released on August 14, 2012. On December 1, 2017, the band released their fourth album, In Becoming a Ghost.
History
The band was formed in Encino by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin in 2004. In the winter of 2005, the band began work on a four-song extended-play album which would become Akeldama. After recording the drum tracks, drummer Brett Batdorf left the band. After a break in the recording process, the band decided to make the EP into a full–length record and recruited several drummers to finish the drum tracks for the remaining songs.
Following the release of Akeldama, the band toured extensively with bands including Necrophagist, Decapitated, Nile, and The Black Dahlia Murder.[2] The band went through several fill-in drummers before adding drummer Lyle Cooper to their line-up.
Planetary Duality debuted at number119 on the Billboard 200.[3] The album was critically acclaimed and brought the band a new level of success.
In May 2011, Keene confirmed via Facebook that Geoffrey Ficco would be replacing Derek Rydquist as the band’s vocalist.[5] Ficco performed the lead vocals on “The Eidolon Reality” pre-production preview track released on YouTube. In April 2011, the band was joined by bassist Evan Brewer of Animosity, replacing Giffin.[6]
In March 2012, guitarist Steve Jones left the band and was replaced by Wes Hauch, leaving Keene as the last founding member still in the band. Keene stated that “he’s moved in a different direction than us and we wish him good luck in his ventures.” Keene has also stated[when?] that the addition of Hauch gave the band some fresh energy, praising Hauch to be “one of the finest guitar players I’ve ever had the privilege of playing with, he’s really amazing.” Keene wrote Autotheism almost entirely while being the only member of the band, with the exception of track "Ten Billion Years" which was brought to the table by Wes Hauch and rewritten together between Hauch and Keene, keeping a large portion of Hauch's original arrangement with some Faceless signature elements added.
Autotheism débuted at number50 on the Billboard 200 and hit number1 on CMJ radio loud rock charts.
In January 2013, Cooper left the band, and posted on his Facebook module regarding his departure; he claimed that the band’s goals and interests were not his own.[7]Alex Rüdinger, formerly of The HAARP Machine, a labelmate of The Faceless, became the band’s new full-time drummer.[8]
On February 14, 2014, Wes Hauch announced he was leaving the band.[9]
On October 20, 2014, both Evan Brewer and Alex Rüdinger announced on their personal Facebook pages that they were leaving the band to pursue other projects.[10][11] On December 4, 2014, vocalist Geoffrey Ficco announced his departure from the band, leaving Keene as the sole remaining member of the band.[12]
On February 25, 2015, The Faceless announced Justin McKinney (of The Zenith Passage) as the band's new rhythm guitarist via Facebook.
On April 12, 2015, Michael Keene announced the return of founding member and bassist Brandon Giffin.
On September 28, 2015, The Faceless shared a new song titled: "The Spiraling Void", announced a U.S. tour, and also confirmed via Facebook, the return of long time vocalist Derek "Demon Carcass" Rydquist.[13][14]
On November 13, 2015, The Faceless made "The Spiraling Void" available for download, via iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.
On April 18, 2016, The Faceless announced that they would be working under new management through E.J. Shannon Management.[15]
On June 9, 2017, the band announced that they will be playing on the Summer Slaughter Tour 2017 with The Black Dahlia Murder, Dying Fetus and other bands.[16] On the same day, the band released a new song called "Black Star",[17] which featured Ken "Sorceron" Bergeron on vocals, Justin Mckinney on guitar and Chason Westmoreland on drums, also, this is the first The Faceless song on Drop A tuning using seven string guitars.[18] Michael Keene tracked the bass on the entire album by himself. On October 19, 2017, the band announced their fourth full length album entitled In Becoming a Ghost,
which released on December 1, 2017.[18]
On March 19, 2018, vocalist Ken "Sorceron" Bergeron, guitarist Justin McKinney, and drummer Bryce Butler announced they quit the band. Bergeron announced his departure earlier in the day, hours later followed by the other two members. At the time, Keene remained the only member of the band. The new lineup of the band was revealed a month later.[19] The Faceless were expected to perform the entirety of Planetary Duality on June 10, 2018, at Bay Area Deathfest after former member Justin McKinney's band "The Zenith Passage".[20] However, their set was met with criticism after they arrived late and only performed five songs.[21]
On July 24, 2022, Keene came under fire for arriving on-stage at a concert 45 minutes late, only to begin an apparently-inebriated rant about having a neurological disorder. After touring member Aaron Stechauner got Keene off stage, he performed alone on drums for a time to keep the crowd entertained. The Faceless eventually performed two hours after the set was scheduled.[22]
On July 25, 2022, the band announced that James Dorton of Black Crown Initiate had joined the band as lead vocalist.[23]
^"[untitled]". The Faceless (via their Facebook module). May 20, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2013. "So, as some of you may have heard, Derek is no longer in The Faceless. We wish him the best of luck and will always value the time he spent in our band. Our new vocalist's name is Geoffrey Ficco and he is truly a beast! If you've heard our demo for 'The Eidolon Reality' than you've already heard his punishing vocals ;) Surprise!" – Keene
^"[untitled]". The Faceless (via their Facebook module). January 28, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2013. To clear the air on a few details, The Faceless has decided to part ways with drummer Lyle Cooper due to a growing difference in the level of commitment to the project. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors and we're sure he'll continue to be successful with music. Having said that, we are very excited to announce that Alex Rudinger is our new full time drummer. We just played our first 3 shows with him in Mexico and what he brings to the band both musically and personally, is simply astounding. We are looking forward to a great future with Alex. The Faceless was design by Juan Franco Art in 2007
