A five-year gap between records and a litany of line-up changes would slow down the momentum of any band, but Michael Keene has always been driven to make The Faceless work, even if it means taking on the majority of musical roles on himself. However, with a new set of musicians backing him up, Keene hopes to push The Faceless back to the forefront of people’s minds with In Becoming A Ghost (Sumerian) and prove that, despite the trials and tribulations of the band’s history, his ambition for creating the most extravagant music possible can still lead to great things.
What’s evident from the outset is the vast pool of influences that In Becoming a Ghost draws from. The ruthless Tech-Death we’ve come to expect of bands from this scene is interweaved with delicate Prog Rock, creeping Industrial (aided by Keene’s haunting clean vocals), and a whiff of the ice-cold fury of Black Metal for good measure. So far, so Faceless, but as bonkers as all of this sounds thrown together in one melting pot, for the most it all flows very organically. The dark, otherworldly tandem of ‘Cup of Mephistopheles’ and ‘The Spiralling Void’ adds a distinct character fitting of the album’s title, particularly when both tracks exhibit a fluid interplay of Keene’s ghostly melodies and his guttural roars.
The second half of the record begins to lose focus however, as aside from a rather peculiar and indulgent cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Shake the Disease’, the remaining tracks don’t offer as much variety or intrigue. The minute-long ‘Ghost Reprise’ seeks to add more to the murky atmosphere of the record with plaintive keys and a weary spoken word piece, while the fantastically technical ‘(Instru)mental Illness’ offers more in the way of dizzying fretwork. The problem is neither of these two tracks offer much to the record as a whole, with the former being essentially inconsequential, and the latter feeling more like a thrown together mix of pieces that didn’t fit elsewhere for the sake of a jokey title that doesn’t get funnier the more you hear it. ‘I Am’ and ‘The Terminal Breath’ could easily fit onto Planetary Duality (Sumerian) with enough Tech-Death fury to keep riff fans happy. The familiarity will be welcome to long-term Faceless fans, but it does feel like we’re retreading old ground and this does take away from the ambitious start that In Becoming a Ghost set out with.
Nevertheless, it’s a genuinely interesting record, even with its faults. There are more than enough fascinating moments to decry any criticisms that The Faceless are all style and no substance. Perhaps five years was not worth the unrefined realisation of In Becoming a Ghost, but their ambition is something to be applauded and it proves there is still life left in the band.
6.0/10
ROSS JENNER