Review: The Faceless - Autotheism

Band: The Faceless
Album: Autotheism
Year: 2012
Country: USA
Genre: Technical/Progressive Death Metal

When I read the The Faceless used to be a deathcore band I almost didn’t believe it. Autotheism is the only album I have heard of theirs (and I only listened based on the praise it had gotten) and at this moment it is quite easily my favorite modern progressive death metal album. This is a long ways from anything deathcore. In addition to being progressive, Autotheism is also quite technical as well and for me this is like killing two birds with one stone. Autotheism is actually a concept of sorts, telling the story as the name suggests of a man who forsakes traditional religion and believes himself to be god.

The albums first 3 tracks are actually one long song separated into movements. This is one of my favorite parts about progressive music and the band successfully pulls off repeating themes from earlier in the song at different points. The guitarists start Create off at a slow almost alternative metal like sound, and yet as soon as that song is over Emancipate kicks in and so does the shred. Michael Keene and Wes Hauch show their skills throughout the album with noodling guitar solos and extremely fast riffing. The best part is that it totally fits, all of it. It doesn’t feel like they are using guitar wankery in a masturbatory manner and it comes off as solely for the benefit of the music and story being told. So while the wank is there it isn’t done in a shameful way.

Lyle Cooper’s drumming is just as insane as the guitar parts. He keeps up and when the guitars shred he shoots off at a frenetic yet composed pace. Yet when the band slows down (which they do a number of times like in Create,  Deconsecrate, and 10 Billion Years) he can slow down as well though sometimes he will still let loose with double bass which seems at odds with the slower guitars and snare. The bass is the least interesting part of the album though. It mostly sticks to mimicking the guitar riffs but hey at least you can hear Evan Brewer’s contribution.

There are both clean and harsh vocals on Autotheism.  While Geoffrey Ficco does the harsh vocals using deep death growls Michael Keene does the cleans. I find Keene’s clean singing to be a bit more interesting than Ficco’s death growls. His singing sounds a lot like Jeffrey Nothing from Mushroomhead, except he sounds a lot better and less cartoonish.

There are a lot of interesting elements on the album that keep it in stark contrast to most regular death metal albums. The acoustic intro to In Solitude and the saxophone on Deconsecrate are especially nice touches. There are also a decent amount of keys throughout that sometimes take precedence and provide a lot of atmosphere.  Especially the very church like keys at the start of Deconsecrate, how very appropriate!

Autotheism has a lot going for it. There is enough progressive elements to make it stand apart from just being another generic death metal album and the technical musicianship only adds to that. Keene has a great singing voice as well and each song is memorable and  has things that make them stand apart from each other, even the first 3 tracks that are actually movements of one song. I actually feel like they are kind of doing a more streamlined version of what Between the Buried and Me do but in a death metal fashion. I really can’t find any fault with what The Faceless have put forth here and commend them for also including an interesting lyrical concept to go along with the interesting music, and making them fit. I would recommend Autotheism to anyone who likes progressive type metal or those willing to have a try for something that’s a bit off the beaten path.

Score: 9/10

Standout Tracks: Create, Deconsecrate, In Solitude

Review: Obscura - Omnivium

Band: Obscura
Album: Omnivium
Year: 2011
Genre: Technical/Progressive Death Metal

I had heard only a handful of songs by Obscura before deciding to buy Omnivium. I was pulled in by how much the band sounded like some of my favorite American death metal bands of the early 90s, specifically Cynic and Death. In Omnivium they kept only elements of their previous sound and its safe to say I did not get what I was expecting.

The bass while still pretty audible plays much less of a role than on say Cosmogenesis. This kind of bummed me out because it was in my eyes a pivotal part of Obscura’s sound that I really liked. It’s still there though and you still can here it much more than usual by comparison to other bands. Listen to Septuagint and you can pick it out pretty easily.

Septuagint is actually a really cool song to start the album with too. There is a little acoustic intro then the song rockets away for the next 7 minutes. There are tons of harmonized leads here which draw comparison to other bands like Nueraxis and Quo Vadis who play a technical form of melodic death metal.

The drumming is really great but it’s the tone of the snare that seems to really mar the album for me. It sounds like Hannes Grossmann is hitting a piece of plastic. To me it sounds so weak and in no way at all organic and hardly like a drum at all. This is really a shame because Hannes’ drumming on Omnivium is great. He has hit that mark between being technical but not so overly technical that his drumming seems to be going everywhere and nowhere at once. Like say the drumming on the Arsis album We Are The Nightmare, jeeze.

There are still a lot of riffs on this album and my favorites have to be on Ocean Gateways, Septuagint, and Celestial Spheres. Most of Ocean Gateways is a slower meandering affair with little flares of speed at certain times while Septuagint is all about speed and Celestial Spheres finds a medium between the two. And the instrumental A Transcendental Serenade is a really fun listen where the band sort of lets loose.

Vocally there are a few different variations here. There is a deep death growl, a higher pitch scream. And a vocoder! This obviously draws similarity to Cynic’s Focus but I have to say the way it is done here is more subtle than Paul did on Focus. Both the more extreme vocals are ok and nothing out of the ordinary for the genre but the use of the vocoder adds a little something for those of us who enjoyed Focus but felt it was used a bit too much.

So Obscura in my eyes are successful in my eyes with Omnivium. They wear their influences a bit less on their sleeves but you can still tell where they are coming from and they have sort of given it more spin of their own so they are less of a clone. The vocals are ok and the vocoder is a nice touch as well. The songs are easy to enjoy to the ears of someone not really attuned to technical death metal which makes this a winner.

Score: 8/10
Standout Track: Ocean Gateways, Celestial Spheres, Septuagint

Review: Edge of Sanity - Crimson

Band: Edge of Sanity
Album: Crimson
Year: 1996
Genre: Progressive/Melodic Death Metal

Edge of Sanity may be the only band who can write a 1 song album lasting 40 minutes that I can listen all the way through and want to listen again. Yes this album is that good. I think it's safe to say that Dan Swano had the biggest hand in creating this album and you can tell by how progressive it is.

Ok so first off the lyrics of Crimson are excellent. Swano's vocals are deep and guttural but like Karl Willets from Bolt Thrower, you can still understand what he is saying. So the vocal performance is very fitting to the story. And its a great story at that! A king and queen rule over a population who are unable to reproduce thus bringing the extinction of humans in the near future. The rest of the song recount's the king and queen's child being born, their daughter becoming evil by an unholy god and her rule over what is left of humanity. No worries though, eventually a group of people take her prisoner and humanity is given the gift of life once more.

I have never heard a song that mirrors the emotion of the story being told so well. It is expertly done on Crimson. When the Queen dies (during child birth) and later the King as well, the music echoes this becoming sorrowful and sad. When the populace finds out they have been deceived into sacrificing themselves for the queen it becomes furious and chaotic. The music matches the actions of the story in a truly impressive way.

Swano gives a terrific performance as well. His death growls are as evil sounding as ever but his cleans happen to shine just as bright. Mike Akerfeldt from Opeth contributes both clean and harsh vocals as well. In fact he let's a absolutely morbid scream and holds it for quite a while and it sounds pretty badass.

There are some very memorable riffs in Crimson. We have some really nice acoustic interludes which usually are a sign of one movement making a transition to another. Now there are a few riffs that are repeating. One is a doom riff that is kind of down trod and dark sounding setting the mood. Another is a harmonized twin lead that is just epic! It repeats 2 or 3 times throughout the song and sounds kind of upbeat. Every time I hear this part I bang my head it's just addictive.

But the guitar riffs as a whole are quite catchy. It doesn't matter if they are more in the death metal vein or not, they are all quite memorable. The drumming is pretty straight forward and I enjoy the blast beats here and there. The bass is for the most part buried behind everything else and doesn't exactly play a very prominent role which is unfortunate.

Crimson is a great album that is both progressive and melodic. EoS have created a must have album that could even be appreciated by those who don't listen to extreme music for its depth and the creativity. Do yourself a favor and find this album.

Score: 9/10
Standout Track: umm how about Crimson?!

Review: Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow

Band: Edge of Sanity
Album: Purgatory Afterglow
Year: 1994
Genre: Progressive Death Metal

Purgatory Afterglow is where Edge of Sanity decided to start moving more in the direction of progressive death metal. The album does contain a few elements that are not usually found in your run of the mill death metal. This will probably scare away the people who are more interested in the aggression and “brutality” of death metal but it makes the band/album far more unique than most in the genre, at least at the time of its release

The album does have its progressive moments. Twilight contains two softer interludes where just keys are playing as Dan Swano sings or speaks over them. My favorite part of the song is actually in the second interlude where he asks “Will we ever meet again?” and immediately followed by a blood curdling “NO”. It’s moments like this that make the album so great. You have the soft music that is shattered by the death growl and return of the heavier riffs and drumming. What a contrast!

Want to see just how far the band will take their progressive influences? In comparison to something like the acoustic part in Silent, which is nice, it doesn’t hold a candle to the awesomeness that is Black Tears. The song has a very strong punk vibe to it but the buzzsaw guitars and funny tone presented by Andreas Axelsson, and Sami Nerberg allow it to remain heavy. Swano also puts his great singing voice to use here as well, not one death growl is heard on this song.

This all isn’t to say the album doesn’t contain any aggression! This is still a death metal album after all. At times the guitars are very thrashy and as I mentioned that guitar tone only amplifies this heaviness with its crushing sound. Elements of the drumming help as well, both Elegy and Of Darksome Origin contain blasts right off the bat and the entire album is peppered with them. Benny Larsson is very competent and his drumming fits whichever style the music has taken on.

As vocalist Dan Swano really shines. His clean vocals are on the lower side giving his singing a very manly sound. And even when he does sing over heavier music on songs like Blood Colored, it doesn’t at all sound out of place. In fact on that song he switches between harsh and clean vocals quite a bit and it sounds wonderful. The only song where he slips up is on Song of Sirens. Here he uses more of a hardcore shout but the entire song is strange even for an album containing Black Tears and it sounds like it could have been a b-side to Wolverine Blues.

What Edge of Sanity has done with Purgatory Afterglow is made a unique and sonically pleasing slab of death metal. It contains just enough of aggression, prog, and catchiness (oh that Swedish groove!) to make all the songs on the album memorable. While Crimson is often considered their magnum opus it’s safe to say that Purgatory Afterglow isn’t too far behind in terms of quality.

Score: 8/10
Standout Track: Black Tears/Twilight