Akeldama

I’ll be honest here. When I first heard of The Faceless I was completely biased. I was witnessing an uprising of deathcore bands from left to right at such an overwhelming rate that I was wondering if death metal was safe anymore. The truth is, it isn’t in a social sense (look at Cryptopsy for goodness sake). Kids nowadays when asked about death metal are likely to praise such catastrophes as Abigail Williams, Bring Me the Horizon, Winds of Plague and Job for a Cowboy. These bands lack songwriting diversity, leaving their albums with monotonous, unmemorable tracks.

The Faceless is a band that has been wrongfully accused of jumping on the deathcore bandwagon, I think because they just happened to come out at the same time that these abominations were taking over Myspace and Purevolume. The Faceless have been thrown into the mix of deathcore bands though they show minimal hardcore influences. (A few short breakdowns here and there shouldn’t undermine this bands incredible talent.) I have listened to Akeldama and Planetary Duality and have been infatuated with the former as of recent.

The drums and guitar on Akeldama are definitely something to look (or listen) out for, though the album was recorded with four different drummers. The guitar melodies and solos are dramatic, memorable and seem fitting to the songs they’re placed in. The growling that their vocalist manages to belt out is very impressive, especially the higher-pitched screams that normally come as a shadow of the harsher vocals.

The highlights of the album are Leica and Akeldama. They are the longest tracks on the album and make me wish the others had extended. Leica has my favorite solo on the album, toward the end. It’s not extensive (the only bad thing about their solos), but played beautifully and closes the song very well. Both of these songs have greatness pouring out of them with every riff and even the bass has its moment in the spotlight in Akeldama! An instrumental is not something I normally get from a band like this, but I’ll take plenty more if I can get them at this quality.

All in all, this is a very good album. Don’t avoid this album like I did ignorantly, because of what you may have heard of read. The truth is that these guys are a real, technical death metal band with minor hardcore influences. I don’t think that they should be penalized for adding breakdowns in their music.