Tuesday: The Faceless - The Spiraling Void

     Fans of The Faceless will no doubt have heard the news (and perhaps even the new song) by now, but both are definitely tasty enough to warrant their own Tech Tuesday post.

     First, the news, which is that the latest lineup to join Michael Keene under the Faceless banner includes a couple of guys from the band's Planetary Duality days, most notably former-and-now-current-again vocalist Derek "Demon Carcass" Rydquist. History would try to tell us that this lineup might not be the most solid long-term, but longtime Faceless fans seem generally pretty stoked that the Planetary Duality-era team is back at all.

     Second, the song, an unsurprisingly technical and proggy number called "The Spiraling Void" that sounds right at home on the possible spectrum of progression since Autotheism. Besides the new track, most news out of The Faceless HQ lately has been tour (and lineup) related, so no word just yet on a new record. But a new single is always a good sign that more new material might be right around the corner, and I for one would very much appreciate an album's worth of stuff like "The Spiraling Void".

The Great Airport Mystery - Eris

     Space and science fiction are rich sources of inspiration for many metal bands, but the actual application or execution of such themes can be a little hit or miss. Sometimes you get something suitably epic and badass (The Faceless' Planetary Duality comes to mind), but sometimes you just get something silly and B-movie. Today's song, and the EP whence it comes, is anything but silly and B-movie.

     The EP in question is Voyager, the latest from self-described space metal band The Great Airport Mystery and a continuation of the interstellar concept begun on their debut LP The Great Spaceport Mystery. Voyager consists of only three tracks, but there's a lot packed in there: appropriately spacey atmospherics; big, sometimes djenty grooves; equally big vocals that remind me more than a little of Perry from Circles. There's even some sci-fi lyrics going on that don't sound terribly corny and cheesy. Bonus!

     The net result of all of the above is that Voyager does indeed succeed as a proggy little slice of space metal, so much so that it's got me interested both in checking out the band's previous The Great Spaceport Mystery and in keeping an eye out for whatever these guys do next. If you think you might be in the same boat (spaceship?) start with EP opener "Eris" and go from there.

Last Tuesday: The Faceless - Legion of the Serpent

     Getting on to Tuesday now, and that means you could probably stand to hear a Tech Tuesday tune.

     The only news out of The Faceless HQ recently has been less than stellar, with the gist of things being that it's once again pretty much just the Michael Keene show. But then hasn't it always been that way? I for one don't really care if it's just Michael running the show or not, so long as I don't have to wait too much longer for some more tasty jams like this Tech Tuesday track.

     "Legion of the Serpent" might be an older cut, taken from the band's 2008 masterpiece Planetary Duality, but it was certainly a crowd favourite when I saw them The Faceless at Heavy TO back in 2012. It's had a special place in my heart since that show, so please enjoy "Legion of the Serpent" with my compliments.

Song of the Day: The Faceless - Planetary Duality II: A Prophecies Fruition

     California tech-death band The Faceless (aka The Michael Keene Show) no doubt picked up a lot of new fans with last year's stellar Autotheism, which was a perfect blend of Opethian beauty meets Arsis-up-to-11 beast.

Song of the Day: The Faceless - Autotheism: Movements I, II, III

     Super buzzed-about tech death metal band The Faceless released their third album, Autotheism, in August, and it's a doozy. I guess I'm well behind the curve on this one, since it came out a month and a half ago, but I've been listening to it a bunch over the last week or so. I liked The Faceless before; Planetary Duality is an opus of sci-fi tech-death goodness, and they played a great set this summer at Heavy TO. But Autotheism has gotten in my brain like some kind of ear-burrowing space slug, thanks in no small part to today's song. Today's songs, actually. What do I mean?

Song of the Day: The Faceless - Prison Born

     Heavy TO prep continues apace today, with a track from a young band that seems to be the up and coming tech-death darling de jour. The fact that they announced the completion and impending release of their new album Autotheism sort of out of nowhere, the fact that we've so far heard only a minute-long snippet of the new stuff even though the record comes out next week, and the fact that their last record, Planetary Duality, was so awesome all combine to make Autotheism an album I'm pretty stoked for, and I'm certainly not the only one. Yes, you may have figured out by now that I'm talking about The Faceless.