The Faceless Eyeing August for New Album Release
In July of last year, those waiting anxiously for a new album from The Faceless got a lifeline from guitarist Justin McKinney (also of The Zenith Passage), who said the band’s next album was “pretty much done.” Since then we’ve learned the effort will be titled In Becoming a Ghost.
Three-quarters of a year later, in a new interview with Metal Wani [graciously transcribed by The PRP], band mastermind Michael Keene gives us another update: now it’s really pretty much done! Basically almost final touches tweaking done! Maybe. We’ll see.
Further, he reveals that the album is now in the mastering phase and he’s eyeing an August release — although he won’t commit until he hands in the finished product to the record label, he says “I would say with very high likelihood August will be the month that it’s coming out” — and that he’s got plans for a remixed and remastered tenth anniversary edition of Planetary Duality.
On why it’s taken so long to finish this album, the band’s first since Autotheism in 2012:
“The band went through a period where… for quite awhile in fact, there’s been long periods of time where the basis is essentially just me. Kind of in the way that Trent Reznorworks in Nine Inch Nails, I tend to work in a similar fashion with The Faceless a lot. I really didn’t have a lineup for awhile.
“So I was kind of trying to get that put back together and I didn’t want to compromise, I didn’t want to continue on with a lesser version of The Faceless just for the sake of keeping going. So I wanted to make sure that it was a-plus players and that the band was either as good as it was or better, which I feel it is. And the new record is in my opinion the best record to date. It’s definitely my proudest work, my proudest writing—certainly my proudest mix and master, that’s for sure.
“When you’re onstage with someone that you hate—which, I won’t name any names—but there’s been a couple times where there’s been members where the majority of the lineup didn’t like one person or another. And it’s really hard to kind of open and really be yourself onstage when you’re sharing the stage with someone that you kind of can’t stand the sight of.
“And sharing the stage with a bunch of guys that you really love and admire, not only does it open you up to have a better time and be yourself; I feel like the chemistry between you and the playing is better and there’s just the magic there that isn’t there otherwise.”
On the current status of the new album:
“The current status is this: all tracking is done. Mixing is done. Basically I’m in the mastering stage. I kind of mix and master at the same time, so it’s kind of final touches of the mix and just getting the mastering tweaked just right on the record. Which is literally like, we’re talking a couple days here. The master will be turned into Sumerian in just a few days. And I was very explicit with them that I did not want them to set a release date until I turned the masters in.
“Because on previous records there were release dates set and then things ended up taking longer and of course what’s the last that happens, the last thing is the mix. So the mix is the thing that suffered. On “Planetary Duality” for instance I essentially didn’t mix the record because there was no time.
“They told me that if I didn’t get the record to them in 24 hours that we were going to miss street date. And I stayed up all night, worked for 24 hours. I had listener fatigue, so I couldn’t even hear the mistakes I was making. And I turned it in as was and then come to find out it sat on their desk for 10 days before they even turned it into the press plant.
“So I had 10 days I could have worked on the mix and could have gotten it great, but instead that happened and now I have to live with it forever—well I don’t have to live with it forever because I’m actually doing a re-mix of “Planetary Duality“—re-mix/remaster of “Planetary Duality“—which will be hopefully released next year as a ten year anniversary. But anyway, all that to say, that in the next few days the record will be turned in and street date will follow shortly after.”
As for the sound of the new album, Keene says there’s a flute solo and that he wants to “push the boundaries even further of what’s acceptable and still being able to call it metal.” Read more here.
We will, of course, update you as soon as we know more.
