Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on The Faceless - Autotheist ORIGINAL VIDEO: • The faceless [FULL ALB... Patreon: www.patreon.com/criticalreactions Twitter: critreactions
Lead guitarist does the cleans and writes everything. He is also the only permanent member of the band, every album has a whole new lineup but him. So all 4 albums have a very different sound. All the harsh vocals are another guy that only does vocals.
Real hard for him to find anyone that wanted to work with him for a while too, just you know. A huge pretentious asshole from what I've heard haha. That and you know.... the whole heroin thing...
From what i can tell, Brian is much more impressed by awesome songs with progressive elements, than just prog for the sake of prog. 🤷♂️ what i gather by actually listening to what he's interested in. Personally i see a lot of request for suuuper long songs and things that cover multiple movements and it just comes off as selfish half the time.
@@paravarium Well I also would rather have an awesome song with elements of prog lol. I guess it all comes down to how you feel about Planetary Duality versus Autotheism. I wouldn't fault anybody for preferring PD since Autotheism was a fairly big change in sound.
@@yigitozver4345 hes still an addict from what his ex band mates say. he was actually easier to work with 7-10 years ago than he is now. hence the revolving door band mates.
Buck Futtler he was an addict between autotheism and the latest album. hes clean for a year now, he got married recently and does well with his current bandmates
I'm a big fan of this album :) Had the same reaction at 2:31 as he did! You should react to something from the band Persefone, they are have a fascinatingly unique sound imo.
You should check out Deliverance or Bleak by Opeth. Those are some of my favorite songs and I absolutely adore the way they mix growls and clean vocals in those song and I think you would too.
Great, great legendary songs that he should hear for sure. My only issue is he's already heard prog-death opeth. Are we going to send him down the same tired rabbit hole of typical opeth reactions or shouldn't we put in some effort to show they've been a completely different band for almost 10 years now? I say he hit up Next of Kin or All Things Will Pass next.. then going back to death era would have a lot more context than just spamming out virtually the same era's songs once every 3 months.
The lead guitarists does all the clean singing. A front man/vocalists does the low gutturals and screams. - It's a standard 5 piece band. No female members, or saxophone guy.
You were talking about how insane it is that a band would have to do rapid fire stuff in sync - I just want to draw attention to the fact that this is a band that's had many, maaaany different players hop into the lineup and tour. There is a seriously deep talent pool in music these days, it's amazing
The Faceless may as well be one person, Michael Keene, who is the main writer, guitarist, and clean singer. The growls were performed by the main vocalist, and most other sounds were digital/samples/studio recorded. They play with a backing track live. They are also an American band, but were influenced by a lot of European metal.
Really love your review. You touched on so many elements of the song. The Faceless is definitely one of my favorite bands. Please review The Faceless - Akeldama.
still hoping you'll find time to react to The Quantum Hack Code by Amogh Symphony also - based on your response to The Faceless I'd recommend their instrumental track Akeldama for a smoother progression with a more integrated mix of light and heavy elements
This song kinda reminds me of an extreme death metal version of The Dear Hunter. A lot of different elements and interesting transitions. I've been listening to these guys forever. I prefer their older stuff though, more sci fi and more brutal. Michael (guitarist/clean vocaisl) has a sort of reputation for being a control freak and sort of an asshole, and as far as I know thats why this band has never really had a consistent lineup. Although I have to admit he's a good songwriter and a pretty sick guitarist.
@@petergjata1498 well, I wanted to recommend that first, especially because they released a music video to it, but they just have so many amazing songs...
@@martinjakab Oh really? Because I discovered them through omnipresent perception, coexistence, earthborn evolution, theatrical delirium ecc.. older album were kinda less "progressive" in a sense
Do Avandra’s Adder’s Bite. Is a relatively unknown prog band whose album Descender (2019) received almost perfect score from countless magazines. You won’t regret it! The whole album is a masterpiece.
U.V. S. I know the band Andromeda. My first introduction was the album Chimera and I was obsessed with it. After that I just grew tired of modern sound with the 70’s and 80’s Prog voice. I still love modern Prog, but it’s just the high pitch voice that I don’t stand anymore. Also as I guitarist as I got a lot better technicality and showing off in every song became just plain boring and focused more on composition as a whole.
Thanks for the recommendation - Avandra sound great! Do you know of the band Vulkan? (Saw them recommended at Avandra's Spotify page). Vulkan is one of my favourite bands and their debute Mask of Air is my top favourite of their three albums through a decade of them releasing music... (Being a fan you sometimes gotta be patient....)
I didn’t like this album at first compared to their previous work. After many listens I really appreciate this album the most though. This album has the most mature composition. The flow of ideas and the unique instrumentation with recurring sections just keeps on amazing me.
How about something by The Ocean? Anything of Pelagial is great since it's basically just one giant 1hr song. But I'd recommend the Bathyalpelagic I, II and III. Or Origin of Species & Origin of God
Michael Keene does guitar and clean vocals. The band has gone through like 3 guys for harsh vocals. And that definitely was a woman harmonizing with Keene. Keene also wrote most of that album I believe
Pretty sure I've never heard anything from these guys, I dig it this definitely didn't feel like a 17 minute song, that's a good thing (: Epica-the divine conspiracy (title track) Since I've heard you mention "could be in a movie" parts multiple times....
You reacted to a band named Extol months ago. They are a huge influence on the Faceless sound. I'd recommend some more extol, fleshkiller, and azusa songs. they all have a similar sound. really good stuff
The Faceless has 2 singers really, the main guitar player (Michael Keene) does the cleans and also writes 99% of all the music, its essentially his personal project.
Well, every your they have different people singing and stuff. Michael is the only continuous member of the band lol. But the part he heard a chick singing he was right.
Michael Keene did the male clean vocals, Geoffrey Ficco with the growls/screams and Michael's mother Tara Keene did the female backing vocals. His clean singing is very similar to Depeche Mode's vocalist Dave Grahan.
The Faceless lost the thread a bit on this album for me. Michael's clean vocals are not very good and they're slathered all over the record. As far as the guitar playing goes you can't ever reproach them, Michael can pull off the tech-death and the smoother fusion stuff really well. But the overall sound on this album ends up sounding a bit derivative and lacking in cohesion. I absolutely love some sections and others make me cringe. I think Planetary Duality is still my favorite album of theirs, it's a bit more consistent.
Hey! I’ve been enjoying your videos immensely. Would you mind doing a video on Protest The Hero? Either “Bloodmeat” or “Sequoia Throne” would be amazing!
Yes Brian, you are supposed to feel that unsettled. Your expression is at least one of the many hoped for with the production of that section. Also, yes, these faceless albums didn't happen overnight. Tho this autotheism record is the absolute peak mix of Patton/bungle and Dillinger/Corpse growl styling. Just go for the ride bubba.
I just have to say it's fucking strange seeing someone say Dillinger and Bungle on a Faceless video. Literally my 3 greatest bands of all time. You got good taste
Has no one asked you to do The Dillinger Escape Plan? Maybe it’s too obvious a choice, but I’m always interested to see what real musicians think of them, especially if they aren’t already familiar with them. If we’re making song requests I’d say probably Farewell Mona Lisa since it’s their most famous song probably, but I’d be more interested to see a reaction to some of their older more chaotic stuff like 43% Burnt or The Mullet Burden.
Brian Dowd I think he’d like Farewell, Mona Lisa more, but if he covered 43% Burnt I’m sure he’d have a fun time with it. I think FML is a bit more interesting with the bridge section, but the end of 43% time signature wise is just splendid to listen to and try to pull apart.
I had to pull out the liner notes but Tara Keene is the female doing harmony on Emancipate. I'm guessing she is related to Michael Keene (clean singer, guitarist)
This album took me a long while to like when it first came out. Absolutely love it now. I was expecting old faceless, when with this album you should erase what you think and just enjoy it for what it is. Good vid
They are only a 5 piece band. The clean vocals are done by their guitarist Michael. And they have a separate vocalist for the higher screams and lower vocals. This band has had a ton of memebers over the years and you can say this is basically a 1 man band coming from the mind of the guitarist
These three songs combined and "gojira - the art of dying" have to be tied for my 2 favorite songs of all time. And i have 20,000 songs downloaded lol. Amazing song!
I used to hate the death metal sax when this album came out but I've come around to it. No rules, this is metal jazz. Metal jazz as if it were played by aliens that landed on Halloween
They’re a good band. Its just too bad the main guy in the band Keene, does a bunch of heroin. Tons of lineup changes i would think because of his issues. Such a shame. So much talent.
I don’t think anyone else is going to suggest these guys cause they are not very well know but listen to Cheetos magazine! Here’s a cover they did of basket case but nothing is the same besides the lyrics. Might as well be an original ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nolNx9X2aA8.html And for a real original listen to chili Guillermo
If you notice well, the chord progressions in the music and between sections are very very consistent, they just make the same part sound so different that you don't notice until you listen closely.
I do enjoy the clean vocals quite a bit, it's probably my favorite part of this 17 min song, the guitar leads where also great, but think they got a little overindulgent with the sheer amount of leads spread throughout. The song's structure was also very sporadic which leaves me not remembering a lot of the sections after listening. I am more of a fan of The Faceless shorter tracks, their most recent album (In Becoming a Ghost) is very good
And keep up the great work and discover new stuff one day you'll get the the Israeli prog metal scean (I live in Israel so I know tons of bands and band members personally) I know you'll especially enjoy subterranean masquerade & orphaned land & scardust
@@stri8ted it's ok their other stuff is way better tbh and if really want good Israeli albums try those Scardust- sands of time Tillian- lotus graveyard Obsidian tide- pillars of creation Yossi sassi- roots and roads Zad- followers of tann Structural- metacognition Subterranean masquerade- the great Bazaar Shredhead- live unholy Walkways- heal out bleed out Sinnery- a feast of fools Orphaned land- mabool
When this album came out I gave it a few listens and didn't really liked it. Some years later it grew on me but I still like the first album much more.
