The Faceless, Autotheism

    

     First of all, I got this album because I heard it on YouTube first. And I thought,"Wow! This is so good I have to buy it!" So not everyone that listens to albums on Youtube just listen for free and never buy anything. For me, Youtube helps promote the music I buy. So I ordered it online and I've had it for a couple weeks now. My opinion of it is the same as when I first heard it. It's still great. I can't say much of the lyrics because I don't understand the singing of the growls and death metal style singing, but I get the gist of what the songs are about from the titles. The track names are as follows, Autotheist Movement I: Create, Autotheist Movement II: Emancipate, Autotheist Movement III: Deconsecrate, Accelerated Evolution, The Eidolon Reality, Ten Billion Years, Hail Science, Hymn of Sanity, and In Solitude. All the tracks segue into one another like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album. The only vocals I can really understand are guitarist Michael Keene's clean vocals, he does a really great job with the singing. He sounds great, he has a good voice. Nearly all the songs were written or co-written by Michael Keene (guitarist) and the album was produced by Keene at his home studio in LA.
     The whole album I believe is a concept album and the third studio debut by the Faceless but here is a little info about the album from Wikipedia. Keene has stated in interviews that the name "Auto-theism" derives from "auto" meaning self and "theism" meaning belief in God or gods, hence autotheism means "believing in one's self", or "being your own God". The album questions antiquated belief systems that are in play in current society. As well as touching upon religion, the album touches upon growth in technology at an exponential rate, the Holographic Universe theory, and science as a new religion, or alternatively, knowledge and reason as a reigning religion. Keene said in interviews that the inspiration for the album came partly from reading a book by Ray Kurzweil called The Singularity Is Near. The album also has an underlying theme of "Age of Reason" or "Renaissance"-esque discovery and ethics traits; alternatively, "starting over" or massively rethinking the way current systems are run. The album artwork, as well as the music and lyrics, intuitively portray this atmosphere.(Wikipedia)
     Here's some info on the production. The record was recorded at Keene's home studio in Los Angeles in 2012. Preproduction versions of almost every song had been previously recorded by Keene throughout 2011, along with an additional song which ultimately was not used for the record. Keene noted that this track was better suited for his solo project and that the song would eventually see the light of day under that project name. Some of the guitar tracking for the preproduction captured a natural, raw quality and ended up being used in the final album versions of the songs. Keene approached the recording of Autotheism differently than previous records. All guitar and bass was recorded direct and drums were tracked live right in Keene's living room. Keene states that 7 different guitars were used to achieve the broad array of tones heard, including his neon green Washburn WM526, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, a Bernie Rico Jr, as well as a chambered guitar made of carbon fiber.
     Evan Brewer debuted the use of fretless bass in The Faceless on two tracks on a whim of experimentation in the studio. Keene also explored a more industrial influence, creating "post-apocalyptic" percussion sequences on many of the tracks. This played a big part in giving the record its distinctly dark quality. Another key quality of Autotheism came from Keene's time spent on experimenting with string arrangements and keyboard sequencing.
     The lyrics were written largely in the studio. A process that Keene and Ficco described as "grueling, but rewarding". An outline for the story of the lyrics was written, followed by the individual topics for each song. Then, Keene and Ficco worked out the lyrics and phrasing as they went along with the recording process. "The bulk of the time was spent on the writing of the lyrics and phrasing. Once that part was complete, the actual recording flew by. "Geoff is an exceptionally easy vocalist to record and produce" said Keene.
A guest appearance by Keene's long time friend and infamous YouTube sensation Sergio "The Sexy Sax Man" Flores appears on the track "Deconsecrate". Keene's mother also contributes harmonizing background vocals on the track "Emancipate". (Wikipedia)
     Anyways, I believe all the ideas and lyrics from the album are kind of wack and stupid. My stepdad saw the album and looked at the song titles and thought it was a bit silly. Let's face it; in metal there is a lot of ideology and ideas, but for the most part the musicians use it for their music and art, but they don't believe in it at all, its just something for entertainment, just a gimmick. Kind of like how Slayer uses Satan as the main source and ideas for a lot of their songs. Or like how Black Metal uses the idea of Satanism versus Christianity, and burning churches for their inspiration haha. And all the metal fans I know who are into those genres don't have an interest in any of the ideas behind the songs, they just enjoy the music because they think it sounds good. I once had a friend who believed in these ideas of autotheism and stuff, and he was a bit off your rocker, to say the least.
     Now, let's talk about the actual music. This is what makes the album great. There is even jazz elements; there's this sick saxophone solo in the beginning of the album! That alone to me makes this death metal album great. The guitar solos aren't meandering. In fact, they are very tasteful and straight to the point. The guitars and drums are the main focus of the album for me. The drums are thunderous and pretty much always have double bass going super fast and super hard. The lyrics for me are kind of hard to get over because yes they sound good but I don't understand a word. However, me not understanding the growls doesn't matter, I know that they sound great. Another great aspect of this album is the use of fretless bass by Evan Brewer. I really enjoy Keene's chorus vocals on the track Ten Billion Years, it sounds so catchy for metal. Is metal suppose to be catchy? Because this album is very catchy and I love that about it. The themes are very simple and they always repeat, bringing the music full circle. The last tune has acoustic guitar and some nice vocals, not unlike European folk music, or medieval folk music. It really gives off that kind of progressive rock vibe, or in this case, progressive death metal vibe. Or would you call it progressive technical death metal? Anyways, after the acoustic opening it goes back to the tech death metal stuff, ending the album on a high note.
     The other thing about this album is that it is very short. It seems to go by very quickly in about 40 minutes, which I guess is pretty long, but I'm more used to jazz albums where the music can go on much longer. The length is actually good for death metal.
     Lastly, although I'm not really a big death metal guy, this was a great listen and a great album. I wish they had more of the jazz elements, or even more acoustic guitar bits. That would have made things more interesting than just the stereotypical technical death metal playing. However, I did enjoy the saxophone solo on the album so I guess there's that. A great album produced by a great guitarist. Oh yeah, and let me also mention that I've seen Michael Keene at the grocery store.