The Faceless is an American technical death metal band from Encino, California, formed in 2004 by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin. They released their debut album, Akeldama, in November 2006, and their second album, Planetary Duality, in November 2008.
The Faceless are working on a new album that is to be released in 2012. Guitarist Michael Keene has said via twitter that he hopes to finish the album before the band leaves for the 2012 Metal Alliance Tour. The album's name has been rumored to be "Autotheism", towards which Keene also hinted in a YouTube video interview by A Peek From the Pit.
They released their debut album Akeldama in 2006 and toured extensively with bands such as Necrophagist, Decapitated, Nile, and The Black Dahlia Murder. After touring, drummer Brett Batdorf left the band during the recording of Akeldama. Former drummer Nick Pierce, recorded the instrumental song, "Akeldama" the name of the debut album. The band went through several fill-in drummers before adding current drummer Lyle Cooper to their line-up.
The Faceless released their second full-length album, Planetary Duality, in November 2008. The album debuted at number 119 on the Billboard 200.
Prior to their performance at California Metalfest IV, founding member and bassist Brandon Giffin announced that he would no longer be in the group. They also announced that they would be playing in the 2010 Summer Slaughter Festival along with such bands as Decapitated, All Shall Perish, Decrepit Birth and others.
In May 2011, The Faceless Guitarist Micheal Keene confirmed via Facebook that Geoff Ficco would be replacing Derek Rydquist as the vocalist for The Faceless. Geoff is the vocalist on the Eidolon Reality demo. In April 2011, The Faceless were joined by Evan Brewer of Animosity.
In March 2012, founding guitarist Steve Jones left The Faceless and was replaced by Wes Hauch. This leaves Michael Keene as the last founding member still in the band. Keene stated that "he's moved in a different direction than us and we wish him good luck in his ventures." Keene has also stated that the addition of Wes Hauch gave the band some fresh energy, praising Hauch to be "one of the best guitar players I've ever had the priviledge of playing with, he's really amazing". The band is hoping to include a song that Wes Hauch has written for the 2012 album.
