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Helping to shape the technical death metal landscape with debut Akeldama and the exemplary Planetary Duality a decade ago, a revolving-door policy on members and limited touring seemed to consign The Faceless to the scrapheap. Yet 2012’s Autotheism showed band leader Michael Keene had plenty of fire and imagination left, exploring more elaborate, progressive realms. It’s an evolution that’s grown exponentially on their latest effort, mixing complex dissonance and audacious passages with even more angular textures, demented strings and a none-more-70s flute solo – all in the first song. Bound together by a narrative that weaves in daring, vicious instrumentation and gorgeous vocal melodies that prog metal visionaries Enslaved would be proud of, In Becoming A Ghost really delivers on its startling scope and absorbing nature, propelling the band from the ‘what might have been’ to ‘what next?’
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Stephen joined the Louder team as a co-host of the Metal Hammer Podcast in late 2021, eventually becoming a regular contributor to the magazine. He has since written hundreds of articles for Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Louder, specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal. He also presents the Trve. Cvlt. Pop! podcast with Gaz Jones and makes regular appearances on the Bangers And Most podcast.