Notorious for being unreliable, this time, The Faceless may well have taken the biscuit. Previously cancelling an entire Australian tour support slot with The Black Dahlia Murder, without letting fans know The Faceless screwed up. Now they’ve done it again and I think this is it.
The Faceless, a band that most people seem to know as just the one person. Similarly to an incredibly disorganised version of Death, the band have been through multiple line up changes with the only remaining constant being Michael Keene. No less that under a month ago, the band cancelled their appearance in Australia in the most fantastically terrible way possible. Calling out promotions company Soundworks along with all sorts of other people in the process, when really it seems that the only people to blame sound like the band themselves.
Premiering “The Spiralling Void” back in September 2015, September 2015 guys, it was the first instance of new material since 2012’s Autotheism. Somewhat sating fans’ hunger for new material it seemed that at last, the band were on the right track! Then came the news of an entire exodus leaving the only person in the band as Keene. With Evan Brewer essentially saying that it was taking too long between albums, all sorts of other issues were raised with members and then there is also the cancelled BTBAM dates and the endless “The new album is almost finished!”
Its truly sad. I really, really like The Faceless. When Autotheism was released the band turned into a new corner. Ignoring the mention of Devin Townsend style new clean vocals, the music that was on there was brilliant. No doubt in part due to the combination of both Keene and Hauch, who is an absolutely brilliant guitar player. Its been a while since then and two years since their single release, which we presumed would mean the arrival of an album? Of course bands are entitled to bad luck, who isn’t? What I have a problem with though is the endless, “Its almost there!” or “It’ll be ready soon!“ Its beginning to look a little Tool-esque guys and fans will just give up.
Now the band have announced that they have had to cancel their European tour, which featured a spot at UK Tech-Fest, an ever growing festival that has since seen the line up expand with each passing year. Getting The Faceless to agree to perform there was no doubt a coup and could have been a deal breaker to fans. It also filled us all with the hope that a new album might be finally going to see the light of day. The only way that we actually know is because of an announcement made by Tech Fest and not the band themselves, seriously guys.
Bottom line is, if there is something wrong with the band, tell the fans. Keep them in the loop! They always say that the key to a good relationship is the art of communication, The Faceless, you are not communicating enough with your fans and it will end up backfiring on you. If you need to take a hiatus, then do that! Its almost becoming farcical at this rate and I’m a huge The Faceless fan.
What do you think?
