 The Faceless is a progressive death metal band that was formed in Encino by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin in 2003. In the winter of 2005, the band began work on a four-song extended-play album which would become Akeldama. After recording the drum tracks, drummer Brett Batdorf left the band. After a break in the recording process, the band decided to make the EP into a full–length record and recruited several drummers to finish the drum tracks for the remaining songs. Following the release of Akeldama, the band toured extensively with bands including Necrophagist, Decapitated, Nile, and The Black Dahlia Murder.The band went through several fill-in drummers before adding drummer Lyle Cooper to their line-up. Planetary Duality débuted at number 119 on the Billboard 200.Prior to their performance at California Metalfest IV, Giffin announced that he would no longer be in the band.In May 2011, Keene confirmed via Facebook that Geoffrey Ficco would be replacing Derek Rydquist as the band’s vocalist.In April 2011, the band was joined by bassist Evan Brewer of Animosity, replacing Giffin.In March 2012, guitarist Steve Jones left the band and was replaced by Wes Hauch, leaving Keene as the last founding member still in the band. Autotheism débuted at number 50 on the Billboard 200 and hit number 1 on CMJ radio loud rock charts. In January 2013, Cooper left the band and Alex Rudinger, formerly of The HAARP Machine, a labelmate of The Faceless, became the band’s new full-time drummer. |
