The time has come… It’s been 5 years since “Autotheism” and we finally have a new full-length album from The Faceless on our hands! Presenting LP #4… “In Becoming A Ghost”.

Currently, the entire album is streaming online courtesy of the good people over at Sumerian Records. That being the case, you can experience the 10 track effort from start to finish right here, right now:

If you wish, you can also read on and take in our subjective opinion of the experience…

“In Becoming A Ghost” starts off quite strong with a series of singles to follow the brief introduction of the self-titled track. “Digging The Grave” proved to be nasty addition between it’s grueling blasts and creative implementations of the flute. “Black Star” has always been a solid track since its introduction back in June, weaving expertly up and down scales and bringing powerful vocals with tasteful musical implementation all around.

“Cup of Mephistopheles” serves up as the first true introduction on this track list as of December 1st… How does it fare? Well… the first thought is “Autotheism”…. Though this is meant in a good way! This track is a natural progression of what the band had been doing before the strike of “In Becoming A Ghost”. Though there is a slight “wtf?” moment spawned before and around the 4 minute mark with some strange electronic backing before an obviously fake blastbeast. I would assume this is a bit of trolling by the band. That being the case, well played.

This is followed by the 2015 single for this record “The Spiraling Void” which is an absolute bomb of a track. Though it’s far removed from the release itself, it’s a great number through and through.

“Shake The Disease” similarly is another re-intro to the band beyond the singles… It immediately strikes with some satisfying blast beats that eventually weave into one of the best clean vocal moments on record beyond the singles. This is further given into tasteful heaviness before a solo and the chorus returning once again. “I Am” can be given similar respect because damn! This is a solid, heavy hitting track worthy of just that!

By this point, there seems to be a difference in mix between the singles and core album tracks. I usually wouldn’t nitpick in this arena but an even mix seems to be a concern to many metal fans (though I could personally care less… just something I’ve noticed.) It’s not surprising, however, given the distance of time between the releases. I also could be mistaken since I’m listening to the YouTube stream to do this review. Some videos are naturally older than others considering the first single “The Spiraling Void” was released on September 28th, 2015 in comparison to the tracks released for December 1st. YouTube has been known to mess with sound. (Edit: Nevermind this paragraph. Upon further listening via different sources, it does sound uniform.)

“Ghost Reprise” is another short one that could be stacked alongside the intro. This leads into the rather awesome “(Instru)mental Illness” which is, not so surprisingly, an instrumental number from the band… and a solid one at that! “The Terminal Breath” is one hell of a track from The Faceless, bringing together and expanding upon many beloved – recent – elements from the band.

In conclusion, it feels appropriate to give this record an 8 to a 9 out of 10. It’s incredible for what it is. Once again, if you’re interested in giving this album a listen, you may do so through the Sumerian Records stream available up above. You can also pick up the record by CLICKING HERE! Hope that you enjoy the music! Not too surprisingly, it does seem to get better with every listen!

Links: Facebook // Twitter // iTunes