Autotheism

This is the third album by the band from Los Angeles, released by Sumerian Records on 14 August 2012. It entered the Billboard 200 at fifty, reached three on Top Hard Rock Albums and thirteen on Top Independent Albums, and topped the CMJ loud rock radio chart. It is also the only Faceless record with vocalist Geoffrey Ficco, rhythm guitarist Wes Hauch and bassist Evan Brewer on it. It was recorded in 2012 at Michael Keene's home studio in Los Angeles. Preproduction versions of nearly every song had been cut through 2011, and some of that guitar had a raw quality he liked enough to keep in the finished versions. All the guitar and bass went down direct and the drums were tracked live in his living room; seven guitars were used to spread the tones, among them a neon green Washburn WM526, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, a Bernie Rico Jr and a chambered carbon-fibre instrument. Brewer tried fretless bass on two tracks. The first three pieces form a suite titled Autotheist Movement -- I: Create, II: Emancipate, III: Deconsecrate. The dark cast of the record comes from the time Keene spent on industrial percussion sequences and on string and keyboard arrangement. The lyrics were written largely in the studio, a process he and Ficco have called grueling but rewarding.