Everyone but Keene have left The Faceless

[bhakan]

I think there's benefits to having an establish "band" - even if they're non-writing members versus session guys.

The only difference between Michael Keene and say, Dave Grohl or Robb Flynn or Chris Martin is that he seems to be unable to find guys who are comfortable with his absolute rule in the long term or he's unable to manage their personalities (or his). But in all of those cases, you have a set crew of guys who ARE "the band", yet they mostly take direction from the main guy who writes almost all of the songs.

I think the reason is that he can't pay them well enough. The Faceless is relatively big for a death metal band, but as a death metal band that doesn't mean much. I would absolutely play in a band where I'm not given much input so long as it pays the bills, but if you're not emotionally connected to the music you're playing its probably pretty hard to put in the level of work required without making a solid living.

 

[straymond]

The memberless? Friendless?
Pennyless? Pennyless makes pennywise?

Man, I can do this all day.

 

[Lifestalker]

Thankfully the members Keene chooses are always badass players. Sadly they're never around for long.
And Keene is super awkward so it's either his ego has tarnished his own personality, or he doesn't know how to not seem like an ass. I have a friend who seems like a total dick but it's only because he SUCKS at communicating with people.

I'm the same way. Most people think I'm a dick, but really I'm not interested in conversing with the majority of people in any shape or form. My communication is terrible. I'm really blunt with my responses and tend to not ask any questions to avoid letting someone talk for a long time.

 

[JustMac]

Is Keene a notorious arsehole? I've seen him in 2 interviews and he seemed like a pretty decent fella.

Either way, I was a latecomer to Autotheism but, despite popular consensus, thought it was a fantastic piece of work. Hope he manages to get that Faceless covers album released, they were gonna have an Elton John cover on there, would have been really interesting to see how that turned out!

 

[MartinMTL]

Is Keene a notorious arsehole? I've seen him in 2 interviews and he seemed like a pretty decent fella.

Either way, I was a latecomer to Autotheism but, despite popular consensus, thought it was a fantastic piece of work. Hope he manages to get that Faceless covers album released, they were gonna have an Elton John cover on there, would have been really interesting to see how that turned out!

I wouldn't expect any releases at least for a couple of years lol. Also, this may seem like a dumb question, but is necrophagist still a band? It seems that despite no official statement, they don't exist anymore. Anyways, regardless of Keene being a dick or not, I hope that the Faceless doesn't go the same route.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

Keene is not the first of his kind in the death metal scene.

Isn't Muhammed Suicmez a similar personality? Also Steffen Kummerer? I don't know why these tech bands have such frontmen.

^ I've always wondered this.

However, Kummerer lets others have input. I've seen some studio footage where Hannes and Christian both brought fully completed songs to the table that THEY wrote and ended up on the albums. Muhammed is a mystery, so I don't know about him.

But this also makes me wonder about other fellows like Billy Corgan or the guy from Chimaera or any of those other narcissistic band tyrants and why people choose to work with them then ditch them.

 

[Thorerges]

^ I've always wondered this.

However, Kummerer lets others have input. I've seen some studio footage where Hannes and Christian both brought fully completed songs to the table that THEY wrote and ended up on the albums. Muhammed is a mystery, so I don't know about him.

But this also makes me wonder about other fellows like Billy Corgan or the guy from Chimaera or any of those other narcissistic band tyrants and why people choose to work with them then ditch them.

Yea I think Hannes ended up leaving because Steffen didn't like what he wrote. Christian's writing was fairly contingent with Steffen, he wrote more riffs and solos than actual songs.

Regardless, it always seems that these super talented dudes have serious control issues.