Taliesin‘s new album, Faceless is set to be released in April 2022 but actually…It was recorded 7 years prior between December 2014 and January 2015.
It is a concept album about a serial killer with the condition known as Prosopagnosia (face blindness) who believes that his condition is the reason for why he is how he is. The character first appears on the final song ‘Simple’ on The Tally of Lies and Sin.
Initially, the album was to be just a collection of songs. Where a majority of concept albums start with a story, with the music shaped to fit, Faceless happened in the totally opposite way. All 10 songs started with drums, with the music to each song written to fit the length and form of the drums as an exercise in songwriting. Struggling to come up with a riff to fit the start of the song that became ‘The Wilderness’, guitarist Richard took a random quote from a podcast he had downloaded to start the song. The quote triggered the lyrical content and the first song was done but the story didn’t feel complete. So the idea came about to see if a story arc could be created that would fit all 10 songs and then it became clear that it could be linked to the character from the previous album closer.
So…..why did it take 7 years to get to the point of releasing?
There have been a number of hurdles. First was the death of the computer that had been used to record the album. There was a backup hard drive that was missing numerous files. The band decided to try and mix it themselves with what remained. The bass had to be rerecorded and then there was a studio fire that destroyed everything.
During the covid lock down another couple of albums worth of songs were recorded. During this process, another copy of the Faceless backup files was discovered and between band members, there were enough files to piece it all back together. Deciding that this album deserved to be released before any of the new material came out the band finished mixing Faceless in early 2022.
The songs on Faceless range from heavy and melodic to bluesy and soulful, with the focus on songwriting and big vocal harmonies and features guest artist Henning Pauly (Frameshift, Chain) who provides organ on the bluesy album closer ‘Widower’s Daughter.
The band also comments on the album: “A fresh take on the prog concept album with lots of guitar pyrotechnics and big vocals”
