(written by Islander)
We’ll keep our count going: This now marks the 15th time we’ve written about the music of the macabre Pennsylvania duo Veilburner over the last decade-plus, and the eighth time we’ve premiered some of that music. The explanation should be obvious by now:
Despite how prolific Veilburner have been, their mind-boggling adventures never get old, and it’s really not an exaggeration to say that no one else sounds like them. In the case of some performers, familiarity may indeed breed contempt; in the case of Veilburner, it breeds endless fascination (albeit sanity-threatening fascination).
They remain prolific — less than a year after Transcending Obscurity Records released their eighth album Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy, the same label is primed to release their ninth one, All that Glimmers is Gloam, on October 16th. As songwriters and performers, Veilburner also remain diabolically ingenious, as you shall discover through our premiere today of a song from the new album called “Of Godslave and Blood Mortar“.
But before we get to that song, here is how Veilburner (and/or T.O.) present the new album:
The tone of this album signals that tragedy reeks more than triumph is longed, where every pursuit becomes a maze leading toward another dissolution.
Ruin stands as a foundation that no longer supports awakening — it merely reflects the forms that once gave it meaning.
All that Glimmers is Gloam pits the listener as judge and jury, bearing witness to a deposition of spiraling madness — a testimony mired in the bog of counterfeit gnosis, orchestrated amid Mephisto’s instrumental haunts of melodic dissonance and Chrisom’s séanced howls, each reverberating through a theatre of fracturing sanity.
The labyrinth reveals itself as a scaffold of golem-like perception; knowledge fractures into paradox, and identity disperses into indistinguishable voices. Here, what glimmers is not illumination, but twilight; not revelation, but its reflection. Standing before the final threshold, the mirror of the self shatters, revealing the shape of many within the silhouette of none.
Now we turn to “Of Godslave and Blood Mortar“. One of Veilburner’s hallmark strengths is instrumentalist Mephisto Deleterio’s ability to concoct riffs that are peculiar but infectious, and this song is a prime example of that talent. The lead riff, which becomes the core of the song, both vibrantly darts and menacingly scrapes. It sounds mechanistic, like the workings of some feverish assembly line that’s stitching together something hellish, with something else swirling behind it that’s vaporous (and also hellish).
That riff will get listeners’ nerves jumping, and the oddly skipping drum-beats will get muscles jumping, even though they follow unpredictable patterns. Meanwhile, shrill keys deliriously scream and squirm, while other electronic tones eerily quiver and wail, and they create brazen elevations behind the fretwork stitchery.
Another unmistakable hallmark of Veilburner’s madness are Chrisom Infernium’s vocals, which never fail to reach pinnacles of bizarre excess, but in this song they seem especially demonic, ranging from jagged snarls to choking gags, from woozy wails to fanatical cries, from grotesque bellows to hair-raising screams, and a great deal more. They are a signal reason why Veilburner don’t sound like anyone else.
We always look forward to the guitar soloing in Veilburner’s songs, even though you never know quite what they’ll do. In this one, it sounds dismal at first but then ecstatically leaps, spirals, and shivers — and it becomes a prelude to an unsettling convulsion of blasting drums, abysmally clanging chords, and seizure-like swarming. It’s a frightening and freakish way to end yet another mind-blowing Veilburner spectacle.
VEILBURNER:
Mephisto Deleterio – Music and production, Vocals
Chrisom Infernium – Vocals, lyrics, and album design
Transcending Obscurity will release Veilburner’s new album on vinyl LP, jewelcase CD, and digital formats, with lots of related apparel and other merch, and they recommend it for fans of: Blut aus Nord, Imperial Triumphant, Deathspell Omega, Hexrot, Oranssi Pazuzu, Akhlys, and Akercocke. It features fabulous artwork by Luciana Nedelea.
In addition to the usual links we’re also including streams of two previously released songs from the album, the title song and “Vitriolic Hiss“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://veilburnerband.bandcamp.com/album/all-that-glimmers-is-gloam
http://us.tometal.com/
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
VEILBURNER:
https://facebook.com/veilburner
https://instagram.com/veilburner_official