OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10): THE CROWN, VEILBURNER, ALUSTRIUM

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  2 Responses »
Jan 182022
 


The Crown

As you can see, we’ve made it to 10 installments of this list, and this one brings the total number of songs identified so far to 30. If I’m able to continue at the current pace, revealing another 3 songs every weekday from now to the end of the month (when I’m going to try to force myself to stop), we’ll reach a grand total of 19 Parts and 57 songs, so we’ve now crossed the halfway mark. On the other hand, I might decide to throw in one more segment at some point so we have an even 20 Parts and 60 songs.

By the way, you’ll find the preceding Parts (and an explanation of what this list is all about) through THIS LINK. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: THECODONTION, VESSEL OF INIQUITY, VEILBURNER, ZAQQUOEM, EXSUL, CHARRED, CONCRETE, DESOLATOR, DECAY

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 082021
 

 

The usual deluge of new music is already under way this week, but for the most part what I’ve pulled together in this round-up is music that surfaced last week. As I was making my way through a gigantic list of new tracks over the past weekend, I squirreled these away because I thought they’d make a good compilation.

All the music leans hard into death metal, though not without some other ingredients, and the three sensations that come to mind when I think about all of this after the fact are these: Violence, eeriness, and derangement.

THECODONTION (Italy) / VESSEL OF INIQUITY (UK)

To begin I’ve chosen a split released last Friday by Xenoglossy Productions and I, Voidhanger Records. Entitled The Permian​-​Triassic Extinction Event, it includes two tracks by Thecodontion and one long one by Vessel of Iniquity. Thematically, it is based on “the titular Permian-Triassic extinction event (commonly known as ‘The Great Dying’), and life emerging anew afterwards”. To quote further from the introduction on the Bandcamp page: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILBURNER — “VAULT OF HAUNTING DISSOLVE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jul 222021
 

 

In December 2018 our writer Andy Synn compiled reviews of all the albums released as of that date by Pennsylvania’s Veilburner, including their then-latest (and then-finest) record, A Sire To the Ghouls of Lunacy. In tracing the band’s evolution, he characterized the music as “warped and twisted, tumultuously technical and deviously discordant Black/Death Metal which doesn’t really sound exactly like anyone, or anything, else out there.”

And now here we are, two and a half years later, even more copiously surrounded by bands who have embraced “dissonant death metal” as their dominant style, and yet what Andy wrote at the end of 2018 still holds true: Veilburner still don’t really sound like anyone, or anything, else out there. Their newest album, Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (set for a September 24 release by Transcending Obscurity Records), is abundant proof of that.

The new full-length is relentlessly fascinating and mood-altering, both horrifying and mesmerizing, ingenious as well as deranged, and thoroughly gripping from start to finish. Although only time will tell, it has all the earmarks of a record that will be remembered for a long time after it emerges in all its fiendishly spine-tingling and skin-chilling glory. As a further sign of this, today we’re premiering a stunning album track named “Vault of Haunting Dissolve“. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 104): VEILBURNER

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  1 Response »
Dec 282018
 

 

(For the final edition of THE SYNN REPORT for 2018, Andy Synn compiles reviews of all the albums released to date by Veilburner, including their brand new record A Sire To the Ghouls of Lunacy, which is being released today.)

Recommended for fans of: Akercocke, Dodecahedron, Imperial Triumphant

I’ve been so busy over the last few weeks, first with a mix of work and band commitments, then with more personal stuff going into the Christmas period, that I honestly almost forgot that I still had a new edition of The Synn Report (the last one of the year) to produce.

Thankfully it didn’t take very long to select which band would be this month’s lucky recipient of my attentions, as prolific Pennsylvania duo Veilburner are releasing their fourth (and likely finest) album today via Transcending Obscurity Records, meaning that the timing really couldn’t have worked out better.

With an incredibly diverse, yet distinctive, sound – the closest true comparison I can think of is with those Avant-Garde Australian extremists in Ur Draugr, though you’ll also see that, multiple times throughout this column, I’ve tried to make references which I think will appeal to our readers – over the past four/five years Mephisto Deleterio (instrumentation) and Chrisom Inferium (vocals) have produced several hours of warped and twisted, tumultuously technical and deviously discordant Black/Death Metal which doesn’t really sound exactly like anyone, or any thing, else out there. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILBURNER: “AGONY ON REPEAT”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Dec 202018
 

 

Transcending Obscurity Records has been spreading around premieres from the new album by Veilburner in the run-up to its December 28 release, having already deployed three tracks through Toilet Ov Hell, Invisible Oranges, and Heavy Blog Is Heavy. We have yet another one for you today, and even though we come at the end of the line, there’s still a chance that some of you haven’t yet been exposed to the mind-altering effects of this Pennsylvania duo’s latest display of sonic alchemy. If so, now’s your chance.

And by the way, those aren’t empty words — this new album, A Sire To The Ghouls Of Lunacy, really is a thoroughly bewildering yet completely enthralling experience, an experimental rendering of black/death metal that’s not quite like anything else you’ve probably come across this year, and not one you’ll soon forget. It sends shivers down the spine, sets off fireworks behind the eyes, and spins the mind like a flaming top on the verge of careening into smithereens or taking flight like a rocket. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 19): FALLUJAH, VEILBURNER, DAHACA, COLDWORLD

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  3 Responses »
Jan 292017
 

 

Welcome to the 19th installment of my list of 2016’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. I’m beginning to feel stressed about this list, because I swore to myself (and may have promised you) that I would bring this to an end on January 31, and yet I still have dozens of worthy candidates. That means there’s going to be an arbitrary cut-off, with a lot of worthy tracks being neglected. But I figured that would happen when I started this list… I’ve never been very good at list-making.

Anyway, here are four more songs. You’ll never guess why I chose to group these four songs together. It will just have to be my little secret.

FALLUJAH

In his NCS review, my colleague Andy Synn called Dreamless the finest of Fallujah’s three albums so far — a creation that “could very well be a game-changing, life-altering release for these Tech-Death titans-in-waiting.” He praised the songwriting, which gave each track its own distinctive personality despite the presence of common ingredients — “nuanced, technical drums, strobing, rapid-fire riffs, dreamy synth waves, and soaring, extravagant lead guitar work” — and the positive direction of the band’s continuing evolution. Continue reading »

VEILBURNER: “EUCHARIST OF THE BREATHING ABYSS”

 Premieres  8 Responses »
Aug 292016
 

Veilburner-The Obscene Rite

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a new song by Pennsylvania’s Veilburner.)

When working on new articles or premieres for bands I’ve already covered in the past, sometimes it helps as a refresher to go back to what we said about the band before, to help put in context the new music being presented to us by such a group. Yet again, this line of thought came to mind in reflecting on our continual coverage of the unique form of  industrial and psychedelic-infused take on black-metal-meets-death metal that Pennsylvania duo Veilburner continue to crank out year after year.

Looking back at our NCS archives, we first covered Veilburner here at NCS in 2014 in a multi-band article I posted soon after hearing about their incredible debut, The Three Lightbearers. Since then the band released a follow up full-length last year called Noumenon, from which we helped premiere a song called “Ever Relapsing Fever”. That was followed by the album’s placement on year-end lists here by both Andy Synn and myself.

While I failed to do a full review for either of those first two albums, both of them have continued to be releases I come back to, so I kinda feel like a dick for not doing more to help spread the word about them. I will have a chance to do better this time around, starting with this premiere of a killer new song off their upcoming third full-length, The Obscene Rite, entitled “Eucharist of the Breathing Abyss”. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: VEILBURNER — “EVER RELAPSING FEVER”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Jul 062015
 

Veilburner-Noumenon

 

(Austin Weber introduces our premiere of a song and accompanying lyric video from the new album by Veilburner.) 

There’s a tired-but-true maxim that applies well in the music realm: “Strike while the iron is hot”. While you’ve got people’s attention, jam more music down their throats and keep things moving.  Veilburner have adhered strictly to this line of thought.

Last year, I and writers from several other sites hailed The Three Lightbearers, the debut full-length by this nightmare-inducing Pennsylvania-based death/black duo, as a highlight of 2014. Now, the band are already roaring back with their sophomore ode to chaos and annihilation, Noumenon, dropping soon on July 31st. And today we offer up the dual song-and-lyric-video premiere of “Ever Relapsing Fever”, the first track to air from the new album. Continue reading »

RECALCITRANT ROUNDUP: THE DEATH OF DEARTH, PART II, INSTALLMENT 2

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 032014
 

 

(In this latest installment of a multi-part piece, Austin Weber continues rolling out recommended releases from his latest exploratory  forays through the underground. The first installment is here.)

VEILBURNER

Veilburner are a two-man death/black band from Pennsylvania whose strength lies in oddball mania, conjuring an unearthly interstellar feeling. Veilburner burnish an esoteric atmosphere throughout The Three Lightbearers as they dig in dissonant ditches, arising frequently with technical guitar-led passages, some of which bring Gorguts and Obscura to mind. Veilburner often back up their aggressive core with experimental soundscapes of an industrial and occult feel that is oddly psychedelic in nature.

Simply hellish stuff, and damn fun to listen to death metal infused by a cold clinical black metal embrace. This album is killer from start to finish, and to me, frequently sounds like a black metal companion to the immersive insanity Gigan conjure — rife with psychedelic inclinations and robotic/reverb heavy vocal effects amid a massive mix of horrific undulating riffs and spine-shattering drum work. I recommend listening to the whole album at once, but if you need a starting point, go with “Nil Absolute”. The Three Lightbearers rips wormholes open in your mind, leading to self-collapse from within. Get your mind explosion on! Continue reading »