05 Mar 2023 - Thorsten
Doomgaze

Nature Morte is an ambiguous term in Canada. One the one hand it is the French term for a certain kind of painting and on the other hand it is a comment on the way we treat the world around us. The new record by Canada’s best “Doomgaze” band Big | Brave combines both meanings in a breathtaking fashion!

Continue reading >

04 Mar 2023 - Thorsten
Psychedelic Rock

What might Live at Pompeii have sounded like if Syd Barrett had still been an active member of Pink Floyd? Or what could have Hawkwind sounded like if they had been driven to be even more psychedelically heavy? Maybe the answer to both question is: Something like L‘Ira Del Baccano! Their new album Cosmic Evoked Potentials shows the intrigue of questions like these and also what mighta, coulda, woulda been!

Continue reading >

03 Mar 2023 - Dan D.
Ambient

Ambient music has always had a special place in my heart. The best of it can transport the listener to other worlds and present you with beauty or sinister darkness. Whilst there is no escaping the serene gloriousness of early works by Brian Eno, the insidious nature of the sounds created by someone like Lustmord is something that I’m personally more drawn towards.

Continue reading >

02 Mar 2023 - Knut
Hard RockHeavy MetalProgressive RockProgressive Metal

Seven years ago Arriver baffled us with an album lifting its themes from the Chernobyl disaster. This time the band indirectly lifts the themes from the pandemic and the loneliness of the lockdowns. Hurtling through the universe and galaxies becomes a metaphor for grave inner turmoil. Fusing and bending genres, they whizz you through the protagonists´ journey; “Forging my psyche to soar past the stars, and shatter the breastplate of dawn!”

Continue reading >

01 Mar 2023 - Knut
Stoner MetalSludge Metal

With a vibrant take on fuzzy Stoner infused with Sludge Metal, Hard Rock, and even some whiffs of Blues the Texan trio injects new vitality into a pulsating musical scene.

Continue reading >

22 Feb 2023 - Stephan
Psychedelic Rock

This is a story of an album of two stories. The first story ignores the subtitles from Cold Dew and their label. It’s a story told in a - due to my lack of any actual expertise - completely made-up version of the Taiwanese film and TV industry in the early 1980’s, my personal fan-fiction, which has nothing to do with the original script at all.

Continue reading >

21 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Black Metal

As Light Dies from Madrid, Spain, is one of these bands which make me wonder whether Post-Black Metal is not just a jambalaya term for so many different genres that enumerating them simply makes no sense. Okay, let’s try: Gothic Doom Folklorist Alternative Black Metal. See, rather stick to the former even it is not-descriptive and might include anything.

Continue reading >

20 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Blackgaze

Do you hear that sound? That dumb, deep, knocking sound? That’s my head being smashed onto the desk. By myself. Why? Because I feel so stupid that I have not given Wounds of Recollection a listen even though the name was dropped onto me several times before. Now I am sitting here, listening to Warm Glow of the End of Everything and can say for sure: This record will be in my top20 at the end of the year. Blackgaze in the best shape and form possible!

Continue reading >

19 Feb 2023 - Gene
IndustrialDoomPost-RockShoegaze

Introducing the first half of a double EP, this short entry into the already compelling catalogue of one-man Parisian project Ddent carries all the coiled up momentum over from 2020’s Couvre-sang. I took a vague recommendation on that album and immediately knew I would have the discography. There is just something thrilling about an old genre suddenly feeling relevant again. A youngster hooligan in me is rocking out to The Downward Spiral, singing all the naughty bits the loudest.

Continue reading >

18 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
BluesNoise RockHeavy Metal

Fourteen years ago, Gallows released their second full-length record called Grey Britain and since then there has been no more accurate description of the current state of affairs of the United Kingdom than Land Of Sleeper, the new record by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. However, do not think this is another monolithic Hardcore record, no, 7xPigs recorded a heavy, bluesy, noisey, doomy breather of a record that will turn a lot of people’s heads this year!

Continue reading >

17 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Heavy MetalDoom Metal

“Living in a Box“ by Living in a Box. “Bad Company“ by B.C. But also “Black Sabbath“ or “Motörhead“, the list of bands that have a song with the same name as said band is not endless but sometimes it‘s growing. “Seer of the Void“ by Seer of the Void. File under “We like Black Sabbath and Motörhead and create a track that has qualities of both bands!” Proof? Listen to their new record Mantra Monolith!

Continue reading >

16 Feb 2023 - Simon
ShoegazeDoomIndie

Super Pink Moon return with a multi-faceted gem with their new album Iron Rain!

Continue reading >

15 Feb 2023 - Stephan
Jazz

No, Executive Order 9066 is not a fictional event of Star Wars, but the very real command of US President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 to relocate and incarcerate any person from the Pacific Seaboard deemed a threat to national security. Mainly used against all people looking Japanese, it resulted in children growing up in shameful prison camps and a generational trauma of above all American citizens, whose only crime was their “wrong” heritage. With prominent voices like George Takei at the forefront it seems like a broader public conversation about the issue has only just begun in recent years.

Continue reading >

14 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Psych-Rock

Did anybody else miss out on this small trend that I simply missed out on while listening to loads of Black Metal, Hardcore and Sludge? Ak‘chamel is yet another example on how to incorporate folklore elements from the Middle East or elsewhere around the globe into Psych Rock or Jazz. It makes sense as ritualistic music in general is very easily adopted for this genre as its idea of repetitiveness and unusual patterns is similar to the way that these bands create sounds in their own genres. Ak’chamel for example is Psych-Rock of the noisier, somewhat dissonant kind! Welcome to A Mournful Kingdom of Sand.

Continue reading >

13 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Death MetalSludge Metal

If there has been one record in 2023 that was released on the perfect label, then Tithe’s Inverse Rapture might fight each and every album for that title because there might not be a more suitable home for it than Profound Lore with its knack for releasing angry, extremely dense records in various shapes and forms of metal. Inverse Rapture is able to take on all of these incarnations!

Continue reading >

12 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
AvantgardeDeath Metal

Ult… Ultar, Ultha, Ulthar – that syllable seems to stand for some amazing metal bands, and heck, even in pop it surely shows significance with Ultravox or one of the most underrated Depeche Mode albums being Ultra. Ulthar carve another bit of proof not in stone, but straight into metal with their latest albumS Helionomicon and Anthronomicon. Enjoy getting your neck beaten to shreds.

Continue reading >

11 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
Grindcore

When talking to Drew from See You Next Tuesday, he gave a pretty concise answer to the question why so many of the great bands from the 00s are making mindbogglingly good comebacks since the beginning to 2022. He thinks that Covid is one of the reasons. After listening to Distractions, the new record by Drew’s band, many people will happily say “Thank you Covid, even though you are pain in the youknowwhere!” The guys from Bay City, Michigan completely convince on these 13 tracks!

Continue reading >

10 Feb 2023 - Martin
MelodicDeath Metal

”Alter Schwede!” This could be everything I would need to say to describe this record in a nutshell. Lo and behold it is even an Melodic Death Metal album, a genre not very often touched upon on Veil of Sound. Maybe, because it is a genre that nowadays tastes like mere bread and butter? Nothing new to write about. No lasting and novel experiences that could stir your music-loving soul, a voyage of discovery. But why is this record different? How is it possible to sound like the source itself, but nevertheless fresh and new at the very same time? Hitting you directly between the eyes. And what the heck has an old Swede to do with anything of this? Raise the curtain for Majesties and their debut album: Vast Reaches Unclaimed!

Continue reading >

09 Feb 2023 - Gene
Post-RockExperimental

From the very first syncopated guitar lines to the slow unfurling of the melody, you can tell something special is happening with Spain’s ṘO. The sophomore offering, Baiagoan jumps straight away into their strengths. A steady emotional urgency underpins solid, moving grooves, a technically excellent rhythm section and leads with confidence and a certain experimental flair, vis-a-vis some of the tonal choices, as well as a now classic, sort of Ozzy-era locomotive force deftly applied to a plethora of hooks, grooves, and a touch of intrepid wizardry, which are all executed as if blindfolded. We’ve been beguiled since 2020’s Athalase.

Continue reading >

08 Feb 2023 - Knut
AtmosphericPost-RockAmbient

Natt´s new instrumental album is music for the night - the repetitive parts will mesmerize you while the broad musical scope will induce a tonic calm.

Continue reading >

07 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
AtmosphericBlack Metal

A band‘s name is sometimes more important than normal people like to think. Of course it‘s not difficult to find a name Whitey Carey or Pariah Houston, but who knows the meaning behind Boysetsfire or Satyagraha (if you know which band I am referring to with the second name, then we will have shared school days together!). Sometimes it can also purvey a sense of what is to come, for example Grindcrusher. Or: A Diadem of Dead Stars.

Continue reading >

06 Feb 2023 - Knut
Heavy MetalHard Rock

Put the pedal to the metal and blast off with the vibrant heavy metal thunder from Norway’s Draken.

Continue reading >

05 Feb 2023 - Thorsten
BlackenedPost-Hardcore

Congratulations.

Continue reading >

04 Feb 2023 - Stephan
Progressive Rock

No way, Norway!

Continue reading >

03 Feb 2023 - Knut
Death MetalProgressive Metal

This one-man band, founded and driven by the musician Balan, has been around since 2007. His debut release, the Black Metal album The Forgotten, was the first ever album to be released on The Flenser in 2009. Of course, this being Balan, there was more to it than mere Black Metal snd the same counts for this new release: there is more to it than just one distinct style. Had this not been in the hands of a master at making metal-related music it could easily have become a mess. It is not. It is a marvelous musical achievement.

Continue reading >