Veilburner : "the Obscene Rite"

Was sitting in my in-box for some time just now getting around to checking out this American black metal band that is not really a punk band jumping on the band-wagon or trying to impress their hipster friends, though hipsters have moved on from black metal. These guy go with the dramatic riffs and do not apologize for playing this brand of metal. They do have a fair amount of influence from death metal. This is heard even more on the second song. Dimmu Borgir is also an influence. This is apparent in how the vocals are produced as well as how the arrangements slither like a serpents and resist going back to the verses. The synths lend some industrial density. For a duo the breadth of what they accomplish is pretty impressive.

By the time they get to "Vaterchen" they have proved to me that they are in fact dark enough. The vocal take on a trippy spoken word approach that drips with effects as it enters an angular groove that would sound good high. The drumming is particularly impressive as this song takes them down a more progressive road. There is a more straight forward approach to a more mainstream take on a more deathly black metal with "Eucharist of the breathing Abyss". But it is still a well written and decent song, reminded me a little more of Mayhem. Until the creepy middle section "Baphometic Catalyst". Hints of more progressive undertones begin the weirdly mixed song "Delimma Manifestation". An acoustic guitar even surfaces for a few passages , before they begin to hit you with the more death metal guitars.

Clean singing enters the picture on the weird and wonderful wackiness that is "In the Revelations of bloodstained Void". To say it's prog gets closer, but it is not prog in the way we normally think of it, almost more of the Devin Townsend kind. I'm fine with them heading into a more industrial direction on the last song, not a fan of the vocals that fall where the chorus would be. They sound like they are not fully committed to their growl. Overall pretty solid I'll give this one an 8, if you are a fan of cross-over black metal bands like Dimmu, this is worth a listen.