Veil of Maya : "{m}other"

 

The seventh album by this metal core band, who at least has enough in their bag of tricks to make the wacky off time grooves interesting. The second song finds these tricks supplemented by pop like clean vocals that have more in common with Linkin Park. The lyrics are sappier and harder to take the heavier elements seriously, but I guess that is what the kids are into these days, which shows how little they know about metal. Not gatekeeping but a fair assessment of the current musical climate today as these guys fall pretty middle of the road. By the time it gets to the third song the formula has gotten stale and all the studio tricks do not compensate, though it should be said from a production stand point the sound are very well put together. Though these kinds of bands never sound that great live, the Faceless was pretty disappointing when I saw them live. 

They try to embark on more progressive fanfare with "RECONNECT" , but it feels too busy and does not have enough balls to me. The sung vocals do not help their cause though I appreciate any attempts at melody . "Red Fur" finds the pop side of the band wrestling with the more spastic metal core side of what they do. This chaos works better than the kind of chaos they get lost in with "Disco Kill Party" . To the band's credit the songs are restrained down to three minutes, so they do not waste a great deal of time. Sometimes they are more focused than others. The contrasting shades of sound duel for the next logical transition, and when this fails the song suffers. The pop parts are at least  more linear. Midway even the zany tricks used in their herky jerky pacing wears thin as you hear it once you have heard it enough for the entire album. 

I hate it when song titles are better than the actual song, but that is pretty much what we are looking at with "Synthwave Vegan" . "Lost Creator" feels like they are getting more serious about making metal, though there is nothing really catchy about what is going on that would make me want to bang my head to this. By the time we get to "Death Runner" I am ready to get off this ride. Not that it has made me dizzy, but I am getting bored as it all begins to sound the same. I will however give this album a 7, as the sounds captured work, the problem is more that they go to the well to many times with certain sonic tricks.