Customer Reviews

Common Man's Collapse

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Smoosh the melodicness of At the Gates or Black Dahlia Murder with the technical precison of Meshuggah and Beneath the Massacre and you get this. It is quite good, my buddy's band shared the stage with them recently and I sampled them on a whim finding them to be amazing. Most songs leave you windmilling lone after its over. Any "breakdowns" in this album are tight and techy enough to keep even a shred-type fan like myself interested. Each one isn't the pinnacle of the song like most bands who write breakdowns in. Amazing leads and drum work make all the more fun. highly recommended for Fans of The Faceless, Meshuggah, Black Dahlia Murder or Beneath The Massacre.

Most bands that get as heavy as VOM start to lose their creativity throughout albums but, VOM writes so that the listener does not become sidetracked while listening which makes them original in this genre. They are very talented musicians and were just on a tour with necrophagist!I would compare them to Necrophagist because of the low vocals, but VOM loves their off timing breakdowns that Necrophagist does not. Must have album!

Veil Of Maya's "The Common Man's Collapse" will not fail any true deathcore fan. It is very unique compared to other standard deathcore bands. With a great record label (Sumerian) and release, soon the whole world will be jamming this cd. This cd is nothing more or less than great musicianship, and these guys surely have a great future. Definitely worth the buy!!!

Albums like this make me proud. Why? Well, for starters this band and I are from the same hometown(Chicago, IL). There are a number of new bands emerging everyday so it's nice to see that some of them are from my own stomping ground and are also a good listen.

I must first say that the playing style of Veil of Maya may really have to grow on you due to the fact that they really do not sound like your usual deathcore band(or your usual band to begin with). Yes, they are deathcore(*gasps*) but they have a little more progressive playing style then most other bands in their respected genre. Like I said before, they really do not sound like your typical deathcore, though. One thing you may immediately notice about this album(and their 1st album as well) is they don't try to "DOOM" and "BREAKDOWN" and "BREE" you to death like most deathcore bands. Breakdowns are still present, just not overly predictable like one would expect from this genre. The music here sounds like kinda like this:

DEATHCORE - BAD STEREOTYPES + PROGRESSIVE x RANDOMIZATION + GOOD LYRICS = THE COMMON MAN'S COLLAPSE

These guys are indeed very technical and only after 6 or 7 listens would you possibly realize just how intricate they make their music. Guitars are very heavy and guttural yet clean. The shifts from each segment in the songs are usually quick, somewhat unpredictable and even a little odd sometimes. However, it is not without reward. Listening to this album can be like looking for hidden treasure sometimes because a fair portion of the songs sound decent(yet somewhat expected), and then turn around and throw in a guitar riff/solo or a quick number from the drummer(i.e.: the last song - "It's Torn Away") that just puts a smile on your face every time it plays.

If I could give a breakdown of every element I would say the following:

Vocals: Good. The vocalist uses a fair amount of variations in his tone and fits well with the music at every turn.

Lyrics: Very Good. Other bands in the genre should honestly take notes. I prefer not to spoil anything with samples, however, and just leave you to listen for yourself.

Guitars: Strong. Technical, interesting and well placed. Whether it's a hard "chugging" riff to give the "heavy" or a higher pitched shred it's pretty much all good.

Bass Guitar: Satisfactory. The bass just follows the guitar and doesn't stand out. Not much else to be said.

Drums: Strong. Possibly one of the album's major highlights if anything. The drummer is more technical and precise than pretty much everything else going on and really helps piece it all together very well. I would have to say that some of the most memorable parts of the album are drum related.

Breakdowns: Good/Very Good. Why? Well it is "core" so breakdowns are somewhat expected here. Conducting From The Grave is a band very good at breakdown placement. Now, while Veil of Maya is not quite as good at it as CFTG, I would still say they can compete with a little work if they really try in the future.

Like I said, this album may really have to grow on you. It's challenging and different and very much a little awkward sometimes. But, if you give it a few listens(and maybe a few more afterward), I am sure you will appreciate the masterful work these guys have put out.

One last note I will add is for anyone who enjoys the album to make it a point to see them live. While the production on the album is good it does not really show just how heavy these guys are in reality.

deathcore has some pretty awesome bands, and Veil of Maya is one of them. after listening to this band and The Faceless, I can only guess that the rest of Sumerian Records' roster is this talented too. this band sounds like a mixture of deathcore, progressive, and technical. it is a band that is hard to pigeonhole. the solos are terrific. if Veil of Maya is this good, then I should get some more Sumerian bands.

But seriously people. Veil of Maya will thump your eardrums into jelly. A big problem I have with some new metal bands is bad mixing. Not so here, I love this album. Sometimes you cant hear the guitar well because the drums are melting your speakers, but hey I love it. Very good album, very solid. Drumwork is next generation stuff, and the meshuggah esque guitar work is always good. Highly recommended.

Not exactly my taste in regards to the vocals (cookie monster vocals), but the musicianship in this band is phenominal. TIGHT, TIGHT relationship with all the instruments. I love the polymetric breakdowns these guys go into. It's mindboggling to me how these guys are so tight with the various polyrhythmic patterns they go into. Even the avid Meshuggah listener will be challeneged with the polymetrics of this band. I used to not be able to stomach these types of vocals but I'm glad I've learned how, because I love the musicianship in this band. Since vocals are a matter of personal preference and I recognize it takes talent to sing like this, I give this album 5 stars, EASILY.

As my title states, this band is doing more than making metal, they are doing a lot of hybrid styling.

Flat out is this metal? Yes. Is this album generic? No

Not to put down any of the previously posted reviews, but I usually have a affinity to steer away from albums labeled deathcore, screamo, metalcore, whatever you want to state, I don't really enjoy labels, other than the one true root label of metal. more importantly I would rather it just be referred to as music. Which is how I will dictate the remaining review of this band.

With "veil of maya's" first album, I really found a lot of good music, and enjoyable riffs. However one thing it lacked was some tighter playing, everything was a little too loose and was begging for the slack to be picked up and the production to be tightened. Well no sooner had I wondered what "veil" would sound like better, bigger and more creative, than this album arose.

The album itself was not an immediate success with me. I liked it, but didn't really love it, not until about 4 months after I bought it, and a good couple dozen listens did it truly start to dawn on me how incredible these guys are. The drumming is superb. It really has a lot of unique flavor and style, and anytime a song by these guys has been played I can immediately pick them out by the drummer alone.

I find that the guitar itself has a lot of really winding and somewhat haunting guitar tone. Lots of the melodies buzz around, but usually follow a very well thought out and well placed logic. Being a hobby musician myself I can't help but pick apart a bands playing style and technique. The musicians in this band are all very adept to what they do, and have honed this skill expertly. I just hope that the band continues to grow and doesn't just sit down in a genre as stale as metal. I hope this group truly decides to keep stepping out and pushing away from the slow decay of "genre" music and become a influential group, and as far as I can tell, label mates "Born Of Osiris" and "After The Burial" are all striving for a unique cause, to make the music fun, interesting, beautiful, and fluid.

I could care less about how brutal the band is, the music drives me to practice the guitar, and the songs will stand the test of whatever crappy myspace fad happens, because the truth is, these guys have something that most of their competition doesn't, soul, and I don't care if it sounds corny. They know what they want, and their going to make it happen.

Veil of Maya is a band often raved about within the Deathcore genre of modern day metal. Often proclaimed to be "the saviors" of Deathcore, due to their technical and progressive sounds, the band is said to have pioneered a new style of Deathcore. Being compared to other bands within the Progressive/Death/Core scene, such as The Faceless, Born of Osiris, and After the Burial, Veil of Maya is considered a breath of fresh air within the sometimes stale and repetitive Deathcore genre.

Veil of Maya tries to put a new spin on the Deathcore genre by using guitar riffs and harmony found in Progressive Metal and showcased by bands such as Scar Symmetry, Between the Buried and Me, Born of Osiris, and even Opeth. Sweep picking, fast strumming, and blast beats are present, with constant progressive overtones on every track. The band does a good job of balancing heavy hitting music with slower, more progressive forms of metal done by bands such as The Faceless and Opeth. Taking cues from these bands, Veil of Maya attempts to take Deathcore and mix it with the Progressive Metal formula to create a new concoction similar to that of Born of Osiris and later releases from All Shall Perish.

Vocalists of bands like Scar Symmetry, Born of Osiris and Opeth showcase a wide range of style and use their vocalization to add more feeling and creativity to their tracks. Whereas Veil of Maya's lead vocalist Brandon Butler utilizes the same style of growling throughout the entire length of the album. His low guttural grunts can be monotonous from time to time. His high shrieks truly shine, but he seems to neglect this style of vocal work in favor of his more bland and generic sounding low grunts. The album shines more on tracks where the band uses more high shrieks than low grunts. His style of growling is monotone at times, mostly due to the production value which may make it come off as repetitive at times.

Tracks like "We Bow in its Aura" and "All Eyes Look Ahead" are some of the worst offenders of bland vocals. Brandon starts off these songs with a slow, low guttural grunt, and his tempo and intensity ceases to ever change. The listener can expect to hear great instrumental work from track to track with various vocal styles ranging from high shrieks to mid-range growls and deeper low pitched ones as well. Christian Alvestam from Scar Symmetry and Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth use a more intense style of low guttural grunts where the growls sound more wet and are often accentuated with vibrato to the growls to make a more unique sound from time to time. Mikael and Christian also tend to hold out growls for a long period of time, intensifying the low grunts to sound more brutal and original. Brandon's vocals sometimes sound dry, forced, and repetitive, never holding growls out over a series of notes, and never adding vibrato to ease the monotonous and dull nature of his style.

The guitar work varies from track to track as well. Many songs feature a high level of intensity from the guitarist. The instrumentation of the album does contain enough uniqueness and variety to save the album from the at times monotonous vocals. "We Bow in its Aura" is a prime example of a song that could have sounded better if Brandon would have been a little more enthusiastic with his vocalization work. However, the redeeming factor of the album resides with the instrumental work, with the drums sounding on point all the time, and the guitars being rather progressive while adding complexity to what might otherwise be a dull album.

Overall, Veil of Maya tries to incorporate Progressive Metal elements into Deathcore and tries to separate the band from the overcrowded Deathcore genre and does a decent job at doing so. Fans of Progressive Metal looking for bands that incorporate grunts, growls, or shrieks into their music should look into groups like Opeth, Scar Symmetry, Solution.45, Between the Buried and Me, Born of Osiris, Mercenary, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, and Into Eternity. If the genre sparks enough interest in you, then perhaps Veil of Maya may be right up your alley if you can ignore the lack of emotion and intensity that Brandon's vocals portray at times within the album.