Review Summary: Biggest letdown for the year, another band swimming along with the melodic bands. Michael Keene knew what suited VoM the best, they stood out very much with their inimitable riffage and Misha ruined it...
I find it rather boring.
It has happened to me many times, that I underrated an album at first, but after listening to it 4-5 times it became one of my favourites, but it's not the case with this album.
Many, many melodic riffs, not very suitable for VoM. Many, many selfcopying, similar and less imaginative riffs to previous albums'.
The change in Marc's tone is just awful. WHY, WHY???? He had IMO one of the very, very best tones in this era, it was supertight and easily recognized.
Also, 28 minutes? The f*ck!
This album was highly disappointing for me, it lacked the most essential thing that VoM has: those super tight, heavy, confusing, badass technical riffs, which were played by guitar and drums all along.
I listened to the album for like the 5th time and then checked We Bow in its Aura and It's Not Safe to Swim Today and realised, how much I like The Common Man's Collapse. [id] was also pretty good, I loved it, really, no matter how many people say it's flat.
I don't want VoM to step into AtB's path... Their newest album was also very boring stuff with melodic riffage.
Veil of Maya, PLEASE STICK TO YOUR ROOTS!
I really don't agree with the opinion that VoM didn't stand out of the chugging bands. For me VoM will always be the best in their class, they took a big step back with this album... It's like when I say Vildhjarta will always be my favourite heavy djenty thall band.
I think they shouldn't allow Misha to be the producer for the next album. Michael knew what to do, The Faceless never let me down, he did the finest job to emphasize VoM's strong points. I don't like Misha's stlye, he turns mostly everything into melodic crap with electronic background. His early works were so much better (Animals As Leaders' and Periphery's first album).
(I'm sorry I won't go into analyzing every tracks, many did so, I just wanted to type down my overall impressions. I only rated it good, becase VoM doesn't deserve less than 3/5)
