Review Summary: A descent into hell you want to experience again and again
Less than a year has passed since Veilburner released their last effort, «Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy», and they show no signs of slowing down. Now, they grace us with their new album, «All That Glimmers Is Gloam», which sets the stage for another chapter in the history of these avant-garde death and black metal masters.
Ever since their inception, they have, without exception, released banger after banger. While I think they reached their absolute peak with «The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom» in 2024, I think this album is up there among their best work.
The sheer technicality and execution of the instrumentation are a sight to behold, with doses of prog blended perfectly into their unique style of dissonant death and black metal. They don't shy away from experimenting with effects on both the vocals and guitars to evoke a feeling of paranoia, madness, and being trapped in a labyrinth, where each step towards a potential dead end feels painstakingly slow, as if you're navigating through thick, poisonous fog, quicksand-like mud, and trying to escape distant voices.
The drums beat with such fast precision, like a heart beating at the very limits of its functioning capacity, while the riffs sound eerie and strum with haunting repetition. The synths and keyboards elevate things to a whole other level atmospherically. The music here is highly dramatic and hugely cinematic, while still retaining the down-to-earth oddball style of metal they're known for.
On this record, as with much of their previous work, atmosphere is everything, and the way they pull it off is nothing short of breathtaking. A good example of this is the way they use the background of the soundscape as a canvas for hellish imagery. Take a song like «Phænomena Obscura», where there is almost not a single moment of calm without anguished shrieks and screams of agony layered behind the instrumentation.
On «Dis`Obedient Woe», we get a rare chance to take a break from the violent chaos that is «All That Glimmers Is Gloam». On this track, they get super weird with reverberated drums, synths, and a keyboard motif that makes it feel like you're drifting in and out of consciousness on an interdimensional journey across space and time.
With «A Seance to Spectre», it dawned on me that the perfect description of the album and its sequencing as a whole is that it offers a gradual, fully immersive descent into hell. I haven't singled out many songs here, but that doesn't mean there aren't any standout tracks, because there are plenty. Rather, this album is a single entity, best experienced as a whole.
If you've been looking for records to jam to this Halloween, I recommend this one. I'll certainly be spending the rest of October reliving and revisiting the world of «All That Glimmers Is Gloam».
