I wasn't full of confidence about the upcoming release from Veil of Maya. However on getting the album, the Sumarian breed of Sci-Fi-esque lead and chugging underscores provides a very interesting listen that at times is captivating. The riffs are well thought out throughout, with interesting synth parts noticeably in the track Resistance. The Faceless' Michael Keene's mixing is superb, and he has had a noticeable influence on the bands sound, as echoing, almost eerie long notes throw back to Faceless' last release Planetary Duality.
One quibble I had with this album is that yet again the Veil of Maya boys put more than one instrumental on, wasting song space for what are really similar tracks in [id], Martyrs and Circle. Also, though the lyrics at times are well written, they have a habit of becoming lost in basic chants of the song title, and mass repetition of the main line. Though not really a sin in the music world, it detracts from the potential of a very lyrically able Brandon Butler.
Overall, this album exceeds Common Man's Collapse in almost every way by maturing the untamed technical fury that was released by the 2008 album, but minor imperfections stop this from being the masterpiece it could have been. Nonetheless, it is a brilliant album preceding what looks like a year of many brilliant albums |
