Veil of Maya Album: “All Things Set Aside”

If you take a waffle iron, some Styrofoam popcorn, and a sledgehammer, and cover them all in WD-40, what do you get? Beats me, but I can tell you this: if you listen to Veil of Maya, you still might not get the answer to that question, but you'll sure have one hell of a good listen!

Demolishing flurries of pulverizing guitar riffs and oddly-timed drum rhythms (which change so many times in any given song, you're more likely to keep track of how many times Courtney Love gets arrested!), death metal vocals that throttle you with their vicious attack...all the makings of a great tech-death release. Highly recommended for fans of PsyOpus, Necrophagist, Gorguts, Origin, or even Meshuggah or the Dillinger Escape Plan.

And no, Veil of Maya are NOT a rip-off of (or tribute band to) Cynic! They sound NOTHING alike, and besides everything else, the term "veil of maya" is an ancient Hindu term.

Now be the first person on your block to get this album. You won't regret it.

This album is crafted very meticulously. Each sweeping pass of Marc's guitar, each insanely fast drum fill or blast beat, and "The Higler's" wonderfully light bass style all display how well this band works together. The recording quality has a great "grit" to it that only truly independent recording artists can use to their advantage. The complex rhythms coming from the the guitar, bass, drums, and vocalist are very tightly executed.

If heavy (and VERY melodic) progressive metal with a subtle, yet clear influence of progressive jazz is your style, this album will not come out of your cd player (or MP3 Player) for a long time. Make sure to note that Marc is the only "ONE" playing guitar throughout the entire album. This is a truly talented group of guys.

OTHER BANDS TO CHECK OUT:

* After the Burial

* Born of Osiris

* The Number 12 Looks Like You

* The Faceless

* Meshuggah

* Between The Buried and Me

The product was in a well mannered time, and it was exactly what I was expecting. The album itself has some good songs although the production quality is not top notch. This was the bands first recording and some songs on this album are featured on their debut "The Common Man's Collapse."

These guys are simply put great.A friend of mine recommended them to me he said they were like a Deathcore version of my favorite band Misery Signals i was quite intrigued so I downloaded their song "All Things Set Aside". Needless to say I was amazed after nearly a month of just listening to that one song. Christmas was fast approaching...I think you know where this is going.Anyway a few days after Christmas my cd arrived(because ebay is so damn slow) along with The Taste Of Bloods Predator album which I also highly recommend. I Know I have terrible punctuation please overlook this.

Anyway I eagerly popped in the cd and as "The Uprising" began I knew I was in for more than just another standard metalcore album. As Melodic guitar and odd drum patterns that blend together quite nicely it filled me with delight.Soon after the 1:31 opening "Entry Level Exit Wounds" kicked in with a nice little guitar riff, then into an awesome growl, from vocalist Adam Clemens, and blazing drums from Sam Applebaum ,accompanied by the great guitar playing from Mark Okubo. The breakdown in this song is very brutal yet melodic at the same time. "Entry Level Exit Wounds" contains some of the smartest lyrics about drug addiction i've ever had the pleasure to read."Your World Of Lies" opens up once again with a nice guitar riff and odd drumming.This is the longest song on the album and very memorable however it also has some very typical lyrics about religion, despite this flaw it is still a great song. At about 4:40 the song really begins to shine as the guitars are very melodic and the drums are very nice."Mark My Words" opens up with an orgasmic guitar riff before going into a typical deathcore verse with the vocalist screaming "You are the destroyer!,The one and Only!" at about the 2 minute mark we hit a nice breakdown complemented by pounding drums and a very guttural growl,it ends with a chant of "Mark My Words You Are Dead!" which leads flawlessly into the song that introduced me to Veil Of Maya the album titled "All Things Set Aside" Which opens up very brutally with pounding drums and a lovely guitar riff along with a nice scream.This is probably one of the most melodic songs on the album and a highlight at around 2:35 a nice breakdown hits and ends the song nicely."Indefinite Bloodlust" opens with a very nice growl and pounding drums this is probably the most "brutal" song of the album as a lot of death metal influence is shown here.Melody breaks in about 1:30 to break up the brutalness of it it continues to stay melodic til about 2:35 where the straight forward deathmetalness reigns once again til the 3:00 mark where some of the most odd guitar riffs are used, they sound like they could fit into in old school 80s metal song but that just makes it so much cooler while the retroness ends much later and ends in true deathmetal fashion."Sever The Voices" is another highlight track of the album the guitar is very erratic in this song and dual vocals are also used quite alot although not as much as the last track on the album, some amazing guitar around the 2:00 minute mark a very Misery Signalsish riff kickins in around the 3:00 minute mark and continues til about 3:30 in which brutality once reigns until the last 30 seconds of the song where more melody ends the track."The Black Funeral March" kicks in with dual vocals blazing drums and then within the next 5 seconds the melody kicks in.This song makes very good use of dual vocals although I don't think this will translate well into live performances.Very impressive drumming at around 1:20.At around 3:20 Adam Growls out "This is not the end!" and that is definitely true as i expect to see these guys getting big within the next couple of years. There is a hidden track entitled "The Session" i'm going to tell you what it is but its rather odd yet nicely done.

In Conclusion Veil Of Maya is a very original,awesome band of guys who just wanna make music and they do it nicely. Its sad that so many people will never hear these "All Things Set Aside" because it's going to be overshadowed by cookiecutter bands that worry more about fashion than music.I hope my review persuades someone to buy this cd, because you will not be disappointed.