Album Reviews : The Veil – Ghosts of Memory

The Veil truly are one of those bands that throw out the notion of genre limitations. One moment you’ll be listening to some stunning strings and gorgeous clean guitars reminiscent of any number of post-rock artists, the next you’ll be hit with doom and abnormally deep, clean vocals. “Distance” will get you grooving along with a faster pace and some surprisingly infectious riffage, before “On Other Days” sends you floating away with the type of layered vocals you’d expect from Triple J indie rock. And here and there, it is sprinkled with dashes of black metal, neofolk, prog and just about anything else. This array of styles and influences is brought together through mood over anything else; it is all drenched in a luscious atmosphere that treads the water between sombreness and absolute bliss. It’s one of those albums that sounds like it evolved from a few folk sitting around and just playing, rather than meticulously planning every movement.

Musically Ghosts of Memory is absolutely superb, unfortunately however it doesn’t quite reach the heights it could. From the very beginning, one thing that will stand out is the extremely deep clean vocals. While they’re certainly impressive, they tend to drown out some of the more subtle parts of the music, and occasionally sound too far separated from the rest of the band. They become a bit monotonous by the end as well, although the higher cleans and harsh growls that pop up at times break it up just enough. And the general dark-versus-light theme of the album would benefit greatly from a more dynamic sound, but the heavier riffs don’t have the power behind them to really contrast with what is either side. They simply sound a bit lacklustre, and even muddy in parts.

In the grand scheme of things, those negatives are nothing. Once you get past the low point that is opener “When We Were Alive”, Ghosts Of Memory is a moving listen. The violin is very tastefully used, and you’ll be craving some picturesque scenery in no time. There is some serious passion in here. 8/10

Band: The Veil
Album: Ghosts of Misery
Year: 2011
Genre: read the review…
Label: Independent
Origin: Sydney, Australia
http://www.theveilband.com/

Track list:
1. When We Were Alive
2. Crushed
3. Endtime
4. The Tide
5. The Light That Burns
6. Distance
7. On Other Days
8. What Will Come
9. Trust Me