"The Common Man's Collapse"

Veil of Maya - "The Common Man's Collapse"
April 1, 2008
Producer: Michael Keene

    Deathcore is one of the most difficult sub-genres of Metal music to fully create an identity of your own in. Having to meet certain criteria such as odd-time signatures and poly-rhythmic abilities among others. Yes, it does take a group of very skilled musicians to pull this off flawlessly. However, it seems that the majority of bands in this genre get carried away with only making very math-like music and forgetting the most important thing: Passion for the music itself.
    
     It takes an extraordinary group of musicians to not only meet the criteria above but also to give their music a DNA type of it's own. Furthermore, giving the genre itself a facelift in a time where things were starting to look seemingly mundane. That band would be Veil of Maya and the record that came to the rescue, the band's second full-length offering: 2008's "The Common Man's Collapse."
  
     Behind every great record is a great producer, and in this case that man was Michael Keene. Michael (on top of being a producer) is also known as the guitarist and primary songwriter in the Technical Death Metal group known as: The Faceless. So it's easy to see Veil of Maya was in very capable hands. It truly takes a metal musician to know a metal musician, so Michael knew exactly how to record and mix this band.
  
     When I think about this record the first thing that comes to my mind is the melodic nature of this band. It is something very worth while to note because a lot of bands in the Deathcore genre generally rely just on very heavy riffing and atonal-like leads. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, however this trend has somewhat become the norm of the genre. So when I heard tracks such as "We Bow In It's Aura," "It's Not Safe To Swim Today" and "All Eyes Look Ahead" the melodic themes that kept re-appearing throughout these songs made me realize right away that Veil of Maya was going to become something special in the world of extreme music.
  
     While there are plenty of melody hooks throughout the entire album, there are songs that are dominated more-or-less by disjointed riffs and odd-time signatures. Tracks such as "Crawl Back," "Entry Level Exit Wounds" and my personal favorite song off the album "Mark The Lines" showcase this perfectly, while displaying a strong Meshuggah-ish like influence in their playing.
  
     There is a great number of good things to be said about "The Common Man's Collapse." However, there is one aspect about this record that nags at me. While Veil of Maya's musicianship is flawless, it seems the bass on this record lacks an identity of it's own.
  
     What I mean by that is there are plenty of moments throughout this record where guitarist Marc Okubo and drummer Sammy Applebaum shine in the spotlight, furthermore showcasing their abilities to their own breaking points. While bassist Kris Higler more-or-less just does his job (which is no easy task in Veil of Maya.) It's just with everything that Marc and Sammy bring to the band I guess my expectations were high on what I was looking for bass wise. Kris is not a bad bassist at all, what I'm trying to get at is I just wish Kris stepped out of Marc's shadow a little more and put his own fingerprint on this record like his band mates did.
  
     With "The Common Man's Collapse" clocking in at about thirty three minutes there is a lot of music to be absorbed in a short amount of time. While die-hard fans like myself will more likely fall in love with this record upon first listen. It might take a few more listens for new coming fans of the genre to fully understand why this band is the real deal.

My Killer Kutz: "Mark The Lines," "Sever The Voices" and "It's Not Safe To Swim Today"