Veil of Sound Interviews (Veil of Sound)

There are people and bands that everybody within a certain scene knows. Everybody knows ISIS when it comes to Post-Metal, just like you know the Neurosis guys when you are into Dark Folk, as well as Toby Driver when you like Black Metal with an Avantgarde Twist. When you are into American Black Metal with a lot of history you will surely have come across the name Neill Jameson because he is one of these key figures of USBM as he is the mind behind Krieg, one of the seminal bands in the genre. Sometimes controversial but never delivering records of a bad quality and that is also true of Krieg’s latest record Ruiner, which came out a few months ago and which is a certain tabula rasa record. So, obviously we had a lot of reasons to sit down with Neill (and his cat) to talk about all these things and of course also Black Metal in general. Enjoy this one and make sure to check back tomorrow for another legend!

 [Photo Credit: Buzz Osborne]

Boss Hog. Unsane. Helmet. The Melvins. Yes, musically these are very diverse bands. But as diverse as they are, or as they might be seen nowadays, there is something that connects them all: They all released on the legendary Amphetamine Reptile Records label once and that really meant and means something as the label from Minneapolis has played a hand in many careers. Therefore we are really happy to talk to Tom Hazelmyer, the founder of AmRep

Back in the day it seemed like AmRep was the "biggest indie" label on the planet, with maybe the best "nose" for great bands and when you released an EP or an album even through Tom's label, you could be sure that people would notice your band. But whether this notion of the biggest label on the label also co-related in a huge number of people working there - well, if you want to know that and much more - then you should watch this video with Tom in which we talk a lot about AmRep's history and "business model", about the fact that Tom witnessed the explosion of an alternative scene twice and even more about the relationship between AmRep and The Melvins, whose King Buzzo also provided us with the wonderful picture of Tom. Enjoy all you VoS-aficionados out there and tell us - which label shall we shed some light on next?!

The Infinity Ring is one of those new bands which will make a lasting impression on the listener, because they sound pretty timeless and classic and at the same time modern and progressive. That paradox and a lot more was the reason for us to do this interview with band leader and main song arrangeur Cameron.

Some of the other topics included their collaboration with Jarboe and how that came to fruition, the seemingly Gothic character of the songs and their haunting beauty, their quite intricate songwriting and the way the songs come to life in the studio. The Infinity Ring’s upcoming record Nemesis And Nativity will be released on April 14th via Profound Lore (the pre-orders can be placed here) and we can assure you that the record is brilliant as our review on Thursday will show you. Until then you can already get some background information on it so stoke the fires of excitement!

It is always fun to be told by a band that what you thought about anything related to the group (track or record titles, name of the band, artwork etc) is completely wrong - maybe valid in other circumstances but mostly completely wrong. This happened, when I interviewed Phal:Angst. Where was I wrong? Well, listen to our interview with the band. Then you will also find out what Joy Division has to do with Japanese fish.

Whiteout is a record which plays with expectations - as it oscillates back and forth between Doomjazz, Post-Rock, Synthwave, Industrial and Post-Punk. At the same time these guys have a very distinct sound (a sort of melange, if you will) and agenda (anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-hate, anti-xenophobia - basically they are completely right with opposing any kind of blue-brown bullshit). I had the pleasure to talk with two of them and to find out how the band is working, writing and conceptualizing.

You can listen to Whiteout, the latest full-length by these Viennese sound masters here on Bandcamp and read up on it via our review! Enjoy!

For the 24 Hours of Deep Listening festival over at Consouling Sounds, Thorsten sat down with Barst and talked about the idea behind their latest creation.

Well, haven’t we told you we wanted to start 2024 with a bang?! What could be a bigger bang than an interview with one of the reasons why all of this here started? A shared love for the music of Aaron Turner brought together some nerds a few years ago and this is like the core of VoS - so it was about time for this interview. However, we like to do things a little differently here and therefore we did not talk in too much detail about with musician Aaron Turner but much more with the (visual) artist Aaron Turner, whose work did not only grace many of the HydraHead releases but also many other artists’ records. His work is so influential, that by now you can find cover artworks that are clearly inspired by his work!Enjoy this interview and have a great 2024!

We usually have guys here on the show, whose music is based on riffs and guitar work. But sometimes we also feature people with a slightly different approach. Interestingly, when talking to James from Gost it becomes clear that his songs, and therefore also the songs on his forthcoming new album Prophecy (out soon via Metal Blade Records), can be based on both, either a guitar OR some electronic work. He also explains a lot about the way he composes his tracks, his patience deficit, the way the mask he is wearing on stage makes it difficult on the one, but interesting on the other side. And he also proclaims a love for a certain kind of country music, which one might not expect him to have. All in all, a mighty interesting talk which maybe can sparkle the interest of some of you metalheads out there to give Prophecy a spin! Enjoy!

Here we are now - entertain you! The Veil of Sound Xmas-Interview-Marathon 2022 is upon you. We will give you one interview with an amazing artist or band every day. Some will be podcast-only, some text-, several video-based interviews. And of course we want to give you some of the finest and most popular artists around - need proof for that? Well, how about we kick this off with Jarboe! Yes, the one! The lady who certainly changed Michael Gira's life and Swans' sound. Who released an awesome collab with Neurosis and so much more! 

There is also a very up-to-date-reason for this interview - the re-release of one of her seminal solo-releases: Sacrificial Cake which originally was released nearly 30 years ago. At a time, when it was considered to be a twin-record to Gira's Drainland (there were even some promo CDs sent out with tracks from both records). The record is mindblowingly different and diverse and doesn't shy away from tracks that at first glance don't fit in with the tracks before or after. Nevertheless, there is one thing that connects them all - Jarboe's voice and musical quality. We talked with her in detail about the record, its songwriting and production, the influence of New York City and much much more! We are very proud to kickstart our hearty VoS-Xmas-Interview-Marathon with this nearly one-hour long interview which you can listen to here straight away or on the streaming platform of your choice:

 You can also grab your copy of the re-release of Sacrificial Cake via The Circle Music!

Photo: Tamara Rafkin

We’re now on day 7 of our Veil of Sound Xmas-Interview-Marathon and today we present to you lucky readers a conversation with Kyle Bates, the mastermind behind drowse, who released his latest album, the excellent ‘Wane Into It’, through The Flenser in November (available on vinyl here).

Coincidentally this exquisite release was reviewed by us and featured in at least one of our contributing writers top 10 albums of the year lists.

‘Wane Into It’ is an absorbing, multi-layered exercise in the concept of memory that benefits from multiple listens to fully appreciate its beauty, preferably on headphones. If exceptionally well made lo-fi/shoegaze/slowcore is your thing, check the interview out and then delve into the drowse back catalogue.

Today we are giving you the last video of our early Consouling Sounds-series (don't worry - season 2 is soon to start) by presenting the amazing Dana Schechter! We have already featured an interview with Dana a few months ago, but don't think that we are giving you the same thing twice, because we are not. This interview was done for Consouling Sounds' 24 Hours of Deep Listening event and it was based on a different set of question. As we always hold Dana in very, very high regard because of her awesome musicianship, we figured this would be an awesome way to end our first series of Consouling-related interviews (if you try to find the fifth and last installment of this series of video-interviews you should check back with consouling.veilofsound.com - maybe you can find it there ;-) This time we focused very much on her one-woman-project Insect Ark and how it developed and changed over the years, how she got into playing this kind of music and why reforming as a solo project also gave her a lot of freedom for playing shows alone and without being dependent on other people. A now without much further ado, enjoy the chat with the wonderful Dana Schechter!

Having common friends are sometimes a really great thing when they introduce you to great artists who do not get enough attention which is about to change right now. The common friend who introduced me to Loather is Ralph from Ultha who also invited the guys from Vienna to his Unholy Passion fest in 2022. Now the guys have a new record out via Vendetta Records called Eis and I must say it is a really good Atmospheric Black Metal record with loads of spherical moments and still a lot of wonderfully dark bits. Reason enough to sit down with two of the guys for an interview.

We talked with drummer Hannes and guitar player David about the record, the great artwork, in which way the record was conceived and also of course, about their hometown Vienna and its weakness for everything morbid and somewhat Gothic. A highly entertaining conversation with lots of information about everything “icy”! Enjoy the interview!

Denovali Records has always been a label for lovers of sound - and that has never restricted itself to one genre alone. That’s why one could find Drone Metal alongside experimental music alongside an act like Hidden Orchestra, which is going to release a new album next Friday, September 22. And as our head honcho is a huge fan he was very happy to sit down with HO’s mastermind Joe Acheson for a long, detailed interview.

Hidden Orchestra has always been about combining sounds from the natural realms and the articial - Joe has always incorporated field recordings into his music and has thus drawn from the “hidden orchestra” that surrounds us. He clearly spoke about how long it sometimes takes him to finish a song and why we should never wish for a track that he considers perfect. We talked with him about he way he composes music, with which British artist he would love to collaborate and how the work on a computer game soundtrack has profoundly changed his view on music and how to get his music to his audience. Enjoy the interview!

O. is the head behind Haeresis Noviomagi. He is the guitar player in Turia. O. is the only member of Iskandr. He is in Solar Temple. He did/does lots of other bands and projects in the widespread Dutch Black Metal scene. O. is our interview partner for today and we are really glad to get to learn more about him and so will you!

Talking to such an interesting and important figure for the Black metal scene of a whole country can turn out to be a total disaster depending on whether the person is self-centered or not, as in this case. He is a very well-spoken and thoughtful person, and we talk a lot about the different sides of history and how difficult it can be if we try to see it only as positive or negative. We also learn about his love for psychedelic music and how he approaches his songwriting. Enjoy the interview with this interesting guy and enjoy the music he makes under whichever banner it is being released, be it Turia, Iskandr, Solar Temple or some of the others which we will talk about!

This week's interview is a short one, but it is also a very fun one. Talking to one's favorite bands from back in the day, who are still around, is just an immense pleasure to do. When I had the opportunity to interview Hot Water Music I just had to do it. 

You can now listen to to this talk about their music and their new album on YouTube and via your favorite podcast streaming plattform. I really enjoyed talking with these guys even for just the 25 minutes we had. The band had their ups and downs over the years, bu with Feel The Void they have released an incredibly strong album, so were happy to have this talk with them available for you now.

A few days ago we posted our first HipHop review here on Veil of Sound, a review of Dälek's latest record Precipice - and of course we were happy as f ... when Will Brooks aka MC Dälek agreed to do an interview with us. Therefore - here is our interview with none other than Dälek, enjoy!

One basically cannot talk about abstract hiphop without mentioning Dälek, an act that has revolutionized the notion of what hiphop can be by combining hiphop with noise, ambient and sometimes even metal ideas. His conscious rap approach to his lyrics also made Will an icon among those who try to see things from more than one angle within the hiphop community. Thorsten sat up with him and talked about the new record, his wish for hope in his music, his relationship to Ipecac and touring with bands like Jesu and ISIS, but also of course about the political situation in the US and the fact that Dälek is somewhat of an outsider in both genres - hiphop and noise. Sit down and sip up what the man's gotta say!

Khanate and their new record were one of the biggest surprises in 2023, simply dropping their fifth full-length without any official hints, promotion or anything on May 19. Everyone’s feed was dominated by the news and everyone automatically went ahead to listen to it. The record has now had time to settle in and people were able to dive into To Be Cruel and as we are sure that there are still things that need clarification and explanation! Hence we were happy to get together with drummer Tim Wyskida to talk about the record and loads of things related to it!

Khanate is a supergroup consisting of band members with myriads of merits in their respective biography and a long history of releasing great stuff on famous labels. To Be Cruel is now released via Sacred Bones and fits perfectly into their body of work even though it might be a bit more “classical” in a specific way, as the way the band works is surely not by jamming all together but putting layer upon layer. The record is mesmerizing and haunting at the same time and always awe-inducing. We talked with drummer demon Tim Wyskida about all of that and much more. Enjoy the interview!

Shirt of the day: Mogwai

Prolific and proficient! That’s surely something one can say about Robin Staps, his band The Ocean and his label Pelagic Records. We have not only reviewed a lot of records out via Pelagic Records (for example the latest releases by Saver, Arabrot, Mono, Jaye Jayle or JeGong), no Simon has also reviewed the last The Ocean record Holocene (you can check out his review here). But one thing that we must also know about Robin is that he is a man with a lot of interests and as it is always interesting to be interested we were really happy to interview him and kickstart our Xmas-to-New Year-interview marathon!

Yes, we are back with our annual interview marathon here on the VeilofSound - and of course you will get one interview over the next couple of days ending with a bang on January 1! But not only the end should be a bang but basically each and every interview and thus we are happy to give you this first interview with Robin from the Ocean who also runs Pelagic Records. Robin and us talked about ten records that shaped his musical taste and journey and he has come up with many interesting choices, some obvious, some surprising, but all making sense! Afterwards we talk a lot about the Ocean, the band’s development, the upcoming record (yes, UPCOMING) and the way that the band has also added to Robin travelling the world and much, much more. Enjoy the interview and make sure to check back daily to get the latest interview. But for now - we are happy to kickstart this year’s marathon with Robin Staps!

SubRosa is dead. Whether we like it or not. Yet their legacy continues as two really good projects have risen from their ashes - one is The Otolith, which we featured heavily on VoS last year and now we have The Keening, which is the new project by Rebecca Vernon. Her new record is coming up next week Friday and therefore we sat down with her and chatted about the new record called Little Bird, about Stevie Nicks and about much more. Enjoy!

Rebecca Vernon has a very personal relationship to her music, one that made her move from Utah to Portland in order to be closer to the personell that was to record the new album (and an upcoming one as well!) with her. She is a thoughtful and templative but fortunately not a silent person. That also reflects in her love for everything Gothic, for the macabre and the morose. We get to know wich is her favorite instrument, as well as how the songs on her album came to live. Enjoy our talk with Rebecca Vernon!

Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed many great new Doom bands. But rarely has one hit as hard as Belgian-based BRIQUEVILLE which has by now released several records through Pelagic Records. They might be the slowest, doomiest band on the roster, but they’re surely one of the most intriguing, densest and simultaneously most refined, most intricate bands in all of Europe. As we are always interested in presenting you something different and unique we are more than happy to give you a premiere - this is the first interview the band has ever done that’s not written! However, we of course kept the anonymity of the band member we spoke to. We touched on the new record, the development of their sound and who is under the hoods, there’s one answer that’ll surprise you, for sure! Enjoy!

 98 minutes! Ninety-Eight-minutes! If a student of mine delivered such a long work my initial question would be “And you are sure there are no redundancies in all of that?” But, believe it or not, over the course of this interview with Ashenspire’s Alasdair Dunn we are hitting so many topics and go through so many details that I can happily say “No redundancies!” We hope you enjoy our interview as much as I enjoyed doing it! Hostile Architecture is out for a few months now and when reviewing the record it struck me how difficult to grasp the record title is - and how multi-layered one can interpret it. Thus it was a short way for hitting up Alasdair and then arranging for an interview with him about how to see architecture and its usage as hostile for mankind. We struck a lot of diverse angles on this topic and a lot of others as well. If you think our interpretation and discussion went too far - feel free to hit us up on FB or get into contact with us otherwise! However, now is your time to sit back, take some time and enjoy the interview!

Sometimes we feel a certain urge to highlight and showcase musicians that not enough people take notice of and Edley O’Dowd is surely one of them. He has played with some of the most remarkable musicians of the last 50 years and is surely a jack-of-all-trades. One more reason to talk to Edley is surely that he is one of the most humble, most reserved and most selfless persons I have ever had the chance to talk to. Please enjoy the hell out of this interview!

Kylesa, Blondie, Psychic TV, Genesis P-Orridge, Toilet Boys and many, many, many more. That is the list of musicians/projects that Edley O’Dowd has been involved with throughout the course of his life in the music scene somewhere between Post-Punk, Industrial, Avantgarde, Ambient, Noise and even Sludge. Being a visual artist and a drummer by trade, he is a man of many talents who is such a nice person that it comes as no surprise that many different people want to work with him. Now he just released a new record called F(our)-ward on the Italian 13 label (find the label’s store here). The record showcases many of Ed’s talents and especially his powerful, shifty, diverse drumming - we had a lot to talk about and we are sure you can understand some of Ed’s songs a bit better when watching our video below!

You can listen to F(our)-Ward here on Bandcamp Enjoy our talk and enjoy Edley’s engaging music!

Boris - a name like thunder. Uniform - lightning strikes. Boris & Uniform together = a quite explosive mixture, right? Listening to their collaboration Bright New Disease is not necessarily lightning in a bottle or a molotov cocktail but rather a high-profile combining of forces which results in a record that never lets you down and exceeds expectations. One can hear the Japanese masters and also the elements by our beloved New Yorkers potioners. Having a chance to get to talk with Uniform about the record and a lot of others things? Yes, no question! Enjoy our interview!

Our talk with Ben and the Mikes from Uniform was a deep dive into how to write and record a collaborative record (not a record with two bands doing different sides of a vinyl record) if both bands are on two different continents with a lot of miles in between and how that impacted the whole process. Additionally, we spoke about the pandemic and the way it influenced the record directly or indirectly, which other artist to collaborate with, how awesome some ticket selling companies are and much much more.

Usually we do not go back-to-back with video-interviews but we wanted to once more show our love for a young French Post-Rock band from Lyon, whom we already featured on our special for the wonderful Post.Lyon Festival at the end of May: Quintessence! Thorsten had a cool chat with the guys and found out a lot about them and their music. And we are also happy that one of our questions did not end in a split of the young hopefuls ;-)

Formed in Lyon in 2018, Quintessence hit the ground running, releasing their debut EP, Demain, après la Lune in September of the same year. Their structured, methodical approach to song writing is immediately obvious, from the opening track, “Demain” on their debut to the “M87” demo song released in 2019, they weave patterns and tones into a series of dynamic musical passages that take you from the intricate to the raucous.

The duo demonstrate influences beyond post-music, with riffs and tones so clearly rooted in metal that they might as well wear a greasy denim jacket with “Anthrax” scrawled on the back. But this doesn’t define them. Those riffs work themselves around the melodies and bring grit to the gravy – a little bite to the apple. When the music falls away 2/3 of the way through “Libération”, it’s a metal-inspired tone that introduces the next passage, laying foundations for the tremolo-picked high notes to soar and wheel far above.

Listen to these two guys from central France and be one of those who can tell your friends in a year or two “I told you about those guys already a long time ago!”

“Lifting the veil off underground music” is the slogan and banner under which we are working here for you. That means that we are trying to give you some good knowledge of what is going in our musical realm outside of charts and pop appeal. Our interview guest today is a perfect example for that as James Romig is an experimental composer who has worked together with Mike Scheidt of Yob on an hour-long-single-track-project that will be released via New World Records in four weeks! This interview is one of the most enjoyable as James is an easy to talk to partner who can also explain the differences between concert hall music and metal music from various perspectives or how he and Mike got to know each other, what fascinates him about doom metal and why Mike’s tuning and amp settings were so important for this recording. The project by James and Mike is called The Complexity of Distance and can be purchased from end of June via New World Records And oh, we also got to talk about James got his Pulitzer Price nomination! So enjoy this interview and tell us on our socials how you like the interview!

Black Metal from Quebec is a pretty relevant scene, if you ask us. There are many awesome bands from the only French-speaking region in Northern America such as Nordicwinter, Spectral Wound, Misere Luminis and many others, amongst them: Givre. Man what a band, maybe my favorite Canadian band at the moment. Nevertheless, one must admit, that we normally do not know that much about Quebec. We might know about Montreal as its biggest city, might know where it’s located and a few tidbits, but not too much. So we combined that lack of knowledge with an in-depth interview about Givre’s new record Le Cloitre, out on Friday via Eisenwald. There is so much to talk the record: The concept of talking about six famous women all connected to the Christian faith, the artwork, the roots of the lyrics but also the difference of their hometown Rouyn Noranda compared to Montreal, the importance of that village for their sound and the impact of the local scene there. As you can imagine, all of this made up for a pretty long interview with many topics to discuss and much knowledge to gather. Enjoy our 90 minutes with Givre!

When people from different, well-known bands form a new project, we often call them supergroups. Most of the time, these bands have only little to say, because it can be quite hard to arrive at similar ideas. With False Fed this is surely not a topic, because these four guys know what they are doing, how to do it and - most important - what they want to say. The Covid-born project consists of four people who, at least when we talked back in October, had never all been in the same room! Nevertheless, their debut record Let Them Eat Fake is biting and scratching and full of songs and stories very close to the band members’ hearts! Enjoy our interview with all of them and do not forget to check out their record at the bottom of this page!

Discharge. Amebix. Ministry. Soulfly. The list could be continued and we’d be not going but sliding down a rabbit-hole of unperceivable depths. If you wanna do that, you might consider taking a week of unpaid holidays. The band itself didn’t have to take a holiday to record their songs because it was conceived during the Pandemic, even though they never met in one room or recording studio - thanks to the interview for once because without it, this record would have been much more complicated to get done! We talked with the guys about what “urgency” might imply, very deeply about some of the songs, whether they want to take this record on the road and much more. Enjoy!

As we said before, we want to give you something special in this run of interviews and this interview with Steve von Till is really something special, because Steve sat down and thought for himself which ten records could define Neurot Recordings best for him. And he came up with a really mighty list: Great Falls, Deafkids, UFOMAMMUT, YOB, Amenra, Kowloon Walled City, Grails, Justin K. Broadrick’s FINAL, Vágtázó Halottkémek and Zeni Geva! What a list! We talked about these records and also used these as starting points to talk about other Neurot releases and artists! Enjoy this interview and make sure to come back tomorrow for another amazing interview!

Inevitably Dark might be seen as a return to Black Metal made by Xasthur for some old school fans. However, one might be asking the questions whether Xasthur ever really was “only” Black Metal or if the project has not really been about much more than only BM? When talking to Scott one gets the impression that this record is - for the time being - a momentarily return only because he has already been off to completely different shores.

The new multitude of melodies dispatched by Xasthur might at first spin not fall onto many welcoming ears because accessibility is surely not the record’s stronghold. However, if you give the tracks time, if you spin them repeatedly, you will notice that some of the songs are finding their way into your ears and will stick there, because of the interesting uses of the guitar he lays out on these tracks and also because there are some carefully laid out disruptions within them. Enjoy the interview!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Shirt of the day: Ultha

There are people who accompany you musically your whole life, maybe they are even of the same or a similar age. You might lose contact to that person's music once in a while but as you soon as you "re-connect", there is the same kind of close-ness, of connection, yes, of intimacy. For me, one of these voices is Jonah Matranga's, whose various projects have always resonated with me, mostly because of his voice which to me is the epitome of Emo, the good kind of Emo, not the shitty stuff that came in the late Aughts which bands who were more into mascara and stupid breakdowns than into making quality music - in his words and his songs there is always that ray of honesty. Now he has lent his skills for a new album with English Post-Stoner-Post-Hardcore veterans Sons of Alpha Centauri. Their first collaboration in 2021 was called "Push" and this new one is named "Pull" and believe me there are many pull-factors on these nine songs. Released again via Exile on Mainstream Records, this new record is a bit closer to Jonah's former combos and therefore the comparisons are obvious. But there is much more to talk about - his collaboration with the Deftones, Star Wars, his work with Far, hair, his connection to Sons of Alpha Centauri and much more. There is even a little quiz and a chance to win something for you all out there! So sit back and enjoy our latest interview!

Band links

Sons of Alpha Centauri

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonsofalphacentauri

Bandcamp: https://sonsofalphacentauri.bandcamp.com/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5N9S58a1trUvMiavf5vwFl

Website: https://www.sonsofalphacentauri.co.uk/

Exile on Mainstream Records:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcsZM_AT6d84jePpfRnygog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andreas.kohl.399

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exileonmainstreamofficial/

Website: https://www.mainstreamrecords.de/

Back in 2008, Mike Keirsblick and his friend Miguel started a label which should become one of the driving forces in alternative, experimental and avantgarde music - Consouling Sounds. With releases from such influential artists as Nadja or A Storm of Light/IIVII, thisquietarmy or Alkerdeel the label has developed a very open approach to music and an even wider idea of which music they want to do next. Oh, by the way - yeah, for more than ten years now they have also been working closely with a little band originally from Kortijk you might have heard of - anyone familiar with Amenra?! 

Most of you will already have heard about the love-relationship between Veil of Sound and Consouling Sounds, Belgium's finest label in everything between Ambient and Black Metal. But have you already visited our special page devoted to Consouling Sounds? Consouling.veilofsound.com is a special page designed to promote the label, its philosophy and the people behind it as we think they are really special and everyone should know about it. On this page we will gather all our reviews and interviews with Consouling-artists and much more. Our web wizard Sebastian even built "a few timelines" which will enable you to get to know the label and its sublabels in a more detailed fashion. 

Of course one cannot start such a huge special without looking at the people who started it all and who have kept the flame burning for more than 13 years now. Therefore we will start this series of monthly interviews with none other than Nele and Mike for graciously gave us a lot of their time in order to create one of the longest VoS-interviews ever and showed why Consouling Sounds is also somehow Consouling Family - a family we are proud to be a part of!

Picture by Evgeny Salganik

Today is our J G D. Our what? Jeremy Galindo Day! Jonas gave you his review here here and we also spoke to the man behind the record, Jeremy Galindo, whom most of you will know as one of the guys behind TWDY. But beware and follow the instructions please!

We wanted you to listen to this track first as it is necessary to know what awaits us when The Introvert’s first full-length will be released via dunk!records on June 2nd. You should know that this is not a project by This Will Destroy You, it’s a project by one of its band members and as such it’s already quite different to one of the most successful post-rock bands. Jeremy is a easy to talk to person and thus talking with him about his love for film scores, ambient music and also the approach he had to making this kind of music was very easy and pleasant. He showed a lot of thoughtfullness and gave some insights on the correlationb between the records and the time when it was conceived, the pandemic. Carry the Bomb, Carry the Power is in a clear way a child of its time with a bright ray of hopefulness on the horizon. Enjoy our video and leave some feedback on our socials!

Photo by Caroline Harrison

This week’s video-interview is a good symbol for our slogan “Lifting The Veil off Underground Music” - because Brendon Randall-Myers might not be the most famous artist but he for sure is a very versatile and interesting one. We were lucky to have gotten this interview with him, so enjoy him talking about his musical development, noise and metal music and how his latest collaboration album came to life!

Brendon has been the last conductor of the famous Glenn Branca Ensemble and has studied composition, but also has a fascination for metal music. His newest project will be unleashed onto this world of ours in a few weeks and it is a very shifty, diverse and atmospheric piece of metal that he worked on with Doug Moore from Pyrrhon. Aveilut might change the listening habits of lots of people because it’s dense and full of atmosphere but it never tries to overpower the listener. Maybe also because of its birthing which surely is not a regular one… if you want to find out more, check out our interview!

Picture by Al Overdrive
https://www.al-overdrive.com/

Interview-Sunday here on VoS and we are having another really famous guest - Greg Anderson. One half of Southern Lord, one half of SunnO))), member of legendary bands like Thor’s Hammer, Goatsnake or Engine Kid and now The Lord.

We were fortunate to talk with Greg about his new record, which he released via Southern Lord on April 23 and which serves as the soundtrack to a movie he scored. We talk about the album, some songs and features on it, the differences between THE LORD and SunnO))), his love for several of the classic horror filmscorers and his general passion for music. It surely was a pleasure talking to Greg and we hope you will enjoy this audio-interview as well:

We have had a lot of musical “first’s” other the last couple of weeks here at VoS - just remember Dälek as our first HipHop-act. This week we presented a review of the upcoming record by Zola Jesus named Arkhon - and we were so lucky and happy to get an interview with her!

Nika, who has a typically diverse American background from multiple corners of the world and who also relocated from Arizona to Wisconsin, explained why she makes dark pop music, the influence of her circle of friends on her work and why the only good football team is from Wisconsin! Enjoy our podcast-interview!

Welcome to Part II of our Vægtløs - week! We promised you a lot for this week and we will keep our promise. We were very happy to talk with lyricist and vocalist of the band and admittedly this might not have been the happiest of conversations that we have had here on our VoS channel, this honestly ranks very high on our head honcho’s list because of the depth of this talk. “Enjoy” while you get to know a lot more about the depth of this record!

Aftryk might be a record of only a handful songs, but these songs hold so much content and most of it is looking at the darker side of life, aka death and we cope with it. In that sense it is very close to a record, Troels and Thorsten refer to quite a lot, Touché Amoré and their cancer-trauma record Stage Four! We have to say that the Danes might not be as well known as Jeremy Bolm, but believe us, when we say - they are to be reckoned with! Enjoy our interview and tell us, which record got you through some rough times?

There has hardly been any act within the realm of Drone, Doom and Black Metal in the last ten years or so who has been constantly as much as ALN and his Mizmor-project. The guy is able to give us all lots of food for thought and at the same time create soundscapes that are never stagnant in their successes but seemingly always pushing for new dimensions of depth and meaning. Whenever one listens to his record and goes about his lyrics there will be lots of ideas and questions left open. In order to close some of these we sat down with ALN and sought for some answers. 

Wit's End, Mizmor's latest EP (released in mid-January via Gilead) proved that once again, this time not just lyrically but also musically. You can read up on Thorsten review of the record here and then dive deep into the interview. We tried to find out if Thorsten's idea of a tendency towards Radiohead and Sigur Ros was just a stupid idea and when was the last time, that ALN was at his wit's end. Or how we as individuals and as mankind could cope with losing our ability to find a solution, when we are all collectively at our wit's end.

Picture by Raz

This upcoming Friday there will the musical equinox again - when the mainstream and the underground will sharpen their ears and both listen to the new record by Dead Cross! Believe us - it’s a really charming version of LIGHTNING in an exploding bottle! Therefore we are happy to give you some background information on the record through this interview with guitar maniac Michael Crain!

Crain, as the other band members call him, has gone through some serious stuff in the last few years and that seemingly incited his playing leading to even more furious spins and riffs, licks and shreds. II will once again be “classic” California Old-School Hardcore with loads of parts remindung us off bands like the Dead Kennedys. Michael tells us about the creation of the songs, who does what and joins when along in the process and he doesn’t spend much time on the Pacific Highway even though one might assume him to do. This interview was a hell of a lot of fun to do and we hope that comes across for all of you!

Our 150th video of course demanded for something special, something broadening our horizons and so we were happy to broaden our knowledge of the scene in Singapore and Malaysia by talking to Singaporean heroes Paint the Sky Red whose new record Tamat (out via Moment of Collapse Records), and the title means “finished” in English. It is also to be their last record. Why? Well, the guys have a very good reason for that and we can be happy, because it does not imply the end of the band. How can that be, you ask? Well, you only have to listen to this short but really good interview with the guys! You will witness a band that is serious about their band but that also likes to laugh and give us a good impression on the Post-scene in (Southeastern) Asia. Enjoy the interview!

This week we somewhat go full cycle as we talk with the first person to give us an interview (a written one that is, or was back in 2021) - Josh Graham. The focus of our conversation is his new band Guitless with Sasha from Intronaut, Billy from Generation of Vipers and his bandmate from A Storm of Light, Dan. Interestingly, one of these guys was willing and keen to switch instruments and even funnier is the fact that the four guys haven’t been in one room at the same time. That again, naturally, has implications for their songwriting process. Their debut EP Thorns will be released via Neurot Recordings on February 23. We also talk about the name of the band and the question whether people are guiltless or not, so you see there is also some really deep talk going on here, which is a result of Josh being such an easy person to talk with and him giving such well-versed answers. We also talk about ideas for a tour which at first glance seems unlikely given the schedule of these guys, but as the first full-length is already in preparation nothing seems unlikely for Guiltless! Enjoy!

We are closing in on the release of the last video we did for Consouling Sounds’ live event, but before we present you with the last one in a few weeks, we have another smasher for you. OVTRENOIR!

OVTRENOIR is the brainchild of William Lacalmontie and involves some other people from the circles surrounding Throane in Paris which again is in some way affiliated with the Church of Ra revolving around Amenra. The quartet has released a very special Consouling Sounds-release: SOUL0150, the 150th number in Consouling Sounds SOUL-series, was their full-length debut Fields Of Fire and it surely says a lot if one’s record is the anniversary release for such an established label.

Therefore it was an honor for us to get a chance to talk to Dehn and Angeline about the band, their sound, their roots and much more. And we are very glad we can share all of that with you.

Today marks the second “birthday” of Veil of Sound and yes, we could not be prouder – you have shown this little baby so much love, given us so much positive feedback, spread the word about us: Therefore, of course we want to give back something special. How do we do that? By giving you an interview with a legend, none other than the mighty Minuteman himself, Mike Watt!

Mike is a jack-of-so-many-trades. He is a force on the bass as we all know, right? But did you know that he is also having his own show on the web doing the same thing we do here? You all know the Minutemen, but did you also know that he was in fIREHOSE? That he played with Flipper, J Mascis, Porno for Pyros and the Stooges? And those are just a few of his many musical endeavors! Now he has a new project – Spirit of Hamlet together with Makoto Kawabata (from Acid Mothers Temple), Scotty Irving (Clang Quartet), and Benjy Johnson who is a highly prolific songwriter, producer and musician. The result is special in any conceivable way – you get Jazz, Punk, Avantgarde and much more and yet, it all sounds pretty organic in and of itself. Therefore we were happy and excited to get to talk with Mike about the new project. And during the talk, we got to see how meaningful, pensive and foreshadowing “Shakespeare” was. Enjoy!

A few years ago, Chris (Heads., formerly also in The Ocean), Nic (Heads., formerly also in Eisenvater) and Felix (Hansen Band, Home of the Lame, live-keyboarder for Einstuerzende Neubauten) formed a new band which after a few days was named ZAHN and who struck us (especially Stephan and Thorsten) with their instrumental sound somewhere between Post-Punk, Krautrock (only in attitude), Noise-Rock and many highly delectable elements. Their first self-titled record already received high praise by our head-honcho, but their second record Adria even more so, both records are out via Crazysane Records. Therefore, of course we needed to get an interview with the band and Felix took an hour off (on a Saturday!!) and spoke with us about the band, the records being different stages of a love-relationship, the development of the band and the sound. If you want to know why Morricone is (again) a major influence on a band and much more, then you will enjoy this interview!

Picture by John Van de Mergel (brothersinraw.com)

On a Thursday night in late April, which was quite chilly by then, three guys from three different countries (Finland, the USA and Germany) are standing outside a tent at Holland’s Roadburn Fesitval listening to a Belgian band play music that sounds like from the Middle East (Syria?) mixed with a bit of Jazz and lots of Psychedelic. The band? Wyatt E. The guys? Joe, Martin and me. The experience? Mind-blowing. Veil of Sound HAD to get an interview with the guys!

Even months after the release of āl bēlūti dārû (you can find our review here), the record gets spun here a lot, because the record is mesmerizing, enchanting and haunting - and all of that in a literal sense! We were very fortunate to sit down with Sébastien and talk about the concept behind the band, the prejudices of cultural appropriation the band has to face at times, his non-knowledge of Jazz and why he loves Roadburn Festival so much! Enjoy!

A few years back it was still unthinkable to combine black metal (or death metal for that matter) with a typical jazz instrument like the Saxophone. Nevertheless, this is 2022 and bands like White Ward, Gold Spire, Rivers of Nihil and Imperial Triumphant have turned it into a musically completely accepted instrument within the realms of hard music. Imperial Triumphant might be the most adventurous of those aforementioned bands because their roots are definitely not metal-only but very wide-spread as is their music. Thus an interview with their singer is a really treat for us. Imperial Triumphant seem to be one of those bands that are able to get away with anything - because they never strife for amazement, but rather for sound and for their artistic vision. Thus a collaboration with Kenny G is only unexpected at first glance; nevertheless, thinking it through, it makes perfect sense! That the band is also highly influenced by their home New York City, by movies, by legends and tales of old and new - all of that and more is part of our interview, so enjoy!

Nightmarer is a pretty young band compared to some of the projects and people we have on here regularly, think of Dirk Serries or Mike Watt, but the international band spread out across two continents and roughly 5,000 miles. Nevertheless, Nightmarer have released some pretty good album and their last one, Deformity Adrift (check out our review here) is a sensational lesson in how good dissonant Tech-Death can be. Reason enough for us to sit down and chat with Simon, the mastermind behind the project! Enjoy!

Whenever people are firstly confronted with this kind of music, most of them are being pushed away by the dissonance - but after some time and spinning some of the records associated with the genre, some might get a knack for it. Simon, who also runs the highly successful label (Total Dissonance Worship) and who started a pretty well-known Spotify playlist a few years ago, seems to be one of the most relaxed dudes I have ever met, but one can also feel how much time, love and energy he is putting into all of his projects! We were fortunate to talk about all of that, about how he moved from Tampa to the Pacific Northwest and much more. Enjoy the conversation!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

(Picture by: Paul A Ouzounov)

Johnny Cash’s “Hurt“. Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love“. Jimi Hendrix‘ “All Along The Watchtower“. But also Travis‘ “Baby One More Time“. Type-O-Negative’s “Cinnamon Girl“. Clem Snide’s ”Beautiful” Or even worse, The Calling’s ”London Calling”. U2’s ”Fortunate Son”. Limp Bizkit’s ”Faith”. Yes, I know that you know – all of these are cover versions. Of course you, as the title to this special already implies. Today we want to have a look at cover versions and what makes them good or when do they turn sour? There is also a cause for us to do so, the release of a really great EP by some friends of ours. Årabrot from Scandinavia, whose Heart-EP is out today. We have a lot of goodies, so just move along and enjoy! 

When we heard about Kjetil and Karin doing an EP full of cover versions it manifested right before our eyes - ’We gotta do a bit more than just a review, we gotta dissect the art of cover versions!’ Well, of course the ONE question always connected to cover versions is a simple and simultaneously most difficult one – what is a good cover version? Must it be a complete homage not changing too much, like Peter Gabriel did it with The Magnetic Fields’ classic ”The Book Of Love” or the Faith No More cover of ”Easy” (which only differs in that remarkable ”uuurrghhhhhhhnnn” moaner Patton gives at 1:54)? If covering artists want to show their respect for a song which, in their opinion, is perfect – then this way is the way. Listen to Nirvana’s version of the Bowie-classic ”The Man who Sold the World” and you can hear that the only thing they changed is the tuning more or less. Nevertheless, the track gains a completely unknown quality when performed by Kurt Cobain who at that point already had suicidal tendencies. And to make it clear, even if a band like In Flames covers Genesis’ ”Land of Confusion” there is not that much of a change, in my opinion, only because they riff it out much harder, speed it up one notch and switch the vocals into Melo-Death-mode. It’s basically the same structure just in a different notion. A good cover, even if it is not a real change to the song; however, converting a song’s genre is not always easy, because the novelty factor only goes such a long way.

Curbeaters. Hellström. Planks. Ultha. Four bands who share one member: Ralph Schmidt, one of these walking encyclopedias of underground music. And now there is a fifth band that one must reckon with: Ropes of Night, Ralph's latest project.

No matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean one is talking about, Ralph will know it. Doing an interview with him is easy, because he knows what he is talking about and always has great bands to talk about. For this interview we concentrated on his band Ropes of Night, that just released the Post-Punk record of the year!

When I first got talking with Ralph some time ago I had the impression of a person who is very clear in his ways, aesthetics, politics and ethics. One of his main points is that no person is apolitical, no matter how hard one can claim to be. His bands and their output are usually as clearcut and as clearly divided as his personal morals and beliefs are. Upon hearing that he wanted to do a Post-Punk record, my initial thought was that this way a deviation from his usual path. But the first few beats and parts of Impossible Space wiped those thoughts away with a powerful bodyslam. And it also becomes clear that this is another stone in the mosaic of Ralph's puzzle of dark music, when watching the highly entertaining Video-Interview with him here or when listening to the audio-version of it on Spotify.

Black Metal itself is a highly paradox genre right? It’s always been connected to both - furor and melancholy. Musically, Atmospheric Black Metal represents that probably best, and one upcoming Atmospheric Black Metal band from the Northeastern USA (aka New England) that does that brilliantly is Eave. As we were proud to host a video premiere for them some weeks back, we are even happier that we got a chance to talk to Brian and hear some of his thoughts.

Brian is a pretty reflective guy and so his answers come out well-versed and clear cut, which is always nice for an interviewer who was a bit sleepy at the time of recording. We talked a lot about the record (out on Bindrune Recordings), the video we were able to host, the dichotomy within modern Black Metal and to what extent the band’s surroundings in New England influenced their sound and songs. Enjoy the interview and make sure to check out their album!

A year ago, we started a series which, by its design, was hard to keep going so we were aware that there would be bigger gaps between the editions of this “series” but here we are now with its fourth installment - our “Bands interviewing Bands” - series. This time we have the pleasure of getting Aaron Charles and Jordan Guerette together, who play together in Falls of Rauros but who interviewed each other on their side projects - Aaron’s Psychedelic Black Metal project Rhûn and Jordan’s apocalyptic Chamber music ensemble Forêt Endormie. Of course, head honcho Thorsten also had a few questions for both guys but each came up with mighty cool questions for the FoR-bandmate. In our interview, we also talk about the importance of these projects for Falls itself, about Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time and about Stephen King, the literary icon of the guys’ homestate, Maine. Enjoy the reviews on both outfits’ recent releases as well as the interview!

Many great albums take time to take shape and to see the light of day, and such is the case of Rhûn’s Conveyance in Death. Not only does great music take time, but this album takes inspiration from things that are very relatable to the human condition: self-determination, solitude and ephemerality. It has many layers, blending of Black Metal with Death Metal and Psychedelia elements, that make this a great listen.

Rhûn was born back in 2021 and was formed by Aaron Charles, one of the founding member of Falls of Rauros. The album came out after three years and also features Ray Capizzo on session drums. Conveyance in Death is a self-released album with six tracks and the physical copies are available by House of Inkantation. This album is very different from the Atmospheric Black Metal elements that can be found in Falls of Rauros, but has its own unique sound, making this a different entity that takes various elements that give this album very distinctive and unique layers.

The opening track “Morningstar” has an eerie start, giving the listener goosebumps before the drums and the voice, which sounds like a call from the grave, breaks that slow groovy start. The raw sound will be something that will be constant throughout this album. The guitar playing on this track almost sounds like a wailing that resonates deep within one’s soul. “Tomb of Andesite” has a fast, bone shattering start and keeps that relentless sound until the end. Two tracks deep into this album and you know it will have no respite, it will keep the listener engaged, will keep one peeling off all of those mesmerising and heavy layers. My favourite track of Conveyance in Death is “Bone Ornament”, which sums up the essence of this album: amazing drumming, spine-chilling voice, and the beautiful guitar parts that make Rhûn’s album exceptional. There are moments during this track that almost feel like it allows the listener to breathe and take in all of the slow moments, only to grip you back into its fierce hold. “Howl of Gleaming Swords” and “Citadel in Ruin” keep that beautiful groove and heaviness in Conveyance in Death, that can definitely move you and discover a different element within the album’s sound. “Night’s Glacial Passing” brings the record to a magnificent finish, like a triumphant farewell. It gives this album a great conclusion. From start to finish, Conveyance in Death provides a beautifully crafted heavy sound that only makes you feel grateful that, after this album was dormant for some years, it got released and we got to fully experience it.

So, this is the weekend of our first birthday. Veil of Sound was launched on April 23rd and what should we say – we want to party! We gave you premieres (wait n see), we gave you some great reviews and now we want to give you an interview – once in a while on a Saturday. And you might even know the man… … because it is none other than Stephen O’Malley whom you might know from being one of the founders of Southern Lord Recordings, having been in bands like Thor’s Hammer, Burning Witch or a little band that he co-founded with Greg Anderson called Sunn O)))! It was an honor of speaking with Stephen and finding out about when he first got some good gear, how important the band is to him and which role he has in Southern Lord. It was a real pleasure to also find out about the fine humor inherent in Sunn O))) and their songs.

Stephen Brodsky should be a household name in our realms because he’s been in famous bands for close to 30 years - Cave-In, Converge (YES! for a very short time), Droneflower, Old Man Gloom and Mutoid Man to drop a few. His voice and his guitar playing has flavored many of our most beloved records. The last band, Mutoid Man, has released a new record called Mutants a few weeks ago. You can check out our review here, but for us here at VoS that’s not enough, so we talked to Stephen about the new songs, the influences on Mutoid Man and much more.

Mutants is the band’s third full-length (not counting a few shorter releases, including 2014’s Helium Head) but comes after a few years’ silence. We find out what led to this short break, why Stephen loves Prince, which Van Halen album he prefers and why. We talk comics and Indiana Jones and to what extent Mutoid Man is a “fun band”. Enjoy the interview!

Shirts of the day: Prince and Mastodon

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Brefj​æ​re by Spurv. A record like a mammoth-like mountainous superb soundscape. Most people who have listened to the record are gently overwhelmed by it because its sound is wonderfully melancholic and still sparkling like an icey diamond from beyond the Arctic circle hewn out of the mountains and then frozen in the waters surrounding Tromsø. Many people have placed this record on their lists for 2023 and well, righteously so: There is a lot of luminiscence in the tracks on the record and that surely has to do with the concept behind the record which is a communication between “participants” that usually cannot speak. We spoke with Gustav about the influence of the nature around him on the music, the concept behind the songs, the staging aspect of it all and much more. Enjoy the interview and do not forget to check out our first three interviews of this marathon and to check back tomorrow!

Scream is one of these iconic bands that we all heard about when we were young, apart from our walking encyclopedia Knut, who probably witnessed many of the DC Hardcore bands back in his 20s and 30s, but for the regular people among us the early DC years and the bands that came from that area and which were on Dischord or later on Jade Tree are legendary. Minor Threat, State of Alert, Scream - the latter even released the first full-length ever on Dischord. Now they’re back! With a new full-length! With collaborations galore and with great songs! And … with enough time on Pete Stahl’s hands to sit down and talk with us about many, many things! Enjoy another interview with a “living legend”!

The latter is a term that Pete doesn’t like and he explains why in this interview, but we also talk about the variability of songs, moods and genres on DC Special. He also explains why the record is neither only a reflection of our times nor only a trip down nostalgia lane. He explains his love for Dead Kennedys and even why he - a DC guy - now likes the Dodgers and which kind of music he likes to listen to when going on a hike. Enjoy these more than 50 minutes with a man who has played with the Sunn O))) guys, with most of the Desert Sessions folks and even with someone Pete more or less discovered, a guy called Dave Grohl - might have heard about him, guy might make it big one day.

 So we are pretty sure you enjoyed our interview marathon between XMas and New Years - if not check our YouTube Channel for those conversations with Jarboe, Sunflo’er, Dale Crover, drowse and Noah Landis (Tension Span)! nonetheless, that marathon is over, it’s a new year and we got a new format for you, which we will try to bring frequently but irregularly - two bands interviewing each other. And how awesome is this first edition with Brutus and Psychonaut?! Two Belgian bands who released mindblowing albums late last year and now we got them here on together on our channel!

Yeah that’s right, they will interview each other and we will be hosting those sessions. So, those bands should be kinda interested in each other and take some time to come up with questions for each other. Of course, we also ask a few questions, but only a very few to make sure these bands get to know what they want to know.

In order to kickstart a format, one should have a great first edition. We think we got one of the most interesting combos possible at the moment: Two bands from mighty Belgium, two bands that know each other pretty well and who also got highly interesting questions for each other. If you want to know how well-connected they are, when they first shared a stage and what drives both bands - check out this brilliant interview - Brutus x Psychonaut, ladies and gentlemen!

We always try to give you something different here on the VoS, so we are very happy to have this interview with Thomas Alkärr for you. Thomas who? Thomas is a scholar who has curated a very important exhibition in Oslo called “Bad Vibes” which focused on the Norwegian Black Metal scene of the early 90s and how it affected Norwegian society and how it was affected by it vice versa. In this interview we talk about the exhibition, the surprises Thomas encountered and also how the exhibition was laid out. Of course we also talk about the music, its sources, influences but also the effects it had on the global (Black Metal) scene. To make it clear, we also talk about the artist formerly known as Kristian and the crimes connected to the scene back at the beginning of the 90s, so if you do not want to listen us talk about those topics, you might want to skip this interview and enjoy one of our many other ones. At the end Thomas also has to through our infamous quickfire round which is centered around Norway and its bands, projects etc.

Dichotomy. Paradox. Contrast. All words that synonymously could be used to talk about the difference between the Indie-poppy music on Constant Smiles’ new album Kenneth Anger which will be released at the beginning of March. Bundled up together with the circumstances revolving around charismatic frontman Ben Jones this record gave us the perfect opportunity to talk with him. Enjoy!

When listening to Constant Smiles new record, one might at first listen not notice the strong contrast between the seemingly happy sounds and the introvert, thoughtful lyrics. But digging deep into the latter will make you realize that not everything is as shiny as it may look at first spin. This was one of the most important things for Thorsten to talk about when interviewing Ben, but it surely wasn’t the only thing. Enjoy our newest interview!

Initially we set out to take a break from releasing all these incredible interview for August, but when the opportunity arose for me to interview Jan Hoffmann of Long Distance Calling, I just could not resist and had to release this short but very interesting talk. 

Jan and I talked about their new album Eraser which is out on Friday via Ear Music (you can expect my review of it tomorrow afternoon), how it felt for LDC releasing two albums without touring in between, the inspiration behind their shift in their musical style and much more. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did conducting it. 

You can expect more insightful interviews from September on and you can rest assured, that we have some really incredible stuff in our pockets.

 Guess who’s back, back again - VoS is back, tell your friend! Yeah, that’s right, we are back from our little summer break with another interview we are really proud of: Terence Hannum from Locrian gave us a lot of interesting and thoughful insight into how the band works, why there was such a long break and much more!

Who would have guessed that the way the band works is pretty visual, or that Terence has a lot to say about Florida Hardcore, or what is a good reason for him to have moved away from Chicago. Terence is a highly knowledgeable person with lots of interests and things for sure, and if you have Locrian for a while you should be aware that the band surely has a certain way of looking at things, social developments and our evolution as a society. Of course we spent a lot of time talking about their latest record New Catastrophism, which our own Dan reviewed here.

Enjoy this mighty entertaining podcast episode and be sure to check out all the other awesome interviews we already have online for you and in the upcoming weeks for more high-quality content!

For the Post.Lyon festival a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to chat with Erik and Eric from Lòdz.

We interviewed several bands for our collaboration with the masterminds behind Post.Lyon Online Festival which took place last May, one of them was Lòdz. In case you missed the awesome livestream, you now have the chance to rewatch our interview. We talked about how they rehearsed with their new drummer, how the pandemic has affected them and much more.

It is always a pleasure to talk with Scandinavian acts, because most of them are very humble and easy to talk to, even if they are really important in their own little scene. Talking to Niklas Åström, the drummer behind ef, Sweden’s elegant powerhouse of sparkling post-rock with a lot of glittering appeal, just confirmed that, because even though he might be aware that his band is a point of reference nowadays, he never shows it. Thence, this interview was nothing but a pure pleasure! Whenever listening to any ef-record it becomes quite clear that the guys have a knack for writing catchy melodies without sacrificing their classiness or elegance for it. That can also be said about the new one We Salute You, You and You!, coming up on Friday, November 4 via Pelagic Records. You will all be amazed by the record and its diversity. Niklas talked to us about that new record, the effect Covid had on the band (you will be surprised!), their roots in a quite different musical genre and why he prefers AC/DC over Busta Rhymes! Enjoy!

There are records that are personal because we “make” them personal, by listening to the songs and the story and we associate a lot of our individual history and experience with it until the two things - record and experience - blend into one thing. To me, Great Falls released such a record like this a few weeks ago. Our man Knut wrote a great review on it (here you can read it) and he was a struck by the record as I was. Both of us thought it would be grand to get an interview with one of the guys and we were more than lucky, all three sat down with us!

Great Falls has been a very productive band other the years but their body of work is not only of a high quantity level, but also high on quality which is of course even more important. We talk with the guys about the new record, its story, why Damian is such a workaholic when it comes to being an arts and craft kind of guy. We also learned that one of the legendary short stories of Ernest Hemingway is just that - a legend. And we talk a lot about Hardcore, Noise, and which of the guys broke his arm on stage! Enjoy!

See You Next Tuesday is one of these bands which should be huge, but unfortunately the world is not a just place, so we have to push them more. So that finally, there will be more people noticing how cool their songs and how hard their soundscapes are! Therefore - enjoy this interview with one of the band members! When we got the chance to talk to Drew, I was very happy, because I liked their new album Distractions a lot (as you can see via this review) and the mix of many different styles of hard, guitar-based music incorporating a lot of noise so that one of the many possible comparisons for this record might be KEN mode. But if you want to find out more about See You Next Tuesday - enjoy our interview with Drew!

Whoever has listened to Stygian Bough, the side-project of Funeral Doom masterminds Bell Witch has also read the name Erik Moggridge at one point or another. Early this year, Erik released another full-length under his usual stage moniker, Aerial Ruin. It contains many points that should be talked about, amongst them a 21-minute folk-song (!), and thus we did exactly that and are really proud of being able to give you this interesting video interview with him. Enjoy!

Loss Seeking Flame (here you can find our review of it) is remarkable in the way it was written and in how the vocals were arranged because very often we do not here ONE Erik, but many Eriks. How? Well, you gotta listen to this interview to find out. And yes, this is a bit outside our usual Post-Rock and Post-Metal realms, but Aerial Ruin also represents perfectly what we are striving for: Shedding light on music one should pay attention to if not wanting to stick to the same same, over and over again. And one thing is for sure: You will be hard-pressed to find a record with a better arrangement of the vocals this year than Loss Seeking Flame. But now - enjoy our conversation with Erik Moggridge aka Aerial Ruin!

What a year it has been for modern Hardcore. There were some really amazing newcomers like Sunflo'er or The Callous Daoboys. We had some good or even mindblowing comebacks like The Mars Volta, City of Caterpillar or Gospel. (you can find out for yourself, which is the "good" one in that trilogy while the other two are mindblowing.) And that were just two ends of a year that also gave us records by Stray from the Path, Counterparts, STYG or Be Well. We are more than happy to have an interview with my favorite "Hardcore-Comebackers" of 2022 - Gospel!
Gospel is a phenom, they make highly complex music without sounding nerdy. They love "Prog Rock antiquity" (;-) and yet don't come off as simple clones. True New Yorkers one doesn't get that whiff of slight arrogance that sometimes comes with bands from the Big Apple. The guys have turned old but somehow still seem more than teenagers. All throughout this interview (which unfortunately also has one computer fail in the middle which you will notice, but cutting was not an option!) I had the feeling of talking to friends from way back in the day, with no real problem of picking up where we left. Friendly fellows who are more than happy to talk about their band, its history, their love for (early) Genesis and how they got back together to release the most amazing Progressive Hardcore record of 2022!

There are bands who make a record every two years and others publish one full-length a year. There are more productive bands and there is Fucked Up, a band with more than 100 releases to their name. One guy that was in it for all of these is founding member Mike Haliechuk who also writes most of the stuff - also for the latest record One Day, which shows yet another side of the Canadian Hardcore band! 

Fucked Up is a band of contrasts - on the one hand they are Prog-Rockers who know how to create Punk -songs, on the other they are true Punkers who use Prog-melodies. But not just that, they use elements from so many other genres, just listen to the EP preceeding One Day: The three songs on Oberon had Sludge, Doom and Synthwave elements. And on the latest full-length they show a true understanding of Pop-Punk or College Rock, and their singer Damian has never sounded so much like Dicky Barrett from the Bosstones. All of that and so much were things that Mike and Thorsten spoke about. Enjoy this not-fucked-up-interview at all!

A few weeks ago we had an interview with Billy Gould and in that one we mentioned this awesome band called Sleepbomb whose latest record is out via Billy’s Koolarrow Records in collaboration with our Belgian besties in Consouling Sounds. The record is really amazing and you should all listen to The Cabinet of Dr. Galigari and therefore we are really happy to have this interview with their bassist and synth player Tim who explained their approach to songwriting and their love for movies and much more!

One should not mistake the folks in Sleepbomb for artsy-fartsy movie geeks who dig only the French or Polish avantgarde or the Eastern European classics or the latest Korean cuts - they also love to do scores for pretty popular movies like Conan or for one of the most famous German movies of all times, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The latter is their last release and one must admit that they have a really great way of scoring a 100 years old movie but do not sound in any way old-fashioned or anything. Brilliant! Unforgettable! Splendid!

You can order your copy of the album from Koolarrow Records and from Consouling Sounds - but now let’s find out what Tim has to say!

Photo by EKATERINA GORBACHEVA

If one asks 1,000 post-metal fans to give us five post-metal bands one of the most frequently mentioned ones would surely be Russian Circles. As the trio is soon releasing their next studio full-length named Gnosis we knew we had to get a chance to talk to the band. Luckily bass player Brian Cook had time to talk with us!

In a few days the new album by American Post-metal-masters Russian Circles will be hitting the shelves. Gnosis has a lot of the elements we all came to love by the trio which was formerly based in Chicago and is now spread all other the US. We had the chance to sit down with Brian and talk about the new record, song titles, a new approach to songwriting, how he doesn’t really remember officially joining the band and much more. Enjoy this new episode of the VoScasts!

PS: We are terribly sorry for the bad audio quality which seems a problem on our end. But it should still be good for lots of info!

Loud as Giants is a collaboration which has been a long time coming, because they have had a mutual love for the other’s work for decades: Justin K. Broadrick and Dirk Serries. Their debut full-length “Empty Homes” can see seen as a perfect example of what happens, when two well-experienced and highly-skilled musicians work together with a mututal respect for the contributions of the other. Their four songs (combining for more than 46 minutes of music!) are wonderfully melancholic pieces between Ambient, Post-Rock, Industrial and even Shoegaze! Hence we simply had to talk to Dirk and get some more background information, on how they met, how the project developed and what is has got to do with the Pandemic! Enjoy the interview!

Empty Homes and the melancholic magic of its four tracks was surely not a surprise, when remembering the two highly skilled musicians behind the project. Whatever Dirk and Justin touch has a certain quality to it that is hard to resist, for whichever reason - be it because of their sheer talent or the definite sound or musicality - many people automatically place their ears next to their speakers in order not to miss anything. Therefore we are sure that many people will be really excited to hear more about the project from Dirk himself! Enjoy!

This is an interview which might have been the longest in the making. Roughly a year ago, Ghost Bath released their latest album Self Loather (review here) and we were really taken with it. Therefore we are more than happy that we now finally got the chance to talk with one of the guys behind the project to talk a lot of things - including the way the music works for them and is created in a way that at least the interviewer would not have imagined!

By definition, a ‘ghost bath’ is a specific way of taking one’s own life, with the remaining body being drowned and thus looking like a ghost. However, when talking with a member of one of the American DSBM bands, namely Ghost Bath, it would be much too easy to only focus on that topic, as Tim has much more to talk about. Thus we touched upon which kind of music he likes to listen to, how Self-Loather is the end of a trilogy and how much of it was written and created during the pandemic. Among other things!

We must be clear - Liturgy are a band that has been redefining heavy music in general and especially Black Metal for years. With every new release they have been pushing boundaries and interwoven different tunings, different styles and even different genres into their colossal walls of sound. As they will be visiting Copenhagen next weekend and as the new record is simply neck-twisting and mind-blowing we were more than happy to get a chance to talk to Haela. Enjoy!

Surprise! Everyone who has been keeping a close eye on our A Colossal Weekend special will have been surprised to find this one atop of that page as well! Unannounced and unashamed! This interview was one of the most interesting ones which I was looking forward to for a long time, as I have been in love with Liturgy’s records for quite a while now, because their music has changed my perspective on Black Metal quite a bit. Their new record 93696 is a sure shot for my Top15 this year and I have nothing but love to offer in my review. We talked about the new record, Thelema, personal development, the joy of being in this band and much, much more!

Damnation festival should need no introduction to anyone interested in heavy music festivals in the UK. From it's humble beginnings it has blossomed (through a lot of hard work, it must be said) to become Europe's largest indoor metal festival catering to 6000 music fans. The engagement to the festival goers from it's creator Gavin McInally is legendary. And we were beyond happy to sit down with Gavin to talk all things Damnation festival.

The first day of the year is always the final day of our interview marathon and just like last year we like to go out on a bang! And just like last year we want to end with an interview partner who would be much too humble to accept his importance: Noah Landis who played a huge part in the Gilman Street scene in the 80s, when bands like Samiam, Green Day and his most famous one - Neurosis - shared the stage very frequently. Noah has a new project, Tension Span, which we already reviewed here, and thus we had a lot to talk about!

With 91 minutes this is one of our longest interviews ever, this is an interview for the ages. Noah’s new band is mighty interesting and so we focused on its songs somewhere between Industrial, Noise-Rock, Post-Punk and a tinge of New Wave attitutde. Other topics were his love for literature, his philantrophy and so much more. Enjoy our last interview for this marathon and, if you want to, give us node to who you’d like to be involved in our next marathon, starting on Christmas Eve!

[Photo Credit: Jorin Bukosky]

Day 5, marathon midterm and today we touch royalty. Because today’s interview partner, Dale Crover, has worked with: Mike Patton. King Buzzo. Kurt Cobain. And these are just a few of the names he’s worked with. Starting out in the Pacific Northwest and leaving with King Buzzo from there right before Seattle exploded, he also left behind a band he used to play in you might know: Nirvana. But hey, being one of only two constant members of The Melvins ain’t so bad either, huh? We talked with him about the new Melvins record, the band itself, his relation to Buzz and so much more.

When talking to Dale, one does not have the feeling as if he is talking to somebody who was in so many bands and projects with so many famous people and musicians, artists and vocalists. Why? Because if there is one thing Dale certainly ain’t, it’s arrogant. He is a funny, regular guy when talking to you pretty openly about how the new record came to be, what it is like to be a part of the Melvins for so long, that he seemingly understands Buzz blindfoldedly and how it feels to be 69th best drummer in the world (according to a certain magazine, that doesn’t know anything)! Enjoy folks!

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

Pyrkagion is one of these bands which at the moment are still a bit of an underground band, which is surprising as its members have some pretty famous “main bands” - think of Hissing and Bell Witch! But the most important reason why they are not gonna remain such an underground thing for long is their music: Black Metal in a kind of traditional sense without trying to emulate Trve Scandinavian Black Metal. And this music (you can check out our review here) is so much that we sought the opportunity to talk to Dylan again, who is one wonderful interview partner and if you listened to our interview (with Bell Witch) you will know what you are up for now. We sat down, talked about the record, its background and how Dylan had to learn a new instrument and also which book he prefers Dune or The Lord of The Rings. Enjoy!

Mizmor has released his fourth full-length called Prosaic and has taken a new approach trying to not let a new record become an obsession, not trying to go for a full-fledged overarching theme. Nevertheless, this record is simply great, magnificent, superb, whichever positive adjective you wanna give it. In order to find out more about the process, the record and its place within his oeuvre, we talked with ALN. We’re very happy to give you this interview and we hope it makes your listening even more interesting and enjoyable (YES!)!

“Suffer less, have more fun” is one of the key lines in this interview with Mizmor, because he has found a very good point within himself, which allows him to let go of songs and structures. We talk a lot about ALN’s present and in which way it is reflected in the music; we also talk about the record’s title and how it also deals into the tracks. The daily life has a much more prominent position in ALN’s life and thus in Mizmor’s music. A highly introspective, valuable interview if you ask our head honcho, we give you our hour with ALN!

Shirts of the day: Tolkien and Mastodon

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Bar McKinnon is one of those guys who are first off well-versed in so many things music that it seems as if they can talk about anything and everything all at once anywhere and everywhere. However, secondly, he might be the most energetic and enthusiastic guys you might meet out there - one can feel the Zoom connection beaming and gleaming when he starts to give a detailed answer. Why do we talk to him? Well, Umlaut, Teleorkestra and Bungle!

Bar McKinnon is a multi-instrumentalist with a strong focus on the saxophone and as he is very versatile and a virtuoso it might have been a match-made in weirdo heaven when he joined Mr Bungle a few decades ago. One can hear his skills on the band’s first three published full-lengths and he even wrote a few songs and parts on each album. After the millenium he left the band and started several projects one of them being Umlaut, an avantgarde jazz-pop band which released a few things here and there and who are surely a force to listen to. As they just released a new single (see beneath), we are very happy to have him on the show in order to talk pop music, subversity and more! Enjoy!

If you want to support VeilofSound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Photo credit: Bailey Judd

Yes, you are seeing correctly, Toby Driver! We go out of 2023 with a bang! Toby Driver is one of these few artists who can connect Black Metal fans, Jazzers, Avantgardists and people from various other far-apart genres because he has that understanding of music that reaches beyond genres, sounds and structures. Something that some people might call avantgarde in the sense of “letting the song dictate where it goes” but for Toby that is not what the term stands for. And therefore we focused on that notion, that term - “Avantgarde”. In what turned out to be a totally improvised interview we found out a lot about it, in my opinion. Check out this in-depth interview with Toby and remember - we go out with a bang, we go in with a bang, so be sure to check back tomorrow!

On Friday Ultha released their latest record - AOTY-material if anyone asks me - and it's a record that demands attention for all its glory. And of course we were honored, when Ralph suggested we could do the only video interview for it, one of only two interviews for the record. Not because of exclusive-ness but because the album is great and offers so much we can and must talk about! 

All That Has Never Been True is one of those records which come around not too often, and for a band like Ultha to release such an opus magnum after some turbulent years, a near-split, several new projects by the members of the band and of course, in the middle of this pandemic: This is a glorious return to form and there have been several voices who say that this is the band's best record to date. But there is so much more to talk about. So don't worry if your computer is broken, when it says that the length of the interview is over 90 (!) minutes - great things demand for a lot of attention to detail! Enjoy the video-interview or the podcast but most all - enjoy All That Has Never Been True!

It isn’t always fun to see what people really look like behind their masks, because sometimes they simply disappoint and are not scary enough (think of many wrestling fans) or not sexy enough (Kiss) or some other things. With Tommy Meehan that’s not the case - the guy is as hilariously funny as the masks of his project Squid Pisser. And he is now a (touring) member of a certain small masked extreme metal band from Virginia that you might have heard about - GWAR? On the eve of the Super Bowl (a few hours before kick-off) our head honcho Thorsten sat down with Tommy and talked about everything related to his new project - be it artwork, the live-band and much more including the question “Why the heck release two very closely related things on the same date?!?!” Enjoy our talk!

Grails have just released a new record and it is more than awesome, as you can already see by our review. The band has always been hard to grasp, but one thing never seems to change and that’s the high quality of their output. We spoke with Emil Amos, one of the two band leaders, about Anches en Maat (check out our review here) and much more especially about the love for movie sounds. Enjoy!

Can one understand modern music without the classics and the stuff that came before you? Isn’t that one of those huge questions and one that we spoke about with Emil, who also is a part of OM (don’t worry, we also spoke about that band with him!). We went very deep and even have found some political notions in the new record, spoke about some of the greatest ever to play and of course also a lot about the new record, which was recorded in a way they last have done more than ten years ago. And of course, we also spoke about “intimate movies” ;-)

Post-Rock bands have a tendency to elongate songs into infinity by repeating parts over and over again - it can become boring at times. Therefore it is pretty refreshing to hear a band doing Post-Rock but without these redundancies - even though there are also a lot really good ones out there who write long songs that are not redundant. One of these bands for Post-Rock lovers with short attention spans is surely jeffk from Leipzig, Germany, who has recently released their new record TAR and who were so kind to sit down with us and talk about the record and so much more!

When we were able to premiere “Fingers” from jeffk earlier this year, the reactions were as positive as we would have loved them, which was evident right from the start, because the song is just amazing. Uplifting and yet not over-the-top, heavy but not overly crushing, and performed by three musicians who each know what they are doing with their mix of Maserati and Mogwai. Who would have thought that Post-Rock is not the guys’ go-to-genre? That and so much more we found out while talking to jeffk which you will hopefully enjoy as much as the ever-growing TAR!

Wearer Of Numerous Forms is maybe the longest record in our little scene this year with more than 130 minutes in just three songs. Eremit have shown their songwriting skills and how far the songs can take them. Wait - who is directed who now? The band writing the songs or the songs directing the band? Simple answer - the story.

For several weeks, we have been spreading the word about the mesmerizing Blackened Noise Sludge scene and flood of releases that this summer is witnessing all over the place, be it the USA, the UK or Germany. Eremit from Germany’s Osnabrueck take the crown amongst these for their combination of ultra-long tracks and storytelling. Because nothing in the realm of Eremit is done with a connection to their ten-chapter-story divided into three cycles and one epilogue following the life of an hermit searching for his true home…. you see? Epic! Fantasy! Lord of the Rings-like! True vision. Therefore we are happy to shed some light on the band’s songwriting and storytelling process, what they have to do with the late Mariusz Lewandowski, how influential Tolkien was on mastermind Mo and what he thinks about creative control. A wonderful interview - thank you Mo!

If you want to support Veil of Sound, there are two ways: First of all - be a friend, tell a friend! Spread the word about our work. Second possibilty: Support us on Patreon and enjoy our interviews two days ahead of everyone else!

Picture by Seth Abrikoos

Shirts of the day: Eremit, Mastodon

There are some bands that take pride in playing 100 shows a year. Some 150. And there are bands like Hexis, who usually play somewhere around 200 shows a year. On more or less every continent. With tours that seem to take forever, their last one took them across the Americas, with only a few off-days here and there. We talked to Filip and got to learn a lot about their touring ethos and their general DIY attitude. How difficult it is to let go of control and some help from people outside the band. Who to trust and what these persons have to bring to the table. Enjoy this highly interesting interview!

“On Floating” was the first track I heard by a (to me) back then unknown Ohio-based band called The End of The Ocean. It was the first track on their third release In Excelsis which has now seen a vinyl debut via Post.Recordings featuring a new version of that mighty opener! Reason enough for us to talk with two members of the band. When talking to Wes and Tara it seems as if we are talking to good friends with whom one hasn’t spoken in a while but it easily clicks again - also because they love what they do and they love being a part of The End of the Ocean. The enthusiasm they purvey is totally natural, these are people who are in it for the love of the sound and the music. We talked a lot about In Excelsis, about the new version of On Floating, Tara’s hate for the Bengals and how they survived the pandemic as a band! Picture taken by Bee Gats

A few weeks from now, the new record by Jaye Jayle will hit the (digital) shelves and we were quite taken with it, because it fits like a glove to what we like. No, this is not Avantgarde Death Black Gothic Post-Drum’n’Bass, this is music without real borders, but for everyone who loves music for the soul. This is music in the vein of Edwards, Cohen, Johnson. Music that speaks directly to your core and that has the potential of becoming a cult classic - so you join before the hype sets in. Enjoy our interview with Evan Patterson and the many things he tells us about the record, its process and much more.

Evan is surely not anybody in our little global scene as many of his bands have become well-known: The National Acrobat, Breather Resist, Black Cross, Black Widows, Young Widows and for a few years he’s writing and publishing music as Jaye Jayle. What that name means is also explained in our interview, as well as why the new music has such a hopeful, wonderful, soulful sound in all its splendour and what Ben Chisholm has to do with it. Enjoy!

 If you need to hear one blackgaze band with female vocals, some intriguing gothic or romantic elements, a strong connection to our earthly roots and, of course, some really well-done and perfectly-written music for 2022, you might as well stop any search because Sylvaine should be it! We were lucky enough to get Kathrine Shephard onto our little show and we hope you will have as much listening to the interview as Thorsten had doing it! Kathrine has released four full-lengths under the moniker Sylvaine (pronouced correctly “Sill-venn”) and each of those is a record to hold close to your heart. Nevertheless, her latest record Nova (check out our review here) is turning into her favorite work for a lot of people because it’s strong and fragile, magical and rational, a force of nature and a perfect lullabye. It only shows what an accomplished songwriter Kathrine is - and it will be interesting to find out how these songs transfer to the stages she will play on. Until then, enjoy our interview, VoS-aficionados!

Normally we do not do something like a news segment, because we think that there are much better sites for that. However, this one is somewhat different: a few days ago, Nathan Gray posted a longer text on his socials saying that he has to speak about his inner struggles with the promotion of his last album Rebel Songs and how he has to cope with the inadequacy of the marketing compared to the record. As this is a topic that interests us a lot as well, we met up for a short special interview and talked about it all, from different angles and perspectives and in detail. We consider this short interview one of our best to date. Tell us what you think! 

Thorsten sat down with Nathan and they talked about how he thinks that the promotion for the new record did not reflect on the nature of the songs and represented only a small part of Rebel Songs. He also clearly said that it was not about blaming anyone but him as he signed off on those things. They also looked at it from a historical perspective and set the whole discussion into deep and meaningful contexts with Nathan giving us a lot of insight into his inner turmoil and the result of it all. Give this one a good listen and think about the problems of marketing and promoting records in our time and day as this is definitely something to be aware of in a time when one can spent every minute of the day listening to a song from a new record. We wish Nathan all the best for his way and we can only encourage you to listen to the record once again.

Releasing one record is surely not enough, a double album might suffice most, but how about creating two records at the same time, releasing them on the same day and make people wonder how much (or little) sleep you got during the process? Ulthar did the latter and have released one of the early forerunners for Death Metal Record of the Year with their bundle Helionomicon and Anthronomicon - reason enough to sit down with Shelby Lermo! 

Ulthar proved with their first two full-lengths, Cosmovore and Providence that they are a force to be reckoned with; and everyone who didn't should fall to the ground in adoration and proskynesis because the two new records are nothing short of the Death Metal version of highly effective love potion. Once you have opened your ears to them, they will creep into your auris interna, the inner ear, smear it full with said potion and you will want to listen to both records again and again. Not because they are highly accessible, quite the opposite, but because you will probably wish to understand what is going on. 

We were fortunate to talk with Shelby Lermo about the idea of releasing both records simultaneously, why not do it as a double album, how the band got through the pandemic and about his new home on the East Coast. He gives us a lot of wonderful insights into all of the above and so much more. Enjoy this interview as a kind of appetizer for the albums!

We could start the intro to this interview just like the last one (with Shelby Lermo) because today’s guest is about to do the very same thing - release two very different albums on the same day, on with his band hepa.titus and one with his project Dunn with Rutmanis. Veil of Sound of course took the opportunity to talk with Kevin Rutmanis. The Cows. The Melvins. Tomahawk. The Fantomas-Melvins Big Band. And so many more projects. We could have spent hours upon hours talking about all of these, but we do not want to be a nostalgia-plagued spot for looking back, but rather talk about the present and future. Kevin’s present is a band called hepa.titus which is performing a shifty, rowdy form of Noise-Rock. Additionally he will release another record with Dunn with Rutmanis, which is a free for all and free form of affairs. The fact that Kevin is one funny guy with a mighty sarcastic kind of humor only made this more entertaining. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Wanna hear an interview that I loved and hated at the same time? The conversation with Mirza from Arms and Sleepers was awesome. Deep and personal, funny and entertaining, technical and detailed. We talked a lot about Mirza’s latest record What Tomorrow Brings (out since March 1st via Pelagic Records) and how it is a reflection of his life and all the tragic things he encountered ever since leaving his home in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He has been playing shows as Arms and Sleepers for years now and has also been to the Ukraine in war times twice, once during the first Russian attack on Crimea, ten years ago, and also after the second attack that is still going on. Of course that experience also influenced his song writing and will do so in the future. Why I hated the interview? Because my connection broke down all the time, chopped up a lot of interesting thoughts and resulted in this only being an audio-interview. Nevertheless, this conversation is one of the most interesting I was allowed to do this year, so I hope you enjoy it despite the technical difficulties.

When talking about artists with a wide array of genres they cover with their different projects, one such not forget Jay Gambit from Philadelphia as his projects go from industrial and post-punk to avantgarde and experimental. Just listen to his two maybe most famous projects: Crowhurst and Executioner's Mask - so very different and yet there is one connecting thing: Jay and his voice from the grave. In light of the upcoming album by Executioner's Mask we sat down with him for one of our funniest and most intimate interviews. 

Jay is one of those music buffs who seem to know basically anything and everything, so after a very short gap of only 5 months we are having a second interview with him (the first one was at the end of 2021) but now we are, of course, focusing on the new album by EM called Winterlong which will be released next Friday and which at its core is one of the best and most versatile post-punk records of the year. As my friend Ralph always says, post-punk was never gone and when you listen to artists like Jay it also becomes pretty apparent why! This is no Bauhaus- oder Joy Division-cover band but a band pushing the boundaries and giving new impulses to the scene. And all of that because of having been in so many different projects that he now can turn to the joy of making people dance and think at the same time. 

And the fact that he did the whole interview in his robe makes it even better - will the robe ever fall? Is this the sexiest interview we'll ever do? Well, you can only find out when watching!

There have been many musical highlights this year, varying from blistering mid-covid live shows to the superb post-covid album releases. The underground music scene has had to stay strong and battle through a tough eighteen months, that tested both the creative abilities of the bands as well as the financial viability of it all. Thankfully most have ploughed through these hard times, and we are now reaping the rewards with some incredibly original and diverse albums releases. One such album is Shy, Low’s latest offering, Snake Behind The Sun which is due for release on 08-10-2021 through the mighty Pelagic Records. I’m not going to go all “review” on it here as the album write up is already available on our website if you wanna sample the fruits of their labour. And let me add, no fruit was spared in the making of this colossal release.

Day 9 - final day and what do you do for a grand finale? You go out big! And that’s what we do! Ending this marathon that started with Motorpsycho and had some of our favorite artists - there cannot be anybody but the one and only Jacob Bannon! However, we will not be talking about Converge or Wear Your Wounds too much, but rather about his art for he is one amazing artist; everyone who has looked at the Converge-record covers will know what I am talking about.

Jacob’s art is not only visible in the Converge releases but also on a lot of the early Hydra Head 7”s like Corrin, on records by Cave In, Knut or hardcore classics like American Nightmare’s self-titled record or Every Time I Die’s Hot Damn!! However to him artwork is much more than just the single visual created for it.

It is always a pleasure to interview people who enjoy that situation and I would say the best interviews are those when humour and reflection meet. That combination is not always given but with Eugene S. Robinson it really always is. This time we interviewed him about the new record by his transcontinental band Buñuel!

A few weeks ago we already reviewed Killers Like Us by Buñuel and it got rave reactions by you our readers. We have already hinted at the fact that we interviewed Eugene about the band, their name, the way they write their music! And if you want to find out how Eugene perceived the difference between American and German cops well, here you can find out!

A few weeks ago we already had a short video special when we were talking to Nathan Gray about the problems of marketing. As we said then, we will not do that regularly but every now and then. This week this special became a little longer so we decided to release it as a regular video-episode for you. We spoke to Nate Hall about the sometimes problematic constellation of a musician and a music journalist via the example of Matt Pike from High on Fire or Sleep. 

To point it out, we are not okay with misogyny, xenophobia, hate because of sex or gender, fascism and lot more things that shall not all be mentioned here. When Nate published a statement on Facebook a few weeks back this was enough for Thorsten to ask whether we should do an interview on exactly that topic and fortunately Nate agreed. Hope you like it and maybe it makes you think a little bit.

Well, well, well - didn’t we tell all you American Post-Rock aficionados to check back soon with us? Anyway, we are incredibly proud to have Shipwreck Karpathos here on the show for our first regular interview of the year. The guys have released a miraculous release called Being Human a few weeks ago through A Thousand Arms and dunk!records one couldn’t be happier about it. It is one of these records which provides a lot of things to talk about and talk we sure did.

The record is the second installment in a trilogy that started a few years back with Bring Down the Sky and which is now furthened with Scenes 8 to 14. The so-called “Pilot Trilogy” is of course one of the things we talked to with the handsome fellows, bandleader David and the latest bandmember Hank. We also talk recording specs, the influence of Emocore and Pop-Punk and also when you can hear only Jason Sissoyev from Coastlands on this record. We’re sure that you are going to like this interview and maybe give us a like here or on any of our other channels.

Locrian is not your average band, these three guys are some of the most striking genre-hoppers I have ever encountered. So many genres are on here that many different people attach many different tags to it. Many call them Post-Metal, others label them as Avantgarde Noise but when you talk to the guys and get a grasp of their vast musical influences and tastes it becomes clear that they do not care about labels, they do not restrict their listening habits to any specific genre and thus their music should not be seen that way. There is just so much to find out on their upcoming new record "End Terrain" (out on Friday, April 5th, via Profound Lore Records) that if you try to find out all the elements on these songs you might have to start thinking about mindmaps and spreadsheets in order to organize your thoughts and analyses. However, talking with Andre, Steven and Terence about the record then shows a trio that is not dead serious but really easy to talk to. We hear about their love for Shoegaze, Post-Punk, Experimental sounds and so much more! Enjoy our interview!

Band links

Locrian

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LocrianOfficial

Bandcamp: https://locrian.bandcamp.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/locrianofficial/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/3qg85LFImCJ1zIefm6urwC?si=tdEGlaRvThOi45xAfbwgvQ

Profound Lore:

Bandcamp: http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profoundlorerecords

Instagram: https://instagram.com/profoundlorerecords/

Website: https://profoundlorerecords.com/products-page/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_JwJlkjw7aeCSoYb3okn2w

Transit. Transition. Transformation. All words that share more than just the starting syllable. All also indicate a progression from one “spot” to another. Rylan Gleave has gone through such a progression which we already spoke about in our review of his debut album In Chemical Transit which took us by surprise because it plays on and with audio from three very different periods of time in Rylan’s life. Furthermore it is a literally mesmerizing record as it combines Avantgarde soundscapes with real Classical vocal lines and songs. More than enough reasons to sit down and talk to Rylan.

Rylan Gleave might be known to many of you as the live voice of Scottish Black Metal-Avantgardists Ashenspire and yet this record has only very few connections to the band’s sound apart from him. His work might be better compared to Lingua Ignota or Diamanda Galas - I dare not name any Classical singer for sheer lack of good modern singers for such arias. The three different recordings of Mozart’s “Voi che sapete cosa é amor” from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro show Rylan’s voice at three different points of his transit. When we were talking to him we found out a lot about that transition and the psychological effects connected to it, but of course we also touch on many, many other topics so you can be sure that this is one of the most interesting interviews we have done up to now. Enjoy!

Picture by Mathieu Bredeau

Jesus Lizard plus Snapcase = Unsane. One might think so, but Unsane is more than a near-indescribable mixture of Noise Rock and Punk/Hardcore. Unsane is a wqay of coping with big city life yet not leaving the city. It is a soundtrack to a city that doesn't care. And it is the child of Chris Spencer - whom we interviewed this week for you pleasure!

Okay, admittedly I am a 90s kid when it comes to music and that surely shows in my love for Unsane as this band always had a certain flair of dangerousness about it. Unsane was dangerous and scary without being silly or dumb. Their really inimitable covers are product of a love for horror and crime. Their sound was always uniquely hard and edgy, and Chris' voice is something you will not forget in all its intensity. These are some of the things, Chris and I talked about in a little over half an hour. Enjoy this new episode of the VoScasts!

There are bands who you can't be angry with even though they might overthrow any plans you might have made - Bell Witch is one of them and when thinking back on Roadburn Friday and the massively packed main stage at the 013 - it is clear that many people simply love these guys for what they do as that is massive and miraculous, powerful and poetic. Whenever Jesse and Dylan release a new record, the scene is listening and justifiedly so, thus we needed to get an interview with the guys! Enjoy! "Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate" (out on @profoundlorerecords ) might have come out of the blue when they announced it three days ahead of that RB performance and yet, it's not only the level of surprise which is exciting about these 85 minutes, but also the music itself. It is a new chapter in the band's history as it opens a trilogy of records and also as there are some small, yet really cool new features to the epic version of Doom that one should not overlook. Therefore we are happy to talk on a very, very philosophical level about "the occult", the new record, the experience at Roadburn this year, Jesse's new kit and much much more. Enjoy!