I definitely like the perspective of wanting more melody instead of being straight rhythmical aggression and syncopation but VOM only have 1 guitarist which is Marc and dude is so overlooked for his technical and creative prowess. love the reactions \m/

Nice reaction. Recently I was surprised to learn that according to LastFM, _Outsider_ was my most listened to song in 2020. I was expecting something else in that spot, probably from Haken. And yeah, I interpret and enjoy Veil of Maya as heavy-ass music that's fun to headbang with. They don't make music that's very ambitious like a Periphery or an Animals as Leaders, but I think they have some fun riffs and their current vocalist brings some memorable choruses.

The thing is this is probably some of the best they have to offer for your taste Brian. They became much more melodic and had more metal core influences and clean singing in their later work. Their old stuff is much more deathcore/meshuggah style djent influenced

Veil Of Maya are older than Periphery and Tesseract. Veil Of Maya take their name from the band Cynic, which is 90's Tech Death/Thrash/Prog weirdness

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

Pretty cool. I've heard that this sound is very different so I might explore some of their older works to see how they're evolved.

@steezydan8543

3 жыл бұрын

@@CriticalReactions Check out the song "Veil Of Maya" by Cynic, it's the first song off of their seminal album Focus

false idol is pretty solid front to back, really hit their stride. check it out

@geraltoftexas7631

3 жыл бұрын

By far their best work

@ferrisconfines

3 жыл бұрын

Really can't understand all the hate for that record, it's my favorite VOM album for sure. Guess the old deathcore fans just can't wrap their head around the clean vocals

Vildhjarta - Den Helige Anden they take the djenty meshuggah influences to the next level

@lizzieturbett7444

3 жыл бұрын

he did this one last year!!

@TopiHamalainen

3 жыл бұрын

@@lizzieturbett7444 oh nice, I've missed it. Thanks

Hard to believe this is the same Veil Of Maya that I listened to back in 2012-2013, they sound completely different now. I would say give some of their older stuff a try to hear a more technical side of them. Vicious Circles and Namaste would be some good ones.

@wyburp7970

3 жыл бұрын

Metalcore is the worst ever to search for new bands ; every band have a different sound every album going from blackmetal to pop. Took me like 1 year full time to get a good grasp of it.

@NewbPhil

3 жыл бұрын

It's really sad to see how many of these old metalcore type bands have evolved over the last decade. So many of them seemingly took the easy route and went with a simpler style, almost turning into the dadrock of this generation. I am in no way a metal elitist and I enjoy every genre from pop to shoegaze to industrial hip hop, so I hope this comment isn't taken as snobby; I just prefer that my heavy, kick-in-your-teeth bands stay heavy and continue to kick my teeth in. But damn, Veil of Maya is IMO one of the biggest disappointments from these types of bands, SO much squandered potential (especially for Mark the guitarist). Their first two albums had some of my most played songs last year, they just go so hard and the technicality in the guitar work is phenomenal. I honestly just wish that Mark joined a new band, as long as he is still down to create those blistering, absurd riffs, because his ability is up there with some of the top metal guitarists of today, you just don't get to hear much of that in their new records.

"Djent week" OOOOOOOOOOHHHH

You need to check out a song called “punisher” from these guys. They take a sample of a vlogger making fun of them and use his impersonation of them and make the sickest riff ever out of it.

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

Interesting concept. I'll have to check it out.

@LemmyGibbler

3 жыл бұрын

@@CriticalReactions awesome. “It’s not safe to swim today” is probably a better song, but punisher is perfect for reaction channels

@owldoh

3 жыл бұрын

@@CriticalReactions listen to this man, he knows waddap

@gamefellah

3 жыл бұрын

Punisher's sample is making fun of Periphery actually. Still a great song

I find this to be one of the less interesting recent Veil of Maya songs. It's fun, but like you said it's very straightforward and entirely focused on exploring a heavy side. Even the weird synths (which are a real staple for them) normally add more textures and backing melodies than just atmospheric flares. I personally much prefer Members Only out of their recent singles, and I'd imagine you'd find it more interesting as well if you return to them in the future

All I know about Veil of Maya is they're named after the Cynic song, which was a real game-changer for death metal in the early 90s. That alone earns them points with me. As for this track, it sounded less djent and more modern metalcore. As I've said many times it's a genre I've gotten burnt out on, but this wasn't bad. Lots of really nasty riffs, especially the harmonics and deep, downward slides; and the chorus was quite soaring/catchy. Not enough to make me want to do a discog run, but I'd be interested in hearing some more tracks eventually.

I’d say this is one of their simpler songs that was sorta designed to showcase Lukas as a songwriter/singer. The musicianship takes a backseat in this track and it still bangs. False Idol has more complex melodic components throughout, though.

@TheSadistNat1on

3 жыл бұрын

this comment is everything thats actually correctly aligned with the band. nice. they have all the techincal ability everywhere..its exactly what u said. and that verse, it aint piano like he said! Thats all Marc so..

Yeah my favorite band 😍😍😍😍

Veil of Maya were one of the bands I grew up with. Their earlier stuff- The Common’s Man Collapse and [id]- is more technical (maybe progressive) deathcore...kinda proto-djenty. Super cool and blew my mind as a youngling. Their newer stuff is pretty good too. I don’t listen to too much of them anymore, but I do appreciate Mark Okubo’s riff writing ability. He has some straight up groovy stuff. I do appreciate the vocal variety with Lukas. They make some interesting and catchy chorus (chori?? Haha). This song in particular, I love the eerie (I don’t know the theory) prechorus into the soaring chorus (pretty standard but they do it well). The untamed energy is a great phrase. I think it’s the crazy syncopation, almost violent riffs, and the oddly timed vocals- it creates a very chaotic but palatable soundscape. For me, their older stuff was pushing the limits of deathcore and was something super special. Their newer stuff is good but follows the more modern poppy-metalcore with some djent riffs thrown in. Fav older tracks- it’s not safe to swim today, mowgli, numerical scheme, vicious circles, AND SUBJECT ZERO!!! Thanks again for the video! I’ll try to check our the others! Peace. Chris.

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

I've always said choruses (which autocorrect seems to think is correct) but yeah, following English grammar rules is should be chori and I'm gonna start saying that. There's no time like the present to fix a lingual oversight 😂 As for older Veil of Maya being different, I've only tangentially heard Mikasa before and was wondering where that fit into the deathcore vs pop-metalcore timeline of the band.

@ckokomo808

3 жыл бұрын

@@CriticalReactions Mikasa was when Lukas was introduced as vocalist. He has a singing element which fit (and I’d argue pioneered- along with Born of Osiris) the “Sumeriancore” (Sumerian Records’ bands had this style). Sumeriancore, IMO, is a mix of djent, deathcore, with some sprinkles of melodic metalcore. Not SUPER special anymore but at the time, I think it was really inventive, catchy, and fun. After a few years, it all started sounding the same.

Noir Kid- Violet Cold!!!!! Perfect example of the future of post metal, shoe gaze, and heavy music. Easily one of my favorite tracks of 2020.

love your thoughts on it

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

I love this entire little piece of the internet. "just a guy" commented a simple positive idea. Thanks so much and keep being awesome!

You should check out the new song by The Armed - All Futures. Super weird and interesting band

I listen to False Idol at least once a week lol. It's just slapper after slapper

🤟

I haven't heard anything since Matriarch. I must say, this song is absolutely amazing. I saw these guys at Summer Slaughter tour 2019 with BTBAM and ERRA. The vocalist didn't perform as well as I was hoping he would. I know this isn't djent, but I really would like to see your reaction to The Celestial Antidote by Job For a Cowboy. The bass tone on this album is said to be one of the greatest bass tones to ever be recorded. kzread.info/dash/bejne/moKVt9lqmNjAlaQ.html

i knew too well to not give my hopes up that it would be old veil of maya...something about the new vocalist i can't get into. maybe it can grow on me if i force it

@reguba3534

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not familiar with this band, but I had an idea of what they were and it was way different than I was expecting. I'm guessing they didn't used to have the melodic edge in their earlier stuff?

@xxitz_pr0gxx631

3 жыл бұрын

Don't listen to them with the name Veil of Maya. Matriarch is a wonderful album and the new vocalist helps show other things the band can do. But I agree with old VoM being superior. \m/

@reguba3534

3 жыл бұрын

@@xxitz_pr0gxx631 Figures, sound changes happen I guess. I typically don't mind, and I'm not much of a metal head to begin with, I'm just interested by this trend that it appears modern heavy bands get softer as time goes on.

@xxitz_pr0gxx631

3 жыл бұрын

@@reguba3534 it just seems to be the trend at the moment. The Contortionist is the best example of this that I can think of.

@andrewwykoff8193

3 жыл бұрын

@@xxitz_pr0gxx631 but the contortionist (one of my favs) got better (imo) with their sound and developed it with, and in ways that suited the new vocalist...VoM seemed to adopt a trend to me.

Is it just me or have you never reacted to any Ayreon songs? If that's the case I would love if you did "The day that the world breaks down" lots of familiar faces in that song.

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

The name sounds familiar but I can't put a sound to the name so I think you're right -- heavily requested but never actually reacted to. I have plans for the second half of this year to get to a lot of the bands that fall under this same description.

Hey Brian when are you going to do a piece on Keith Emerson one of the greatest progressive composers of the 70s I would really appreciate it thank you very much my good friend stay safe God bless you will get through this Covid and thank God for music because I suffer from depression and I watch some of your critiques on the music but I’m waiting for Emerson Lake and Palmer but particularly Keith Emerson so I would appreciate it thanks a lot my friend take care

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

Emerson Lake and Palmer was almost featured during Classic Prog but just missed the cut. I'd wager we'll get back around to them eventually (I can't guarantee a time though).

I liked them way more with their former vocalist, they had a more original approach, it's all now another standard djenty band from the bunch

djent week eh? alright, hey Bryan! i have a song for djent week, i'd like to request you review/react to: After The Burial In Flux i went through several songs,and figured this was the djentiest,best representation of the band, from the limited number of songs i went through. mostly off the same album. there's two versions of the song,mostly the same,but the one i want you to react to,the one i'll be linking, has a little outro section for like an extra minute plus,vs the music video version, so if you consider this, thanks! song: kzread.info/dash/bejne/dquasKVtqsqadLg.html

New Veil of Maya is good, but their first two records are way more interesting with tracks like Mowgli, It's Not Safe To Swim or Crawl Back

You should check out inmazes by vola

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

Being the clairvoyant that I am, I recorded this months ago in anticipation of your specific request. Enjoy! kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZZnpbhveM25obg.html

Really not the song I would recommend. It's still cool on the guitars but as a song not the best choice.

@CriticalReactions

3 жыл бұрын

You're not the first to say that. I might do some personal digging to see what else they got.

@TheSadistNat1on

3 жыл бұрын

@@CriticalReactions Can I say, those aren't piano lines in the verse. Thats literally Marks guitar playing, he's insane..I thought someone would comment it by now but can't find one. He's a freak riffer ha. That changes the techincal aspect a bit eh

at least VOM evolved into a listenable metal genre with fun riffs and still awesome. all those who are complaining here are nothing more than keyboard warriors potato couchers. grow some ears

This isn't really djent. They were more like progressive deathcore, but now they fall more onto the metalcore side. It's a shame that this song was recommended, they have far more interesting songs than this.