martes, 6 de diciembre de 2022

VEILBURNER - INTERVIEW



 Good evening, thank you very much for answering these questions, how is everything going in Pennsylvania?  

MD:  Great.  Our sports teams have been winning a lot for the first time in a long time, so it's a pretty exciting atmosphere around here. Everyone's happy, and it's a welcome change of pace.  


1. Veilburner started around 2014, why did you decide to create the bands? Why did you choose the name Veilburner and what does it refer to?

MD:  In 2013, I was engineering Chrisom's vocals during a recording session for his other band (Torture Ascendancy).  I told him about some songs I had written since my last band dissolved, and they were still instrumentals with no vocals.  He was interested in hearing some of it, so I sent them to him.  He loved what he heard, and it was giving him ideas.  He wrote lyrics and came up with ideas for themes and visuals.  He basically put all of the finishing touches on the instrumentals I wrote, and we released the results as the first Veilburner album (The Three Lightbearers) in 2014. 

We took the name Veilburner from an Enslaved song. I don't really know what the title means to them in the context in which they used it, but I really liked the word and it felt like a good way to describe what I was trying to do with the music.  We both draw a lot of inspiration from different forms of music, and from a lot of different subgenres within the scope of metal.  All of these different genre labels have a tendency to compartmentalize music and keep it separated by manufactured "veils," even if that wasn't originally the intention.  As I got older, those labels started meaning less and less to me, and at this point in my life I barely even acknowledge them.  I consider what we're doing musically to be like lighting a flame in an effort to burn some of them down, to show that they can exist in the same space and do not need to be confined to separate worlds.  

The same sort of analogy can be used in the context of our album themes and story concepts.  Our first three albums comprised a trilogy about two eccentric characters conducting mad experiments to achieve immortality, or burn the veil between mortality and immortality so to speak.  Our most recent pair of albums ("A Sire..." and "Lurkers...") are about two beings from another dimension trying to communicate with and influence a mortal from our world across an interdimensional veil.  So at every level, our project is best described by the term "Veilburner." I can only hope and dream that one day, we can influence another group of artists or musicians who may be inspired to take something we created and go off in their own direction with it, so that inspiration continues to be paid forward.

CI:  We have known eachother for twenty years or so, and Mephisto was recording one of my other projects and let me hear some instrumental songs he had recorded.  In regards to the name Veilburner, we wanted something that was unique and stood out with what we were thinking we wanted to be, and also try to pay homage to Enslaved seeing that it's one of their songs.  They are an amazing band and we wanted to honor them in terms of how influential they are to metal in general, but more specifically to their way of evolving. We wanted to have a sound that "burned away the veil" of any sort of labeling. I think we are always pushing more and accomplishing that task, or so I hope we have.        


2. You will soon release your sixth full-length “VLBRNR”, how has the process of writing and recording this new album been? What brands of instruments have you used for the process? What expectations do you have in this new album, do you hope to exceed What have you achieved with your previous “Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull”?

MD:  The writing process was very smooth and relaxed, which is how we like to write.  The songs for the VLBRNR album were writtien and recorded between September 2018 and April 2019.  We write several albums ahead of the label's release schedule because we do not have a live act to constantly maintain.  We can finish one album, take a short break, and then start another one a few months later.  That way, we are never rushed and we can take to the time to let the ideas come to us and develop them at a leisurely pace.  VLBRNR is our sixth album, and we are currently working on the music for what will eventually be album nine. 

The guitar I used to record the VLBRNR songs is a seven string Ibanez S series with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system.  I do a lot of bending of notes and chords, so it's essential that I can pull that whammy bar in either direction to get that effect and have the guitar stay in tune.  I couldn't do half of what I do on guitar without that system or a pedal to recreate it.  My bass is just an inexpensive five string Ibanez Sound Gear, and drum tracks are all programmed in midi and the drums tracks created by feeding the midi notes through a custom kit I made in Superior Drummer 3.  I have changed the drum kit and drum mix settings for the VLBRNR album to make them punchier, clearer, and to allow more room for the other instrucments to breathe in the mix, and that is the drum mix you will hear from us for at least the next three albums.  The bass is tracked into the recording software and mixed down through IK Multimedia's Ampeg SVG plug-in.  The guitars are tracked similarly and mixed down through a variety of custom settings I created in IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2.  There are also multiple software effects processors I like to experiment with to give the guitars and vocals some spacey or psychedelic qualities.  Sometimes there are other instruments or virtual instument plug-ins that I add depending on what I want.  For example, in the song "Ruin" from the new album, I wanted marching band style drums for the verses, so I made them using a plug-in called Virtual Drumline 2.5.  It contains a library of sounds you would hear from a marching band drill line, and it gives those sections of the song a very militant feeling.  

As far as expectations, we only expect to grow our fanbase by the same amount that we do with each album.  Over the course of five albums, we have learned that this is a game of inches, and that we can only expect to grow little by little based on the frequency and quality of our output and the efforts of both us and the label to promote each album.  That is unfortunately the downside of not touring and taking your music on the road to reach new people, but we try to make up for it as much as we can by continuously having music ready for release, and doing our best to help Transcending Obscurity in the promotional efforts.  Social media can make an unknown band a household name overnight if the right music hits the right ears at the right time, and there are technically savvy people who know how to utilize social media to capitalize on it.  Our music is more in a niche that does not have mass appeal, even within the spectrum of metal, and I am a forty-nine year old man who did not grow up in a social media driven world, so my skills in promoting using these modern platforms are limited.  I have really liked what I have heard and read from the reviews and the people who have listened to and commented on the songs that have been released so far.  I expect that some people will like VLBRNR even more than they liked our previous albums, and some people may like the older stuff more.  We welcome any new fans we get from this release that have not heard us before. 

CI:  For myself personally, I am always trying to evolve vocally but I try to keep it within the space I am given, which for us is an extremely vast space. We have an overall vision both musically and vocally for how the whole of our sound and discography flows. I honestly want to be able to listen to the whole discography as one piece of art. Something that organically shows growth but also revisits its past. With VLBRNR I feel as if we have accomplished that, and in the end that is what I feel is best.    



3. You have a pretty high pace in terms of releases, how is your way of writing and working on new songs for Veilbunrer? How do you approach the process of writing a complete album from its inception period until you release it? do you finish?

MD:  By not having a live show to maintain with constant rehearsals and touring, we are able to stay in the writing headspace 100% of the time, and that makes it easy to finish an album and begin another one quickly, because we are not shifting gears all the time.  Since we have only two members, we are not always trying to work around four or five people's schedules.  I've been in live performing bands in the past, and Chrisom is currently performing in two other bands, so we know from experience that the complexity of a band situation increases by an order of magnitude with each member you add.  Each additional member is one more schedule to work around, one more cook in the kitchen who wants a say in the recipie, one more factor in the interpersonal dynamics and potential conflicts that could derail productivity.  We've stripped everything down to obtain maximum efficiency.  It keeps the stress level low and the politics out completely, and this has allowed us to keep the project like a sanctuary, our happy place. I will let the musical ideas come to me, and develop/record them in peace and quiet in my home studio.  When I have the music finished, I send it to Chrisom, and I will leave him alone while he listens to it over the course of several weeks or months, and develops the lyrics and visuals.  When he's ready, we will track the vocals, I will mix them in, and we will work together on figuring out the best way to represent the album in the packaging art and promotional photos.  We will take a short break for a few months, and I will start the process all over again.  We will hold each finished album until the label asks for the next one in the queue. 

CI:  Mephisto usually works ahead of me now with full albums.  This seems to be our secret formula of achieving the most efficient use of time, and also with allowing the concept to develop. I write for other projects one song at a time, and since they are bands with more than two people I feel it's more difficult to have a true concept in mind for them.  The songs are written at a slower pace, and with different members writing them the songs may tell different stories or feel different from one to another, whereas with Veilburner I am able to hear the whole of what Mephisto is creating versus hearing one song at a time. It is so much easier to write this way and just works really well for us.     


4. In your sound there is room for electronic or industrial elements, perfectly intertwined with black metal, while you manage to build a very personal atmosphere, how would you describe the sounds of your new album? What bands and styles are an influence for you? when creating music for Veilburner?

MD:  When the topic of our music project comes up in conversation, and people ask me "What do you guys sound like?", the description I've come up with that gives them the most thorough explanation while still being respectful of their time is "we like to mix black metal and death metal, and add flourishes of industrial sounds and psychedelic atmospheres and effects to keep it interesting."  I would apply that description to the new album as well.  It covers a lot of ground, but we go to great lengths to keep it cohesive, so that you know you're listening to the same band with each song, and there's a natural flow.  

Musically, my biggest influences are the thrash movement of the 80s, the death metal and industrial stuff of the 90s, the weird black metal that started coming out of France in the 00s, film scores from all different eras, some random stuff from the 50s and 60s like surf rock, and the occasional bands that come along once in a while that seem to defy categorization or dedicate themselves to successfully blending different forms of music you wouldn't think would work together, like My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Faith No More, Blut Aus Nord, Igorrr, Finntroll.  I even have a soft spot for the new wave stuff from the 80s that my sister was into growing up, and you'd be surprised how much of that influence sneaks into our songs here and there.

CI:  I think with any musician you can hand pick different influences, some are immediately identifiable and some are not.  To give an example of this, when we were writing this album I was listening to alot of Florence & The Machine, Brutus, Amigo the Devil and also DSO. DSO is sort of  my "go to" for getting the proverbial juices flowing, they act as a tool for scrying in a sense.  With the first two bands I mentioned, Florence has certain hooks, it's not metal but I pay attention to the vocal phrasings.  I listen to a lot of music and always try and take phrasings, the pausing in between, and certain cadences and see how I can apply them into what we are doing.

What directly influences me is life and its experiences, my personal growth spiritually and how it applies to our overal theme.  In the end, we have created a story that has different beings and characters, but it is a machination of the self and where that self currently exists within this funeral procession we call existence. 


5. Somehow you have always maintained interest in your fans by including some differentiating element within your songs, what surprises have you prepared for them on this occasion and where does this pleasure come from when it comes to offering something different within your proposal?

MD:  I'm going to reference the marching drum line sounds in the song "Ruin" as one example of this.  I live down the street from a high school, and in the late summer and early autumn, I always hear the marching band drum line practicing.  For a long time, I've heard this and thought "Why don't more metal bands use these marching drum line sounds in their music? They have that perfect militant sound profile and style that would sound great with distored guitars and metal riffs." I'm sure the answer is because of the complicated logistics of hiring them, practicing with them, and recording them in a studio.  But for at least the last fifteen years, virtual plug-in technology and sample libraries have made it possible to add lots of different instruments to your recordings cheaply and on your own terms, so I utilize them to the fullest.  I've used marching drum line sounds before in the songs "Ever Relapsing Fever" and "Hypsiphrone" on the Noumenon album, so I was happy to showcase them again since it's been a while and I was happy with the way they turned out both times.  

Another thing I included in the VLBRNR album that I haven't used since the Noumenon album is the kazoo.  On that album, I recorded myself playing the kazoo in parts of the song "IHVH," and then layed effects on it.  I wanted to give the part a middle eastern quality, and ideally I would have used a mizmar, but I don't have a mizmar and I couldn't find a virtual instrument plug-in solution, so I got the idea that a kazoo with some processing might replicate the sound of a mizmar close enough.  It took some trial and error, but eventually I got it sounding close enough to how I wanted it.  In VLBRNR, I added it to parts of the guitar lead in the song "None So Hideous" as an additional layer.  So it's not right out in front by itself, but more blended in with the lead guitar melody this time.  Adding these kinds of things at the right time and place is enjoyable for us because it's fun to discover something unorthodox if and when it works in the context of a song, and helps differentiate us from other bands so that we can give the listener a unique experience that they wold have trouble finding somewhere else.  The key is to use these things sparingly and at the right moments in the right amounts, because they can get annoying if they're overused.  The good of the song always comes first.

CI:  I think with how we have been able to craft a sound that doesnt quite hit on anything specific, it allows us the free reign to entertain listeners with a way of surprising them, even ourselves.  We can bend one genre into another without it really being a problem because we have forged them together in a way that's deliberate, but again is organic.  I think it first starts with us being fans of different music, and hopefully paying it forward from all the bands that we have admired and held dear over the years. In my own opinion, I feel as if we try to better ourselves by making sure that we are always eceeding each other's expectations with what we are creating, and the result is that we are able to take listeners on an experience that is uniquely and solely Veilburner.

Another thing that springs to mind is that art is an extension of who you are and where you are at in this moment of your life. To be able to find like-minded people, or at least someone else who is able to help express that in the form of music is a difficult task.  It's extremely gratifying to have found it, and I think it really gives us confidence in each other, to be so in sync as far as what we're trying to accomplish. We believe it will come across to the listener as a sense of honesty and cohesion.  Our story might not be that of a first person perspective, but that doesn't mean that it isn't personal or that it can't be seen as something relative to the listener's own experiences. We are extremely esoteric from a lyrical standpoint, but as mysterious as it can be it is also accessible, and I hope in some way we are able to inspire others or even ease the drama of every day living.  


6. The lyrics of your songs have always had an important weight within your proposal, without reaching it, but we can almost talk about certain conceptual stories throughout your albums, what's wrong with the lyrics of your songs? When completing your proposal? What themes do you deal with in your lyrics? Do the lyrics adapt to the music or vice versa?

CI:  The music helps play into the overall concept that we have in mind, because depending on where we are taking the story it might help Mephisto craft something else into the sound to compliment what I am trying to convey lyrically.  The lyrics are crafted as an overall story which continues from album to album, song to song, as a continuing saga.  The first three albums were a trilogy, but they can also lead into the next three albums as another chapter, and they can continue to do so through subsequent albums.  The best way of trying to explain it would be to think of the Marvel universe and how they have been able to create singular stories that overlap and become one as each movie comes out. They can each be watched and enjoyed on their own, or you can watch all the movies through a certain phase and see the whole continuing story play out.  Lyrically, "VLBRNR" is about the abyss.  There are ten songs, and each song's title begins with a different letter in the word "Veilburner" (if you look at the track listing in a vertical layout and read the first letter of each song in descending order, it will spell "VEILBURNER").   The songs that begin with a consonant letter (V, L, B, R, N and R) tell one part of the story and those are the letters that make up the album's title.  There are six letters and this is our sixth album, so there is that relational significance.  The songs that begin with the vowels in the word "Veilburner" (E, I,U, and E) tell another story, but the stories overlap, and are to be viewed as coming from a different perspective or dimension than the "consonant" songs.  I always try to write the lyrics on many concurrent levels. I call this the four interpretations. God, Conscious, Spiritual and lastly the Physical. 


7. You have always maintained a very marked anonymity in terms of your personality, at the same time that you have not offered any concerts, does the issue of identity have to do with being known for your work and not for who you are, or Is it due to other issues? Regarding the concerts, are you open to performing one some day?

MD:  There are multiple reasons for the identity concealment. Most of them are for practical reasons.  I like to compartmentalize the different areas of my life so that my personal life, my professional life, and my music life are all seperate.  We live in an internet and social media world, and it is easier than ever for people to obtain information about you and what you're doing.  I have to take my professional life very seriously due to my role, and it's not anyone's business in the professional side of my life to know what I do in my free time unless I consider them a kindred spirit and invite them in.  Likewise, there are some complicated relationships I have with some family members, and keeping them on a "need to know" basis as far as things I do in my free time is the best option to keep my interactions with them easy.  The masks and pseudonyms are a great way to keep things the way I want them, and they're perfect for the project.  They add to the immersion and creativity, and the art that we make with the costumes and effects adds to the overall presentation.  Since we don't play shows, the photos and art are the only avenues for people to get a visual component for the project, so creating characters and a world for them to exist in is much more interesting and compatible with what listeners get from the music than just a photo of two regular guys in street clothes.  

As far as performing live, it's extremely unlikely.  One of the things that makes this work so well is its simplicity.  Things have to be efficient because of the various life responsibilities that we both have to juggle, and at the end of the day my passion is focused on the creative aspect and not so much the performing aspect.  When I finish a song/album, I've pretty much purged it and my mind wants to move on to the next thing rather than recreate the old things over and over in rehearsal or on a stage.   But in the extremely unlikely event we were ever presented with the opportunity of a lifetime (such as a good visibility slot on a big festival), then something like that might be worth recruiting some additional people, figuring out a setlist, finding a rehearsal space for a few months, building or purchasing some stage props, costumes, and putting together a small show.  I would really want there to be a visual component to a performance instead of just musicians on stage with instruments, because I just think the atmosphere created by our music kind of demands it, and I would really want it to be something worth seeing instead of just hearing if we were going to go through the trouble.  I think that in order to really make an impact and leave an impression, you have to engage as many of the five senses as you can, so if it were to be a one shot thing I'd want to really focus and make sure we do it right.

CI:  It is due to personal and professional reasons on Mephisto's end that we felt it was best to keep an anonymity.  I think the name "Veilburner" not only works on a musical level in terms of label/genre blurring, but it also works in a theosophical sense as a way to approach the lyrics and the esoteric themes that exist within them.  Lastly, it's just a better way to convey who we are in the context of the project and wheat the art is about.  I think that art without an author is art that can truly be judged and/or appreciated because it is being judged for what is seen, or in our case what is being heard.  The interpration is not skewed or influenced by any sort of bias that comes from knowing who the creator is.  


8. Who designed the cover of your last album? What does it represent and how is it related to its content?

CI:  I do all of the art and imagery for the band.  I'm usually told what color scheme to use from what Mephisto felt he saw while writing the music.  We try to use different color themes for each album, and red just felt right for this one.  It's violent, more rageful and angry, more deliberate in terms of song and structure. It has more rhythm than our previous albums, so red just felt like the right color to use. Its a very primal color.  The image shows off some of the detail on our masks and crowns we used for this one, and if you look closely you can see an inverted graveyard above which plays into the overall concept of the album that comes over as a question throughout it, which is "Is this the right way to the Abyss?"



9. Another notable aspect of your music is the fact that you take care of the entire recording and production process yourself, do you consider that this is the right way to offer exactly the sound you need?

MD:  Absolutely.  I can spend as much time as I need to mixing and fine-tuning things to exactly the way I want to hear them, and it doesn't cost any extra money since I'm doing it myself.  At a studio, time is money and I would have to try to explain to someone what I want, and it would take longer because things would get lost in translation.  In the end, it's better to just shoot the arrow yourself than try to direct someone else with the bow and explain to them in words precisely where to aim. 

CI:  Fewer cooks in the kitchen allow us to achieve what we want to achieve, down to the most miniscule detail. 


10. You come from Pennsylvania, what is the extreme metal scene like in your region? What band from your area would you recommend? How do you think a band like yours fits into the American black metal scene?

MD:  It's a lot better now than it was twenty years ago when I was trying to put a band together.  Back then, when you advertised that you were looking to start a metal band, people thought you either meant nu metal, hardcore, or something like Tool or Staind. There's now a whole generation of people that have grown up being exposed to extreme forms of metal, and a lot of very talented people who have been fine-tuning their skills from an early age.  Chrisom's other active bands, Torture Ascendancy and Humanity Decayed, are definitely two very good examples in the Central PA area.  I live close to Philadelphia, and I like IATT (I Am the Trireme) and Mortal Decay, who are both from just across the river in New Jersey.  I'm not that tuned into or involved in scenes these days, however, so I'm sure there's other great ones I'm missing, and I mean no disrespect if I forgot someone.  

If we fit into the black metal scene at all, I feel like it is probably on its fringes.  To us, it's only one ingredient that we use in a larger exotic stew, so I feel like even if we were more well-known, there would be plenty of people who take more of a purist approch to their music diet that would either dismiss us completely or consider us only marginally relevant to that genre. When a band or a scene devotee identifies as "black metal," it carries about forty years of tradition, ideology, and a certain ethos with that moniker.  To identify with it is almost like making a declaration that you live a certain lifestyle, walk a certain walk, and that you do it 24/7 and it's not just a part-time thing or limited to a compartmentalized stage persona. With our lyrics and visuals, there is certainly a lot of overlap and consistency with the more traditional black metal output, but our music is more of a strange brew by design, so I couldn't be upset if we don't get accepted by certain genre gatekeepers because I'm not trying to fit a preconceived mold anyway.  Speaking only for myself, I'm a middle age man with a button-down job, a family and a mortgage, who makes weird music as a hobby with his friend, so how "black metal" can I really be?  If there are people in black metal circles, death metal circles, or any other music "scene" who know about us and like what we do, I'm just happy to have them as a fan regardless of why or how they define us.

CI:  The scene is thriving more now than it ever has. It has always been here, but had more of a presence in the larger cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.  We have more choices now, which is a new and great thing.  Where I am located, I might have to choose to see a band like Narcotic Wasteland in one city or High on Fire on the same night in a different city that's relatively close.  

I would recommend IATT and Zauberei, as well as my other projects Humanity Decayed and Torture Ascendancy.  IATT are going to explode here shortly and they deserve all of it, they have busted their asses not only in creating an amazing sound but with promoting themselves and getting out in front of people.  They really are a sight to behold.  All of the guys are awesome human beings and amazing players. Their sound is akin to ours in the fact that when you hear them you know it's IATT.  Truly fascinating stuff.  They share the same path as myself in regards to what and who we are and the mysteries that tie our spirits to the flesh.  Zauberei just released a live demo and are slowly getting out to play shows. Max (the guitarist and vocalist) is not only one of the gatekeepers of our local metal scene, but also a leader in trying to collect local relics and forge the scene forward. In regards to black metal, he is one of the few who truly understands the term and what it means. He is definitely one of the brightest parts of the flame.      


11. This is the third album that you are going to release through Transcending Obscurity Records. When did you contact them to work with them for the release of the album “A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy”? I suppose you will be satisfied with the work done by you over the years?

MD:  We had just released our third album, The Obscene Rite, and I believe the PR guy we hired sent our album to Kunal, but it's been about six years since then so I'm a little hazy on the specifics of how it occurred.  He listened to it and wrote up a very favorable review, and immediately reached out to us to talk to us about working with him.  At the time, I hadn't heard of Transcending Obscurity, so I read all I could about their history and was very impressed with what one man in India had accomplished in the world-wide metal market up to that point, and it seemed like he was on the verge of a significant breakthrough with the quality of his roster and his tireless dedication and work ethic.  He puts so much care and attention to detail into the presentation of each band's release, with the box sets and the vinyl and merch options, and it's essential for bands to know that just as much care and attention is going into the presentation of the products as they put into the music.  It's a business, but it's also his passion and life mission for people to hear his bands, and he's willing to spend the extra money to make it special and of the highest quality possible.  The record and CD sleeves have embossing as well as a shimmering, metallic color quality that I haven't seen anywhere else. It's those little extra details that make the difference.

CI:  Transceding Obscurity is the best.  We are happy to be a part of their growth moving forward. Top notch all around.


12. How were your beginnings in music: first concerts you attended, first albums you bought? What happened in your lives pushed you to want to be a musician?

MD:  The first metal album I owned was Ozzy's "Blizzard of Ozz" album when I was nine years old. The song "Crazy Train" was the first time I ever heard the sound of a distorted guitar, and at first I didn't know what it was, and I had only two questions:  "What's is that sound?" and "How can I make the rest of my life all about it?"  I honestly don't remember my first concert, but I'm pretty sure it was one of the big four thrash bands. What made me want to make music was the fact that I have it running through my brain twenty four hours a day.  There is always a song that is looping in my head no matter where I am or what I'm doing, and at some point, I realized that sometimes it's not someone else's song that I'm hearing, but something that my brain just generated out of thin air.  When that started happeneing more often, I decided I wanted to pick up a guitar so that I could capture these things when they happen and turn them into my own songs.  The fact that my parents hated this music and would not let me get a guitar only made me more determined (which is always the case).  I had to wait until I was out of school and had my own money before I could finally start pursuing this.  Maybe that's why I write and record so much these days, because I'm making up for lost time or something.  

CI:  I first heard Metallica and a lot of hair metal stuff through my sister, and it just appealed to me.  I remember always being into the darker things of life.  I also remember my sister watching wrestling and seeing the Undertaker and just being completely floored by his character. Metal didn't really take hold fully until I was in middle school.  I traded some cds with a guy and got Slayer's "Divine Intervention," and that caused my downward descent into all things metal.  I always wanted to be a vocalist first.  I wrote lyrics at a very early age, and stories just naturally happened. I played some guitar for awhile, but was never anything more than a basic rhythm guitarist, and I just felt like it took time away from developing my vocals.  I have just been fortunate to have so many good musicians surrounding me, but not as many vocalists who could do what I wanted to hear, so I just felt it was best to focus solely on vocals.   


13. What album represents for you the essence of black metal? What last albums have you bought?

MD:  When it comes to black metal, there are lots of landmark albums, but Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" has always felt like a defining moment for that genre, due to the timing and gravity of everything surrounding it.  It's as though everything that came before it (Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Hellhammer) were like building blocks or pieces of something coalescing together and gathering mass and momentum in some dark corner of the universe, and then along came these guys from Norway to pull it all together, add the spark of instability and controversy with the murders, arsons, and suicides, and the media added the fuel with all of the sensationalism.  The result was like an explosion or a supernova that made the whole world turn and look. Suddenly, everyone's talking about this black metal thing, and Mayhem were right there to drop a definitive soundtrack right in the middle of it all.  It became a defining moment, and in subsequent years a line of demarcation became noticable around those events and that album, where you had the "before time" and the "after time," with Mayhem at the junction point being the thing that ignited a nuclear furnace that spawned a global movement and genre of its own.

CI:  There are way too many to list, and there are different waves of black metal as a genre. Emperor and Mayhem are two bands that influenced me a lot.  Emperor's "Anthems..." and Mayhem's "De Mysteriis..." albums are classics.  I prefer Attila to Maniac, but what Mayhem did between "Wolfs Lair Abyss" and "Grand Declaration of War" display the true essence of what black metal is about for me.  Those albums are experimental, there's spoken word, and the riffing is razor tight.  Dodheimsgard is another band that is a good example, and so is Blut Aus Nord.  Those bands do what they want.  There are no musical boundaries with them, and spirituality plays a large part in their concepts and lyrics, along with philosophy and experience. This, to me, is black metal. Not a specific sound or way of playing, but the way its expressed through the artist and who and what they are at that given moment of time. 


14. What future plans do you have for Veilburner in terms of upcoming releases, concerts or reissues?

MD:  We've already turned in the next album (album seven) to Transcending Obscurity, and I think they are pushing to have it released sooner rather than later.  I think they plan on having it out in late 2023 or early 2024, and I'm pretty sure there will be a track from it on Transcending Obscurity's label sampler in January.  So people will still be digesting this album and they'll be getting a taste of the next one for dessert.  Other than that, we have the music for the album after that one (album eight) finished, and we're working on the lyrics and themes for it now.  We'll just keep working.  There's no reaon to stop.

CI:  Album seven is totally finished.  Mephisto is beginning to write the music for album nine.  I am starting on lyrics for album eight.  The topic of reissues has come up, but no plans have been made to reissue anything at this point.  We are coming up on our ten year band anniversary, so maybe we will discuss doing something for that.  


15. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for Veilburner fans this is the place. I hope the questions are to your liking.

MD:  Thank you for the support, and for the chance to talk about our project.  Thank you to the fans for embracing it, and to Transcending Obscurity for believing in it and helping us get it out to the world in style.

CI:  Thanks so much for your interest, and for reaching out to us for the interview.  The future is beaming with material, and we plan on continuing that abundance. Thanks to all who have taken the time to write reviews, listen to the albums and support us.  The response hs been overwhelming and extremely humbling. Thank you.

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Lantern  – Dimensions 32,99 €


Vinyl, LP, Album, Silver with Black Splatter





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